03/22/2006: "Ranker Challenges Gaylord Over Memo"

As reported in The Island Guardian (Previous story) , concern had been expressed by an applicant that recent court cases had made the hearing of "site specific redesignations" by the Planning Commission inappropriate. At a work session on Tuesday, Councilman Ranker forcefully objected to County Prosecutor Gaylord sending a memo to the Chair of the Planning Commission and to the Director of Community Development & Planning, in which Gaylord had stated that "This is to confirm our request to cancel the planning commission hearings scheduled for tomorrow March 17, 2006 regarding site specific redesignations."

Ranker demanded from Gaylord by what authority did he cancel a scheduled hearing, and that he very concerned why this was not brought up before it was. Gaylord said he did not cancel the meeting, and tried to explain that his office recently became aware of a possible conflict, and so he advised the PC not to hold the hearing. But again Ranker told Gaylord he could advise, but he did not have the authority to stop a schedule hearing "at the 11th hour, by you Randy, by who's authority was it stopped? You can only advise!" Gaylord respond that "Yes, that is correct, but our advice was to put the hearing on hold until we had an answer to the question that was raised".

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But when Ranker persisted in his charges, Gaylord informed Ranker that there is more to it than what the content of the memo laid out, and told him to ask Karin Agosta, the Chair of the Planning Commission, who was sitting at the table, what happened: "Take the opportunity to ask Karin, she's right here!", But Ranker only pressed on with his concerns and charges. At this point, David Goldsmith, the interim County Administrator, addressed Ranker by informing him that "We could have let the hearing gone forward by informing the Commissioners, and the applicant, that legal issues raised by the applicant could result in having to hold the hearing all over again, but that to continue had the potential to be a waste of time and money for both the applicant and the members of the Commission, and the county staff. "We error on the side of caution" he said.

Both Goldsmith and Gaylord said that once they had an opportunity to review the court cases, and discuss the matter with others, they found that the County was following the proper procedure, and would reschedule the hearing now that the matter had been addressed.

And what was PC Chair Agosta's take on the whole thing? After the meeting she told The Island Guardian that she had talked to Gaylord about the issue the applicant had raised, and "was glad to have received his advice contained in the memo"; then added with a smile that "last Friday was a beautiful day, and more than one of the Planning Commissioners was happy to have the day off".