Some great entertainment in town is still at county commission meetings. Like Agatha Christie novels and Alfred Hitchcock movies, they incorporate drama, anticipation, mysterious mental processes, often inexplicable county planning staffs, motivations of applicants before the commission, their opponents, and five often inexplicable county commissioners.
Citizen hopes for greater transparency, accountability, and devotion to the general public are already dashed. Voter majorities in their wisdom continued the status quo even while a deep desire for "change" won at the national level. So far the new commission doesn't bemuse as much as the last one. But they'll grow.
Perhaps it's because Douglas County is a died-in-the-wool Republican stronghold where party loyalty is paramount and competence play second fiddle, and Republicans in name only are indistinguishable from principled Republicans. A development-friendly organization called Coalition for Smart Growth and its members dispensed impressive campaign contributions, successfully too.
Coalition muscle was demonstrated from the get-go when two practicing developers on the board, McDermid and Lynn, elected themselves chair and vice-chair with help from coalition candidate Mike Olson, whose business benefits from development. Just as the last board rarely saw a development they didn't like, expect more of the same.
But we digress from our subject of entertainment and suspense. Just last month, as opinion contributor Jim Slade recently described, commissioners made one of their patented inscrutable decisions, overturning 3-1 a previous board rejection of serious variances from code by a development near Heavenly Ski Resort. No transparency nor accountability there. No logic either, just mystery.
February's first board meeting brought drama, pathos, logic and illogic. A Gardnerville church intends to build in a neighborhood of high-priced homes. Unmoved by 300-plus fiercely opposing letters from future neighbors, that goodly Christian church plunged doggedly ahead, undaunted by a planning advisory board 6-0 vote against the project. County staff delivered humorously ludicrous responses to concerns over traffic snarls from 200 or so church-going cars conflicting with autos of those 300-plus residents.
Opponents presented over two hours of well-reasoned sometimes emotional arguments to openly restive commissioners. After five hours commissioners offered some baffling comments and voted 3-2 for development. Commissioner Johnson, now safely re-elected, gave little sympathy to local yokels, observing he follows the strict letter of their own somewhat perplexing law. Commissioner Olson comically proclaimed a church is good for neighborhoods, implying local souls could benefit from it's proximity. He dismissed opponents' expert assessor's testimony of the impact of a church and view on property prices as tainted because she was paid, and he relied on an unnamed assessor not present who he claimed told him the opposite. Really.
Chairman McDermid displayed persistent impatience with the entire proceedings from the outset, depriving attendees of suspense over her vote.
Commissioner Lynn who lives in a nearby subdivision, which he developed, which will be impacted by church traffic, asked sensible relevant questions, and after three votes in favor were clear, voted against.
So there we have it. Come on out. They need an audience.
- Jack Van Dien is a Centerville Road resident.
