I only met Eigenio Rodriguez face-to-face once, at one of those shindigs where they stick a paper nametag on you when you walk in the door. When I saw who he was I hustled over to introduce myself.

"I look out for your posts on the Smart Growth mailing list," I told him. "They are always well written, well researched and even-handed." Trust me: that's quite a compliment for an e-mail list that has an unusually high percentage of bright, articulate and committed folks on it. I swear: he blushed. A nice man, I thought. We're lucky to have him working for the good of the community.

Apparently, not everyone thinks so. At the May 5th City Council meeting, Patti Radle nominated Rodriguez to fill the vacant District 5 slot on the 11-member Zoning Commission. The nomination was shot down by District 1 councilman Roger Flores. Richard Alles, a staff member of Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas who attended the meeting, reported his objections as "Rodriguez cannot be objective because he is a strong advocate for aquifer protection."

Alles added, "To put Flores' remarks in perspective, let me say that if you've ever been to a Zoning Commission meeting, you know that it's never met an aquifer recharge zone development project it didn't like. Zoning commissioners frequently recuse themselves because of conflicts of interest and, at times, are openly antagonistic to aquifer protection and neighborhood interests."

If you're not a City Council groupie you might think that turning down a board nominee is an everyday occurrence. It's not.

Maria Antonietta Berriozabal, who served on City Council from 1981-1991 has a memory like an elephant.

"I am not familiar with any time that the Council rejected the appointment of any one Councilperson when the appointment was of an eleven-member board or commission," she wrote.

Since 1977, when San Antonio switched to single-member districts, council members have been expected to nominate citizens who reflect their point of view. The creation of council districts was intended to reflect a diversity of opinion not only in the council itself, but also in its appointed boards and commissions.

Radle is outraged.

She wrote, "It is insulting to our district to take away the voice of such a good advocate that would be very protective of our water. If he were a proven scoundrel, an irritant, belligerent, disruptive, headstrong, stubborn, then this would be a different story. But to dismiss someone saying they can't be objective because they want to protect something that is good is an unfit reason in my opinion. So am I supposed to find someone who does not care about pollution of our water?"

In addition to Flores, Councilmen Hass, Schubert, Williams and Segovia voted to remove Rodriguez' name from nomination. Mayor Garza and Councilmen Hall and Barrera sided with Radle. Three council members were absent. It takes a six-vote majority to appoint a new board or commission member, so his name was yanked.

When the new city council convenes after June's runoff election, Schubert will be gone because of term limits. Segovia and Williams were both trounced in their re-election bids. Maybe that's the right time to surface Rodriguez' nomination again.

The Zoning Commission, like City Council, works on majority vote. One member can change the flavor of the debate, but not, single-handedly, the results. As a final safeguard, the Commission's recommendations are voted on by City Council. The power of one lonely pro-aquifer zoning commissioner to put the brakes on development is negligible.

Objectivity is a slippery concept. If you quizzed the ten sitting Zoning Commission members I bet every one of them could voice opinions about the relative weight that should be given to private property vs. the communal good, aquifer protection vs. growth, business development vs. the needs of homeowners. Some of them might even be activists in advocating for their point of view.

This is the way it's supposed to be. Politics is not a feel-good club where everyone agrees on everything. It is a messy process by which we take a hodge-podge of competing interests and, through considered debate, figure out a way we can all live together.

Eigenio Rodriguez - and District 5 - have the right to be a part of that process.

Susan Ives can be reached at suives@texas.net.