Meeting was too limited

“Meeting was too limited,” Carmel Pine Cone – August 4, 2023

Last week, Monterey County District 5 Supervisor, Mary Adams, held an important “public” meeting about the state’s 3,000 mandated, low-cost housing to be built in Carmel Valley.

The “public” meeting was held in Carmel Valley in a small room in the private, gate-guarded Del Mesa community. The small room was overflowing with interested attendees. We were all presented with difficult-to-read maps, “steering “ us to properties selected and displayed around the room. Who chose these private properties?

After Ms Adams’s overview, we were given red and yellow dots to stick on the building sites on each map that we thought were suitable to build housing. Ms. Adams shut down any public questions or comments regarding whether or not citizens could contest the housing, who chose the proposed properties, whether or not the properties chosen would be acquired by eminent domain, where the water could come from, and how police and the fire protection would be obtained.

Private property owners were not represented, nor were they allowed to ask any questions in her “public” housing presentation.

Ms. Adams did not adhere to the updated 2023 “Brown Act” law which must allow for public questions and comments in a “public” forum. Ms. Adams conveniently held this week’s Wednesday meeting online by Zoom.

Hardly public!

Charlaine Carter, Monterrey