Behind closed doors
"Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," author
Gertrude Stein observed laconically about the inability to change fact
with euphemisms.
And no matter what Blaine County’s leading political
lights choose to call it, their use of a deceptive new
"mediation" law is nothing more than conducting public business
behind closed doors.
The Blaine County Commissioners unanimously authorized
Monday’s public-be-damned session for discussion of a controversial
38,000-square-foot office building proposed by St. Luke’s Wood River
Medical Center.
The planning and zoning commission had overwhelmingly
rejected the office building. St. Luke’s had appealed to the Blaine
County Board of Commissioners. But instead of hearing the appeal, the
commissioners delayed it and agreed to send a delegation to the
closed-door session.
After ejecting Express reporter Travis Purser from
a meeting room at Hailey’s Wood River Inn, the delegation gathered for
five and a half hours in a cozy tete-a-tete with St. Luke’s
representatives to iron out the hospital’s latest grief.
County Commissioner Dennis Wright, two P&Z members,
two county planners and County Prosecutor Jim Thomas were part of the
delegation.
The problem? The nation’s courts have long held that the
planning and zoning process is a "quasi-judicial" function—almost
a court proceeding. The courts have insisted that county commissioners
decide appeals based on the record of hearings and deliberations of the
P&Z—and nothing else. No new testimony or evidence is allowed.
The county commissioners used the new mediation law to
throw the court-mandated fairness out the window.
Nothing prevented Commissioner Wright from hearing and
considering new evidence or testimony during the mediation session. His
value as a "judge" in the appeals process may be tainted—with
the public none the wiser.
The new law says that any deal struck in the mediation
session must be the subject of a public hearing. That’s like having a
jury trial after the hanging—a farce.
It was disappointing to see even new Blaine County
Prosecutor Jim Thomas, the nominal guardian of the public’s rights, fall
into lockstep without a peep.
The new "mediation" law is an abomination whose
surprising sponsor was state Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum.
County commissioners now have the refuge of
"mediation" to escape scrutiny and willy-nilly claim the need
for closed-door government whenever they dislike the public looking over
their shoulder.
Now that Rep. Jaquet has seen the heavy-handed abuse of
the law to deny the public a window on its business for privileged and
powerful corporate interests, she should seek to repeal it.
