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A rare shouting match broke out at City Council Monday night, as Mayor Dean Maxwell tried to quiet Council member Nick Petrish. The issue: whether the City Council should consider passing some duties off to a hearing examiner.
The Council was set to vote on docketing amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations for consideration later in the year. One set of changes would move all land use applications from the Planning Commission and City Council consideration to a hearings examiner. Normally, docketing items for later public hearing and consideration would be pro forma, and may not even draw any comments. But, the idea of removing land use applications from Council review and the public hearing process prompted Petrish to comment. Petrish said “This would change how the Council and Planning Commission operate and eliminate the chance for the public to comment” on land use applications. He went down the list of actions that could be handled by a hearings examiner, including variance applications, conditional use permits, critical areas regulations and zoning interpretations. Mayor Maxwell interrupted him and suggested that “There will be plenty of time to discuss this matter later, when it comes to Council.” Maxwell clearly wanted to move the meeting along on a matter that,as docketed, won’t get to Council until September and a public hearing until January of next year. Maxwell pointed out that land use is becoming a bigger and bigger issue in Anacortes. The mayor got louder and Petrish got louder with Petrish finally saying “Don’t shout at me.” Council member Bill Turner said the issue isn't really being proposed so much as moving it to the City Council to discuss. Council member Cynthia Richardson said, “Nick made a good point to the public. This will make significant changes. It is important for the public to pay attention” to this issue.
The Council approved the schedule for the 2010 changes to the Comp Plan and Development Regs. Petrish said he voted ‘yes,’ so there could be more discussion.
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