07/31/2008: "Stormwater Ord Bogs Down"

The County Council Stormwater Subcommittee has presented a new draft ordinance to the County Prosecutor’s office for legal review.

At the Monday County Work session, Subcommittee Chair Rich Peterson informed the rest of the council that “we are not going to meet our self imposed deadline of having a stormwater ordinance ready for circulation” by the end of July.

Peterson cited one reason for the delay is “the draft of the new ordinance rests in the Prosecutor’s office, and they have simply not found the time to get back to us.”

Councilman Bob Myhr expressed his concern that “this has been going on for eight months now” and said he “would like to see at least the key bullet points of the draft” so he could see the direction the subcommittee is going.

The subcommittee of Peterson, Howard Rosenfeld and Gene Knapp are not required to meet in public, and so have not done so, even to the extent of not allowing members of the media to observe. As a result there is no way of knowing what they have discussed, or what information they have been given to base any decisions on.

Peterson said the closed door meetings are necessary to allow a free flow of ideas and open discussion, that might not otherwise occur if the public was present. The downside of this exclusion of the public also means the other members of the council cannot attend, for if they did, the meeting would have to then be open to the public and the media.

Myhr said the draft ordinance is a sensitive issue, and he does not want to rush the process at the end as they did last time; and that he is “not very comfortable were getting in a direction…I would like to have a better understanding of where it is.”

Peterson said “we can do that.”