YouTube video of Thursday’s meeting, queued up to the item in question.

Though a permanent solution still eludes commissioners for the time being, at Thursday night’s meeting the Humboldt County Planning Commission made some progress on the question of which of its members should sit where.

The agenda item was brought forward by Commissioner Brian Mitchell following the fiasco of the previous meeting, in which a couple of commissioners were scrunched together too closely on the dais.

Mitchell — who visibly struggled to get his words out during the nine-minute discussion, perhaps due to strong emotion over the topic — proposed seating members according to seniority, with the commission chairperson in the middle and the two longest-serving members of the seven-member commission on his or her left and right and so on down to the edges, where the very newest members would sit.

His proposal received some pushback from Commissioner Mike Newman, who proposed, instead, that the five members of the commission directly appointed by a supervisor sit in the chairs of the supervisor that appointed them, with the two at-large appointments seated on the edges — or “wings,” in Planning Commission parlance. But Newman withdrew after the commission came to the realization that no one knew if the supervisors always sat in the same seats.

After much back and forth, with Chair Alan Bongio and Commissioner Melanie McCavour offering helpful suggestions to make sure Mitchell’s concerns were being addressed, a consensus seemed to form: The commission’s chairperson would sit in the middle, with three members on either side, and care would be taken to ensure that each member got roughly equal space.

Mitchell seemed to be ready to go along with this, but threw a last-minute curveball into the works. He would take it upon himself, he said, to draw up a formal seating chart before the commission’s next meeting, which is currently scheduled for the evening of April 21. At that point, Mitchell said, he will offer up the plan for consideration and critique of the full commission.

At the direction of Chair Bongio, Humboldt County Planning Director John Ford agreed to place the item on the next meeting’s agenda. Stay tuned.

Below: The full transcript of the discussion

TRANSCRIPT

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION CHAIR ALAN BONGIO:

Okay, so now we’ll move on to other business — and this was agendized, I believe, by Commissioner Mitchell — to talk about the Planning Commission seating chart. So I’ll let you…

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER BRIAN MITCHELL:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s been a while since we’ve all met here, and during that time we’ve had members leave the commission, and some come on.

I don’t know the exact protocol before, but it seemed to me that when I was the newest member on the commission I was on the outside, and it sort of … funneled into the chair being in the middle and fanned out from there.

And just also the fact that your station [Ed. note: the staff’s] makes it so that there’s there’s more people crammed in this area then that side. And I just wanted to see if there’s anything we do to address either of those issues.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay. Do you have some thoughts on what you think might…

I … this … I’ve been here for about almost 10 years and other than when you’re at the chair, it just was wherever they seated you. I don’t think there’s ever been a official … I just went where the plaque said I was supposed to sit.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER MELANIE MCCAVOUR:

I think last week was particularly bad in terms of the layout, and I think what happens is because there’s five supervisors and seven commissioners…

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

… they tend to get crammed towards that end, and I think maybe if everyone just slid down like we were forced to last time, because it was so obvious …

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

… that could help. Which would mean that our chair would be a little bit less in the middle, but I don’t think that’s an issue.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Doesn’t matter to me.

The director… We were talking about this before the meeting — maybe, director, you could give your your thoughts.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING DIRECTOR JOHN FORD:

I don’t know that there’s a rhyme or reason for it. There’s a couple different things you could think about. I think that Commissioner Mitchell brought up the idea of the more experienced, longer-tenured planning commissioners sitting towards the middle.

There’s, perhaps, the idea of having the commissioner sit where their supervisor sits, with the at-large appointments, you know, placed in appropriate locations either at the end, or someplace else.

There’s many different ways to do it. It just really is up to the commission. I don’t know that there is anything written that gives direction on this.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Go ahead, Mike.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER MIKE NEWMAN:

Well, since this is brought up, I’m, I’m … My thoughts are, put it along the lines of where the supervisors seat, and then have the two at-large on each outside wing, which would make it simple, there.

I don’t know if the supervisors have a specific placement — like, one, two, three, four, and then the alternate would be the chair, which goes in the middle — from wherever they were assigned for that policy or that term year.

So that was my thought, there. Just to make it consistent.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay. Go ahead, Thomas.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER THOMAS MULDER:

So, I’ve never sat up here before but I used to follow these meetings a lot.

It doesn’t really make a preference to me. From my memory, when I used to come to these meetings it was kind of like Commissioner Newman mentioned, where the people sat wherever their district appointed them. They sat there, and then at-large were on the outside.

That’s just the way I remember. I didn’t take notes and pay a lot of attention to that. That’s just how I remember it.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

So, well, from what I remember, I think I’ve always sat here. I think we were put here initially and we’ve just maintained the same spot that we were given initially.

But do you have a preference for your seat, Commissioner Mitchell?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Not necessarily. I just wanted to bring the topic up because we haven’t had to to do readjustments and …

You know, my recollection is, I…  When I was first appointed, and the newest person here, I was sat on the very edge, and the Chairman’s in the middle, so it made some logical sense to … to … to arrange it that way, but …

It’s not a strong preference. It was just something we hadn’t talked about and I wanted to address.

CHAIR BONGIO:

I’ll go along with whatever everybody else wants. I kind of … My place has kind of been chosen for me. So when you kick me out of here, then I’ll go to an end or something. I don’t know.

I guess from listening to the conversation, the only thing I don’t think would be fair is if the at-large people always get stuck out on the end, because they’re they’re no different than the rest of us.

So I don’t think it’s fair to always make them be out on the wing, though it’s no better or worse seat than anywhere else, to be honest.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

So do you think it would just help if we all shifted down?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

… and had three, Chair, three? I definitely think that would be a major Improvement.

CHAIR BONGIO:

That would work. That works for me. That work … would that work for you, Mike? Seems like it.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

What do you mean by that?

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

That means Noah would sit here. [Ed. note: Commissioner Noah Levy was absent from the meeting.]

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

So are you talking about numbering through, with the districts? And then the outside wings being the at-large?

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

No, we’re just all shifting down a seat.

CHAIR BONGIO:

So we just would have three on each side of me.

Noah is usually right here, so… Well, Thomas is usually next to you and Peggy is down there, so… I don’t know if Peggy’s gonna go back to there, but there’ll be three on this side and there’ll be three on that side and I’ll be in the center. [Ed. note: Commissioner Peggy O’Neill was also absent.]

UNKNOWN STAFF MEMBER:

[Inaudible] … no rhyme or reason … [Inaudible]

CHAIR BONGIO:

I figured that was what happened.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

All I’m saying: Consistency with, maybe, the number of districts, and that becomes the norm, and then the at-large on the outside, which is what it was before when I first came on in 2018.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

No. It wasn’t …

CHAIR BONGIO:

I don’t think it’s ever been by …

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

No?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

No.

CHAIR BONGIO:

… that we were sat where our supervisors were.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

And I they think they move around too. That’s why …

CHAIR BONGIO:

I agree with that. They do.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

… I have no preference. Just equal spacing, I think, is the key part as to what you were asking there, Commissioner Mitchell. Just having enough equal space instead of being crowded at one end. Yeah.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Maybe you and Thomas can arm-wrestle for who gets the end position.

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

[To Mulder] Okay. It’s all yours. [Chuckles.]

CHAIR BONGIO:

So is that good? We’ll just put three on each side.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

Sounds good.

CHAIR BONGIO:

All right. [To Mitchell] You OK with that?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah.

I think I’d like to draw up a draft proposal for the chart and just say “Here’s what I think makes sense,” and you guys can say “this is dumb” or “this makes sense,” and …

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay. So do you want to bring this back, then, is what you’re saying?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah!

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay.

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

I’ll take it upon myself to put together something that makes sense.

CHAIR BONGIO:

All right. So, director, could you agendize this on next meeting again, so we can look at that?

DIRECTOR FORD:

Yes, I will.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Thank you.