"It appears as if that input from the public, boards, commissions and even the council is largely disregarded," Councilman Pat Burt said. "Then we get a product at the end that inadequately reflects a lot of the input that is based upon context knowledge and not just the important domain expertise of the consultants. And we'll get a product that we disagree with fundamentally at the end even though we've put in a year or two and hundreds of thousands of dollars."
""The error was, they were putting all of Stanford (Shopping Center) into the little bit of retail we have everywhere else and doing some sort of division by per-capita person and saying you have too much retail," Lauing said. "If they had walked around town they would have figured that out."
City of Palo Alto spent $27 million on consultants for 44 projects in one year, producing results that council members found unsatisfactory. Council members cite consultants' lack of local knowledge and tendency to disregard input from the public, boards, commissions and council. Consultants often deliver products that do not reflect context-based local expertise, leading to disagreement after significant time and expense. One report mischaracterized the city's retail mix by aggregating Stanford Shopping Center with other retail areas. Consultants sometimes become defensive when receiving local feedback. Council members suggested relying more on city employees and local experts for context-dependent issues while reserving consultants for technical tasks.
Read at Padailypost
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]