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Editor: 

The recent Zoning Adjustments Board public hearing on Valentines Day evening apparently lasted a "heartbreaking" seven plus hours until well past 2:00 a.m. the following morning. When meetings involving complex civic issues last longer than 4-5 hours, the quality of discourse between board/commission members and with the public is inexorably subject to the law of diminishing returns. 

Most board/commission members, the public at large, and the press are not retired or independently wealthy and therefore work for a living and have worked the day of the meeting and will no doubt work the next day 

-- exhaustion leaps to mind. If a meeting that begins at 7:00 p.m. cannot be completed by approximately 11:00 p.m., then there are too many agenda items prepared for the meeting by City staff. Barring any other rational explanation, then one must question whether this frequent breakdown in process at public meetings is possibly being staged and/or manipulated by city politicians, their staffs, and their principal political/financial supporters to discourage public input and derail adequate press coverage on controversial issues before the boards and commissions. 

The City Attorney should note that this breakdown is a serious matter that is encroaching on the effectiveness of open city government and fairness for the public that merits investigation by appropriate authorities and the press should the City staffs who prepare the board/commission agendas not clean up their act. So I ask the public and the press: Are you being served? If not, speak up now. 

David Olson 

Berkeley