Normally, the Planning Commission (PC) meets on alternating Mondays -- as well as at a recess during Town Council meetings the following day. Sometimes, there are enough development related activities to require additional, or weekly, PC meetings.
The PC has been pretty good about getting agendas out in a timely fashion, that being on the preceding Wednesday or Thursday.
But not this week. Based on past meetings, there are numerous special requests (rezoning issues or conditional use permits) which were scheduled for this coming Monday at 3 pm, as well as a presentation by a representative of the state's Department of Historic Resources (which stems from "spot" zoning for residential rental units in one of the town's three historic districts).
Contrast this with the Town Council, which traditionally puts agendas out on Monday afternoon, barely 24 hours in advance of those meetings.
When a previously scheduled meeting date is changed, this too, according to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) "training," is to be communicated and the public notified.
In the recent FOIA "training" the Mayor stated council meant to always meet the "letter and intent" of these laws. So even though it schedules meetings for the first and third Tuesday of each month during an annual organization session in September, when council agendas are actually provided to the public does not comply with the "letter and intent" of FOIA laws.
Contrast this with the county Board of Supervisors, which ensure their agendas are distributed by the Thursday before their Monday meetings.
Contrast this with the county school board, which ensure their agendas are distributed by the Friday before their Tuesday meetings (which happen to conflict with the Christiansburg Town Council meetings). Ditto Radford and Blacksburg.
One question here is that FOIA requires the agendas and all related documents be provided to council and the public at the same time. If town council members don't receive this information until late Monday afternoon, how can they be fully prepared to understand, absorb and address the business items by Tuesday?
A second question is when and where are the Street Committee meeting agendas published? Are other committees meeting and those times or places or agendas not being communicated to citizens? It seems a fair question.
And now we're seeing slippage with the Planning Commission agendas, after the FOIA training? Tisk, tisk.