Whidbey News-Times Editorial: August 12, 2006   Back 2 List
Where the Power Lies.
By Jessie Stensland

Members of the Oak Harbor Planning Commission are suddenly sitting in rather hot seats.

The seven members of the commission will be listening to public input on a couple of scorching topics at their next meeting, which has been scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 22 at Parker Hall at Oak Harbor High School. The public will get the chance to speak about proposals that could lead to a large shopping center south of the city and a residential development on the Fakkema Farm.

Judging from the last meeting — which the fire marshal shut down because of overcrowding — many dozens or even hundreds of opinionated people will be giving the planning commission a piece of their minds.

So who are the commission members and what do they do?

The commission has straightforward and sometimes mundane duties — largely reviewing plats, permits, and zoning changes — but it does have its critics. The commissioners’ decisions are strictly recommendations to the elected decision-making body, the City Council, but still some people feel the mayor-appointed members wield too much power.

When Oak Harbor Mayor Patty Cohen appointed Kristi Jensen to the planning commission in June, Cohen said she chose the real estate agent because she wanted a balance of interests and backgrounds on the important board.

But in fact, the seven-member commission was already heavy with what critics deem as real estate and development interests. With the newest member, there’s a real estate agent, a real estate appraiser, a man who works in “insurance and real estate,” a construction manager, a retired banker, a retired stock broker and a health care administrator, according to biography forms on file with the city. “I look for a gender balance, a professional balance, a nice cross section of the city,” Cohen said, though she doesn’t have a set criteria to qualify people for the commission.

Cohen appointed Jensen, she said, because she has experience with revitalization efforts in the downtown. Keith Fakkema, a retired banker who spent most of his life in the city, said Cohen called him about six months ago and asked if he would serve on the commission. He agreed.

Cohen feels that the commission isn’t skewed toward development and business interests. Everyone, she added, has some interest in development because “we all rely on the local economy in order to survive.”

Jerry Jones, a member of the comprehensive plan task force, disagrees. “They are very biased toward development interests,” he said.

Oak Harbor architect Chris Saxman, the former chairman of the planning commission and 15-year member, said the group has always been “fairly balanced, but weighted toward pro-growth.”

Bob Pettyjohn, chairman of the planning commission, and Fakkema both said that the commissioners don’t seem to have any agendas or axes to grind. They are all just citizens who want to do their parts to make the city a better place. “We’re really a filtering agency,” Pettyjohn said. “Our job is to make sure all the ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s are crossed.” Pettyjohn said he understands the frustration some residents might feel when they speak at a meeting in opposition to a development in their neighborhood, but the planning commission allows the work to go forward. It’s not because the commission members are biased toward developers, he said, but that the commission has to follow the rules and codes created by the community. Oak Harbor Councilwoman Sue Karahalios said it makes sense to appoint people with development experience to the commission since it deals with technical aspects of zoning, land use and construction that regular folks may not understand.

“There is a need for them to have a knowledge about land use,” she said, “and they are not the final say.” The City Council has the final say on the matters that go before the planning commission, but the fact is that the council members almost always accept the planning commissioners’ decision without changes. The appointed members of the commission spent much more time on each matter than the council members do.

Oak Harbor Development Services Director Steve Powers said city staff doesn’t have undue influence over the commission members. “They consider what our analysis is,” he said, “but they certainly or occasionally feel free, as they should, to provide their own analysis and add to our recommendations.”

Karahalios said she almost always agrees with the planning commission’s recommendations after reading through the minutes of their meetings and seeing that their decisions are well reasoned and based on city code. Councilman Paul Brewer has a different concern.

“I have a real problem with the planning commission because they are appointed by one person,” Brewer said. The mayor appoints the members, but like in any level of government, appointments are approved by the legislative branch — the City Council.

Brewer added that it’s virtually impossible to turn down one of the mayor’s appointments because it would mean singling out a member of the small community. “No one is going to insult the person...” he said. “I don’t want to embarrass the person and question their qualifications.”

Jones shares Brewer’s concerns. “The people who are making decisions are almost entirely appointed by the mayor, who is a part-time politician,” he said.

The remedy to the planning commission’s “bias,” Brewer said, is another appointed board, the comprehensive plan task force. But there’s been some wrangling over the relationship between the planning commission and the comprehensive plan task force. The task force is made up of 15 members, one appointed by each council member and eight by the mayor.

Jones, a task force member, points out that the mayor still appoints most of the members, but he said it’s a more balanced body. He said the task force meetings are rather informal and allow for a lot of public input and dialogue. “The planning commission doesn’t want two-way public participation,” he said.

The task force is tasked with hearing issues dealing with the comprehensive plan, which includes a broad swath of issues like transportation, land use, utilities, housing and capital facilities. The task force makes recommendations to the planning commission, which in turn makes recommendations to the City Council.

Saxman said he quit his chairmanship because he felt that the task force, which was created about 10 years ago, preempted the planning commission. “The City Council enacted policies that took the planning and future planning of the city of Oak Harbor and put it in the hands of the task force,” he said. But this year, the City Council voted to bypass the comp plan task force and send the controversial comprehensive plan amendments directly to the planning commission. Cohen said that officials wanted to make sure the task force had enough time to focus on the vital update to the capital facilities plan.

Yet Jones and another task force member, Richard Pasewark, were not happy and questioned the decision at a recent city open house. In fact, Jones said the task force may make a formal complaint at their first meeting of the year at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the municipal shops. “We’re going to vote about how we feel about being excluded from land use,” Jones said.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.
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