Draft report - Vision Committee 1995

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request that it be passed back to the Commissioners indicating that it wasn't a "willy-nilly," last minute type of thing, but something the group had taken time to think about and felt it was very relevant. David Yelton said that without further discussion, he wouldn't be able to go along with consensus on that. Bob Strayhorn said it was unfortunate that the commissioners left early when this issue was discussed at the August meeting. He felt they would have looked at it differently if they had been there. He said it wasn't like James Bumphus and his brother and brother - in -law have not been involved, because this was the fourth or fifth meeting he had seen them at. He said they were concerned enough to be there and that half of the members who have been appointed stay away. He thought it was a good opportunity to get some long- standing members of the community involved who were willing to be involved. He said if the Commissioners were not sensitive to that, then everyone needed to go home. David Yelton said he wasn't out to reject someone, but was concerned what it represented. Lee Rafalow speculated that there were two reasons the Commissioners may not want to consider this. The first was continuity in the group and he agreed that people who participate need to have all the information. He said he would argue that James Bumphus had been to as many meetings as some formal representatives and for that reason his appointment would not be disruptive. The other reason the Commissioners might not want to do additional appointments is it raises whole specter of participation to anyone who has an interest in the process. He said he had advocated early on that everyone should be able to participate, but felt the process was too far along now and that continuity was needed. He said if the group could express to the Commissioners that there was a way to improve the representative aspect of the group and that continuity was not lost because James Bumphus had been a participant, then the problem could be-solved without opening a can of worms. Elio Soldi said he agreed with Lee Rafalow that this was an exceptional case. He didn't think other groups would be asking for membership and felt that a strong case could be made to the Commissioners that this would not disrupt the process. David Yelton said he intended no disrespect to the people from Bumphus Road, but asked if people had been attending meetings, why was the connection never made that there was a representative for that geographic area? Harold Daye responded that no one ever said anything. The only thing they ever heard was Stoney Creek; there was no indication 3