Q&A
City Council experience and its relevance to City Planning Commission role
0:41:16
·
77 sec
Keith Powers asks Raju Mann about how his experience in the City Council has informed his ability to take on the role in the City Planning Commission. Mann reflects on the lessons learned and how they will apply to his potential new position.
- Expresses appreciation for the challenges faced by council members in balancing competing constituencies and city-wide vs. local interests
- Highlights the importance of understanding the difficulty of building political consensus on complex projects
- Emphasizes the value of his experience with the mechanics of zoning and environmental review processes
Keith Powers
0:41:16
Got it.
0:41:17
We've talked about some of it.
0:41:18
But beyond the things discussed already, your experience here to City Council, can you talk a bit about how you think it has informed your ability to do the job that your up for now with an nomination year up for now and what what lessons may be learned here for your time and duty council about the landings process.
Raju Mann
0:41:35
Yeah.
0:41:35
I mean, I think number 1, I certainly appreciate how hard the job is for council members that you have to balance all of these competing constituencies in a district.
0:41:45
Some of those constituencies are city wide, some of them are local.
0:41:48
You have your own challenges across a particular language project.
0:41:52
You have a million other things going to you're working on getting a budget done this month.
0:41:56
So I appreciate how strained the time is and also how challenging it is to balance those stakeholders.
0:42:02
So I bring a lot of sympathy, I think, just for how hard the job is.
0:42:05
Sometimes I think there's there can be a tendency on agencies.
0:42:08
And to not fully appreciate the challenging work of building political consensus on difficult projects.
0:42:13
So I think I just bring a lot of sympathy because I've seen it firsthand and seen how challenging it is firsthand.
0:42:19
I think that's number 1.
0:42:20
And then number 2, obviously, I've got a lot of experience on the actual nuts and bolts of mechanics of how zoning, environmental review work.
0:42:27
And so hopefully, all of that experience just helps me ask sharper questions and have more informed perspectives on projects.
Keith Powers
0:42:33
Thanks.