PORT TOWNSEND — Legal debate intensified Thursday whether public comment should be allowed before the Jefferson County commissioners regarding Fred Hill Materials Inc.’s proposed gravel extraction area near Shine.
County civil deputy prosecutor David Alvarez has advised Board of Commissioners Chairman Phil Johnson to read a statement prior to the commissioners’ public comment period at Monday’s weekly meeting.
The statement reads:
“Your comments on any topic are welcome. Please keep them brief so others may also speak.
“You should know that in certain cases, such as decisions relating to land use applications, the county commission does not make the final county decision and will not express any opinions in that regard.
“Comments made during public comment [period] relating to an item where others make the final decision will not be sent to that decision-maker. You may have other forums that will allow your comment to reach the relevant decision-maker.”
Lawyer objects
It all started Monday when Fred Hill Materials attorney Jim Tracy vehemently objected to environmental activist Nancy Dorgan’s attempts to criticize the company’s proposed 165-acre Wahl extraction-area application before county Community Development planners.
Tracy argued that discussing the proposal before the county commissioners violated the county’s unified development code and another county code giving the county administrator, not the commissioners, authority in the matter.
Any public discussion before the commissioners was “inappropriate,” Tracy told the commissioners.
Tracy, land-use counsel for Fred Hill Materials, said allowing public comments, either written or spoken, “creates the appearance or impression” that the commissioners are attempting to influence county Department of Community Development officials.
Fred Hill seeks a stormwater permit for excavation within the Wahl Lake sub-area approved for a Mineral Resource Lands Overlay last year.
Opposition responds
Responding to Tracy’s position Thursday, attorney Mickey Gendler, representing mining project opponents Hood Canal Coalition, wrote a letter to the county commissioners stating:
“There is no law or reason which prohibits members of the public from addressing the commission at your open public meetings regarding any topic that is not then pending as a quasi-judicial matter before the commission.
“There is no law or reason why you cannot forward such communications to the appropriate county staff, including a staff administrator before who an application is pending, through open and public channels so that the communication can be given whatever consideration it merits.”
Gendler contends that the county commissioners have the right under the State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, to submit their own formal comment within the time provided on an application pending before a county department or administrator.
Contacted Thursday, Gendler said Tracy’s actions showed that Fred Hill was “desperate” in its attempt to stifle comments from the public and county commissioners.