CARLSBAD — Twenty-four hats in the ring for two seats. And on Feb. 27, the Carlsbad City Council appointed Roy Meenes and Carolyn Luna to the Planning Commission.
Meenes and Luna will fill the seats vacated by Commissioners Kerry Siekmann and Patrick Goyarts, who both declined to seek reappointments. Their terms expire on April 1.
Siekmann was appointed to the commission in 2011 and reappointed in 2014, while Goyarts was appointed in 2016.
Mayor Matt Hall, who has been with the council since the 1990s, said he’s never seen such a crowded and experienced field for the commission during his public service career.
The council’s vote in February was done with the intention of seating Meenes and Luna so they could participate in the next California League of Cities meeting in April so they can attend classes and get familiar with their new role.
“In all my years I have never seen so many applicants,” Hall said. “It was a robust and stellar list.”
Meenes, a consultant, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration from San Diego State University in the 1970s. According to his application, he has 27 years of experience in planning, land use and transportation.
His responsibilities throughout his career include land use developing through local, state and federal processes, and acquiring and developing capital improvements. Meenes spent 16 years as a senior transit operations specialist with the Metropolitan Transit System in San Diego and was the assistant to the city manager in El Cajon from 1971 to 1984. He also was an instructor at SDSU in public administration.
Meenes is also vice chairman of the Carlsbad Parks and Recreation Commission and is a member of the Carlsbad Rotary Club.
“This is a great privilege and a robust number of applicants,” Councilman Mark Packard said. “This was a very difficult decision for me.”
Luna, meanwhile, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside in 1980 and a certificate of completion for women in management from California State University, San Bernardino in 1989. Her career spanned more than three decades in land use planning, environmental management and economic development.
She worked as an environmental resource manager and principal planner for the Riverside County Planning Department from 1984 to 1996, was the director of Environment Programs Department from 2004 to 2010 and director of the Riverside County Planning Department from 2010 to 2013.
Luna currently does some consulting work regarding environmental and land use with clients outside San Diego County, according to her application. She has lived in Carlsbad part time since 2008, but since her retirement from public service, Luna now calls the city home.
Meenes and Luna will join current Commissioners Velyn Anderson, Arthur Black, Marty Montgomery, Lisa Rodman and Jeff Segall.
5 comments
I’m curious if Hall followed the proper transparent process in making these appointments. Since taking her position on the council, Cori has made her best efforts to restore legally required transparency to the appointment process which has been sorely lacking under Hall’s direction. For background on this issue, search for the San Diego Free Press article of June 14, 2017, titled “Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall’s Profile in Cronyism: Formalizing Appointments to City Committees.”
We have professional land use folks on salary. These two are highly qualified but redundant. Do even our volunteer advisory committee members need to be career bureaucrats? Congrats City Hall, two more “yes men”
Yup, just as I thought. Meenes is a crony of Hall and Michael Schumacher. Just par for the course on this rigged playground created by Hall and his buddies. Another good ole boy and Yes man for Hall to direct as he wishes.
What a shock that a Rotary guy would get the appointment! Wonder how much he’s donated to Hall. Never mind…I’ll look it up myself.
Congratulations to both appointees!
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