North Bend opts out of quasijudicial decisions

Published 1:39 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – The City Council passed a resolution at its Tuesday, March 19 meeting that will absolve it from quasijudicial hearings for appeals to decisions made by the city about development issues.

Appeals to such decisions will instead go directly to King County Superior Court, where supporters of the ordinance say the wealth of expertise lies.

The ordinance passed 3-2, with Ed Carlson, Jack Webber and Elaine Webber voting in favor of it. Dissenting votes were cast by Mark Sollitto and Bill Wittress.

“I do not wish to take the City Council out of the loop,” Jack Webber said. “But this is the best decision.”

Carlson proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would delay its instatement until Jan. 1, 2003. He said the ordinance should allow the Sno-Bend project variance application, which is currently being determined by a hearing examiner, to be completed before the council changes the rules.

“Hopefully, it will be cleared up by then,” Carlson said.

Debate among council members involved many references to the Tollgate Farm deliberations. The farm, a 410-acre swath of land to the west of North Bend, was set to be developed with a light industrial park. Those plans were presented before the council in quasijudicial hearings.

Before every meeting, council members had to swear they were impartial to the proposal. Former Councilman Jim Gildersleeve eventually recused himself since he had strong feelings about the project.

Most of the land was purchased last year with city bonds, private donations and other government funds, which preserved it as open space.

Elaine Webber said that there was a lot of emotion behind the Tollgate Farm proceedings, and that future issues may be better decided by someone residing outside of the area.

“To say that we didn’t have our own feelings about it [Tollgate], that wouldn’t be honest,” she said.

But Sollitto said it was the responsibility of the council to “take the heat” for making decisions, and he was surprised the council would think it could not remain objective in such hearings.

“I’m a little insulted that the council feels we are incapable of dealing with things like the Tollgate issue,” he said.

Elaine Webber said the City Council can make difficult decisions. But she pointed out that Sollitto dressed up in a cow costume for a parade last year to garner support for the city’s purchase of the farm, leading her to believe that sides were taken, albeit privately, about the project.

Sollitto remained adamant that he was objective and that others could be as well.

“I worked really hard to be honest,” he said.

The city passed a similar ordinance that sent State Environmental Policy Act appeals to the county last December.

Although the ordinance passed, the council will face a similar problem when it takes up a resolution that was tabled at the meeting that would revise hearing examiner codes. The codes are used to determine the kinds of tasks with which the hearing examiner will be presented.

“[Figuring out] Process is a huge problem,” Wittress said.

You can reach Ben Cape at (425) 888-2311, or e-mail him at ben.cape@valleyrecord.com.