County Will Hire Hearing Examiner

Land-use planning has gotten so complicated it takes a lawyer to understand it, Spokane County commissioners said Tuesday.

So they voted unanimously to hire an attorney for the new job of hearing examiner.

Two citizen committees that now hear development proposals will be dissolved, but decisions will be more consistent and legally defensible, the board said.

Even Spokane attorney Steve Eugster, often a major obstacle to development, urged passage of the measure.

The concept has worked well with the city of Spokane, he said.

“It’s just like a judge,” Eugster said. “You need somebody who will rise to the occasion, make tough decisions and not worry about what’s going to happen …”

Commissioner John Roskelley has argued in the past for a hearing examiner but objected to at-will termination. He wants such a person to be fired only for cause.

“This person needs to be insulated from us and the special-interest groups,” he said.

Roskelley was out-voted on that provision by commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson. They argued that commissioners never interfere with land-use decisions not before them.

Applications for the job will be sought for the next six weeks. Building and planning director Jim Manson said the person should be hired by late March to coincide with a new state law streamlining the land-use process by limiting the number of public hearings.

The job will pay between $50,000 and $68,000 a year, with the money coming from permit fees and not the general fund.

In a related measure, commissioners voted 3-0 to reduce the planning commission from nine to seven members. That would reduce the quorum needed to conduct meetings from five to four.

There now are only six commission members, and last month they had trouble forming a quorum.

, DataTimes