At their meeting on Thursday night, members of the Plymouth City Council voiced their opinions about participation in the Amador Regional Planning Committee.

Having been invited to join the recently-formed group, council members had instructed staff last month to research the possibility of having the schedule for meetings of the regional committee changed to a night that wouldn't conflict with council meetings.

Regional committee at-large representative and Plymouth resident Elida Malick requested this change at the Feb. 28 meeting of that committee. Her request was accepted and the next meeting was scheduled for April 3, a first Thursday. Plymouth was then invited to send a representative.

In reference to the invitation and the accommodation to the council's schedule, discussion of a response ensued. Councilman Greg Baldwin began by pointing out what he considered to be unacceptable passages in the memorandum of understanding, which each member is expected to sign.

Baldwin's objections included what he considered expansionary language, which led Councilman Michael O'Meara to add, "I've dealt with some entities that started out small. They were warm and fuzzy at first, but grew into multi-million dollar operations."

Baldwin also thought the MOU invited the regional committee to gain power over decisions many might feel better left to the individual entities.

One objection to the wording in the MOU came during public comment. Stephanie McNair found a passage to be biased against development, in that it charges the committee with developing a system to "identify and remediate" all impacts of developments, both residential and commercial.

As Plymouth's response, Baldwin suggested that the city "approach the regional committee with suggested changes (to the MOU) and say that Plymouth will not join unless the changes are incorporated into the agreement." O'Meara spoke in favor of tempering Baldwin's approach with a somewhat softer line.

Mayor Jon Colburn favored giving the committee a try, however. "It's well worth the time spent at meetings to know what's going on in the rest of the community," he said. "They've bent over by changing the meeting date. We should send someone to a meeting or two."

As council members expressed doubt that the other entities would be willing to alter their MOU, which they had all signed, City Administrator H. Dixon Flynn volunteered that he had been in a similar situation in which six of seven cities signed on immediately. "Then the smallest city expressed its concerns," he said. "The others quickly recognized the validity of the small city's concerns and that led to major changes."

Council members agreed to form a subcommittee to formalize suggestions for changes and to bring the matter back to the next meeting of the city council, which will take place before the next Regional Planning Committee meeting.

Repairs to a city ditch that was damaged during the 2006 winter have been an ongoing drain on the city budget. Item 6 on Thursday night's agenda was discussion and appointment of a temporary maintenance employee for work on the ditch. Item 7 was the mid-year budget update. The two items overlapped to a degree that made them indistinguishable from each other.

City Finance Director Jeff Gardner began his budget update with, "Our new city manager is a money guy," at which an audience member added, "And he's not smiling." Gardner went on to say that, "at 58 percent of the budget year, we're hitting the numbers pretty much right on."

As budget talk continued regarding the hiring of a ditch worker, Councilwoman Pat Fordyce asked, "How does the city intend to pay for this worker?" Gardner answered, "We have been moving some dollars around."

Councilwoman Pat Shackleton recalled her previous stint on the council, saying, "When I was on the council 20 years ago, and during all the years since, we've ignored the deteriorating ditch. We have to do whatever it takes to protect the water rights."

Colburn lamented the fact that more money had not been obtained from FEMA for storm repair on the ditch.

Flynn recommended a study session on the budget, which was accepted with unanimous agreement.