Bud Risser emailed me this update posted here with his permission.

Here is a link to the Original Post 828 Should Probably Wait

Sir

I offer a correction of your recent post that someone was forwarded to me regarding Mayor Foster's plan for the Pier.

First, I am not part of that committee. I have been working with the Mayor in hope that my management experience could be helpful in forming a productive committee that could keep the momentum we now have should the August election terminate the Maltzan contract.

Second, your message suggests to me that you - and frankly a lot of others including Council - do not understand what the Mayor is proposing. This group is being formed solely to recommend a process that could (and hopefully would) lead our City to a better solution. When they decide the process, their job is completed. The group who would execute the process leading to a selection would come next. My guess is that this will be a much larger group, with lots of thought given to diversity, interests, politics and such.

For reasons I am certain you will understand, the idea here was to get a small group who understand the importance of compromise, and that would represent key interests and move quickly. My recommendation was 7 to 9 people. The Mayor chose to make it larger than that, which may slow things down. But you notice that CCSP and the Chamber are there. The Mayor wanted Sullivan (and I strongly agreed) but he said no. I do not know why. That is too bad because it not only would have brought his ideas to the table, it would have added credibility.

From my vantage point I can already see many places where there is already common agreement. It would be inappropriate for me to share those now, but I will say that most - if not all - of the ideas I consider important likely will be accepted by the participants I have talked with. As a result, I am optimistic that this could be a good start. I say could, because you know how quickly the complexity of these things can cause them to go astray. I would hope that using the Pier Task Force report, working in sync with the new waterfront master plan, and taking constant input from the community would be just a few of the things everyone could agree to. If so we should be able to avoid the problems that the earlier process created.

The truth is that this group of people, and many others, love our City and we are simply working to get the best solution we can. I look forward to you helping to keep our little world informed!

Best regards,

Bud

Thanks Mr. Risser for the update and the clarification.

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