Dependable Erection

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

County Commissioners in hiding on Jordan Lake Project?

From the Herald-Sun:
County Commissioners have instructed their lawyers to oppose an environmental group's attempts to intervene in a lawsuit filed against them by the would-be developer of a tract off N.C. 751 next to Jordan Lake.

. . .

The dispute between the county and the developers has turned on whether former City/County Planning Director Frank Duke was right to change the buffer based on the findings of a developer-financed survey of the lake's boundary.

Also, the developers have faulted county leaders for insisting on holding a public hearing on the buffer change. They contend that local law allowed Duke and would allow his successor, Steve Medlin, to make the change on their own authority.

Siler's predecessor, former County Attorney Chuck Kitchen, insisted that a public hearing was a necessity under state law.

Commissioners are split on the project, with three appearing to favor it and two against. They removed Kitchen from office last month, by their own admission because of his role in the Jordan Lake dispute.

Siler said the commissioners were split 3-2 in opposition to the Haw River Assembly's intervention in the case. Commissioners Chairman Michael Page confirmed that.

Page said commissioners nonetheless "decided to move ahead with the advice of our attorneys at this point."

Neither he nor Siler identified the commissioners in the majority and minority factions.
But it's known that commissioners Becky Heron and Ellen Reckhow are more critical of the project, while commissioners Joe Bowser, Brenda Howerton and Page are more receptive. Howerton sided with Heron and Reckhow only on the procedural question of whether to hold a zoning hearing.
Do i understand this correctly? County Commissioners took a 3-2 decision on a legal issue involving the county, and are not revealing which commissioners voted which way?

WTF?

Presumably that's legal in some fashion, but Christ on a crutch, aren't the voters entitled to know how their elected representatives are, you know, representing them?

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