Posts by Category
Like all cities in California, San Carlos operates within the legal and constitutional frameworks set by the state and federal governments. We are not sovereign, however much we may want to control or regulate what goes on within our borders.
Most of the Council’s time is spent on the topics described below. The links within each description point to posts I’ve written on the subject. Note that a post can fall into more than one category.
As Alexander Hamilton famously observed, if government can’t provide for public health & safety it pretty much doesn’t matter what else it can do.
Besides police and fire services this area also includes anything whose presence or absence could reasonably be expected to harm someone.
Our system of government seeks to balance individual rights, including property rights, with creating a community that benefits us as individuals.
Doing this involves setting, administering and adjusting land use rules. These govern how private property may be utilized within the city.
Ascertaining whether a proposed project is compliant, and determining whether an exception could be granted if it is not, constitutes community planning.
Collectively, land use regulation and community planning are how the Council regulates development.
Providing public services, as well as regulating development, costs money. The Council seeks to maintain the city’s financial well-being by managing its revenues, expenses and financial commitments.
The work the Council does which doesn’t fall into its three primary responsibilities — maintaining public health & safety, regulating development and staying solvent — I categorize as community relations.
Being fundamentally a political body some of the Council’s work involves managing its own deliberative processes and its relationships with other political entities, whether they be neighboring communities or the state and federal governments. Posts about these matters are filed under politics.