Please read Donald Bristow's letter to The Explorer, and see if you don't agree.
OV's temporary sign relief is a cause for concern
When small business owners expect Oro Valley's citizens to save them from economic conditions, poor business decisions, bad location choices, and to give them exclusive input on the number, size, and type of temporary signs, they are not being realistic or good citizens of the town.
These expectations led the town council to approve a temporary, possibly renewable, sign relief waiver generating my concerns.
I am concerned with our council:
• Devising its own procedure to bypass state statute and negate existing town temporary sign codes;
• Having no Planning and Zoning input and public review;
• Having no written proposal for council/public review;
• Approving an oral waiver of sections of the temporary sign code, thus superseding sections of current and future temporary sign codes;
• Eliminating currently prohibited temporary signs;
• Allowing only businesses to propose solutions for temporary relief;
• Considering this an "experiment;"
• Using the "experiment's" results to modify the sign task force's recommendations;
• Continuing this slipshod mode of governing.
I am concerned the temporary waiver implementation and review:
• Lacks explicit guidelines for specific data/facts justifying temporary signage and proving their effectiveness after 90 days;
• Lacks a controlled environment;
• Lacks defined measures of success;
• Lacks verification of inputs and results;
I am concerned with the town depending on input of some in the business community to measure results. Prior to the passage of this waiver, Bonnie Quinn told the council she violated the town's code displaying an A-frame sign. After the temporary waiver was approved, Quinn was quoted in the Arizona Daily Star saying she would go through the proper channels and apply to display the sign temporarily. "I will wait to use my sign again," she said. However, Quinn used her temporary A-frame the next two weekends, prior to the effective date of the temporary sign waiver.
When a business owner, who is leading the efforts to have the town implement this poorly-developed waiver, says one thing and does another, it raises concerns about others.
Donald Bristow, Oro Valley
3 comments:
So Quinn breaks the law and gets rewarded with a temporary sign code that allows her originally illegal actions.
Welcome to the "Wild West".
While I too have reservations relative to the potential effectiveness of the 'temporary relaxation' of CERTAIN lawful sign codes ( primarily the use of banners, portable signs), the writer of the introductory post seems not to be well informed as to the procedures that were utilized to get to this point, those that were involved in formulating a guideline, nor the penalties that could be incurred by violation of the provisions of
such.
I,a citizen participant in the Sign Code Task Force', along with three members of staff, was asked to and agreed to participate in an informal discussion in order to implement a directive by Council that portions of the 'Sign Code' be relaxed for a given period of time. My personal impression of the three staff members is that ALL were sincerely caring towards continuing an Oro Valley in which we could all take pride; as well, they were all knowledgeable. There appeared to be no directives from Council as to what or how the conclusions were to be achieved.
At a prior Council meeting it was I who did, in fact,advocate that [certain applicable PORTIONS of the potential Sign Code Task Force recommendations] be utilized as a basis for 'temporary relaxation' in that this could provide for an experimental review of what might lie ahead. Is this an 'experiment' per se? I don't think it truly is as the coming recommendations will be discussed in a public forum (study session) and, though not as expansive as some might think, might contain some 'surprises' that perhaps should already have been in force but had never been analyzed in detail and for the most part the rest are simply 'tweaking' the current codes.
The 'whole' of the Community was (extensively) and is invited to participate in the formulation and finalization of proposed the permanent changes to the 'Sign Codes'; for THIS temporary 'relaxation', involving the 'whole' of the Community could only have resulted in a bureaucratic miasma.
In our form(s) of government,many procedures must be handled by sub-sectors. Now,if, as a whole, the Community is dissatisfied with
the results of this (or any other) administration's edicts, actions, management, etc., there are MANY ways to influence, reject, or eventually override their decisions (please note this is not necessarily a defense of current 'ways and means' but simply a statement that YOU have means, short term or long term, at YOUR disposal).
As to the writer's last statement specifying Ms. Bonnie Quinn as an example, let me iterate that in a past post I chastised her strongly for her action(s). In his first Council Meeting (and subsequently, too) as Mayor, Dr. Hiremath emphasized that 'respect' for one another was one of his 'absolutes'; in my opinion, Ms. Quinn, by breaking a law and throwing her action in the face of the Town as well as proffering that her anecdotal 'evidence' was proof positive that her 'way' delivered a [huge] difference in her receipts, THIS WAS AN ABSOLUTE DISRESPECTFUL SLAP IN THE FACE OF ORO VALLEY!
Zev makes an excellent point about Hiremath always emphasizing showing respect for one another. Yet when Quinn deliberately violated the sign code, Hiremath never mentioned the word "disrespect." Instead, he (and 5 other members of the council) rewarded her for her bad behavior.
I believe that disrespect is disrespect no matter what form it takes, so whether you flip the bird or thumb your nose literally or figuratively, the disrespect shown is the same.
In my opinion, Quinn FIGURATIVELY flipped the bird and thumbed her nose at the town, and all Hiremath could manage to do in response was to exhibit his usual "nervous laughter" followed by catering to her desires.
Sets quite a precedent!
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