Letters - July 1, 2010

Rubber stamp

Reasons for substituting the county’s Board of Adjustment with an outside hearing examiner for decisions on large scale corporate developments are:

1) Other counties do it;

2) Knowledge of environmental law may be required;

3) Members of the Board of Adjustment could become burdened and overwhelmed by a permit application of a major project;

4) Ensure that any single application would not clog the conditional use permitting system. (Gazette 6/17/10)

My response to this reasoning is as follows:

1) Two wrongs do not make a right;

2) Legal questions are routinely referred to the County Prosecutor. The State’s Attorney General’s office can answer questions that the County Prosecutor cannot handle. There is no need for a citizen board to surrender its authority to an environmental lawyer when legal advice is so readily available.

3) After years of routine conditional use applications, one would think that the members of the Board of Adjustment would welcome an application that would have a significant impact on the future of Whitman County.

4) My four years on the Whitman County Planning Commission (1999-2003) has given me a fair understanding of the workload of the Board of Adjustment. I disagree that any single application will clog the system.

For argument’s sake, let us agree with County Planner Thomson’s reasons for bypassing the Board of Adjustment. (Although, one must ask, “Why does Thomson presuppose a problem that does not exist?”)

If major building projects will “overwhelm” the Board of Adjustment and “clog the entire system,” why not create a new citizen board that deals solely with conditional use permit applications of large projects?

Why should we remove citizen control of large scale corporate developments by replacing the citizen board with an environmental lawyer?

The hearing examiner is another name for a corporate rubber stamp.

Anyone who favors replacing the citizen board with an “outside” lawyer has got to get his or her head examined.

If you care about democracy, now is the time to speak up.

Leave the system as it is until there is a problem; or, create a new citizen board.

Let’s leave the hearing examiner, AKA environmental lawyer, AKA rubber stamp, where he belongs: outside of Whitman County.

Roger Whitten,

Oakesdale