Groups still fuming over planning director
The county commissioners’ decision Monday not to rehire Jeff Harris as planning director had apparently done little to appease property-rights advocates, who had lobbied for Harris to be fired based on a number of grievances.
At a Tuesday meeting sponsored by American Dream Montana and the local Freedom Action Rally group, several speakers reiterated those grievances and said that the commissioners were wrong to extend Harris’ contract through September, instead of letting it end in June as scheduled.
Donna Thornton pointed out that commissioners said they are keeping Harris on the payroll so that he can complete zoning work, the very thing property-rights advocates are working against.
It was Thornton who spearheaded a lawsuit against the county over the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan, which ultimately led to a lengthy investigation of Harris and the planning office that uncovered some minor problems but cleared Harris of any impropriety.
American Dream Montana members said they now feel that repealing the county’s growth policy is crucial to the fight against zoning.
Russ Crowder, chairman of American Dream Montana, said that a Feb. 24 Montana Supreme Court decision on a Missoula zoning lawsuit appeal held that a growth policy is a regulatory document.
“Everything that is in the growth policy,” when it goes to implementation, he said, “is regulatory, even though we were told it is only advisory.”
“Everything in there is zoning without using the ‘Z’ word,” Crowder said. “They lied to us.”
Crowder and Thornton detailed their complaints of alleged corruption in county government and an agenda to take away property rights.
Crowder presented a history of county land-use planning and growth policy development, beginning with former Commissioner Gary Hall’s effort to create an interlocal agreement with the Whitefish jurisdiction.
The first attempt at that planning “doughnut” failed, Crowder said, but it eventually succeeded when newly elected Commissioner Joe Brenneman teamed up with Hall. It “disenfranchised” people living in the doughnut of land surrounding Whitefish, Crowder said.
Crowder plowed through a long list of grievances at Tuesday’s meeting, some of which were new and some of which had already been addressed publicly.
Among the more serious allegations against the county were the following:
n That Brenneman and Hall had quietly tried to push through an “illegal” subdivision moratorium, but backed down when American Dream Montana got wind of the commissioners’ meeting and showed up in force.
n That a landowner was asked to spy on a neighbor for zoning code violations.
n That the commissioners had “adopted illegal regulations even though they knew they were illegal.”
n That when American Dream Montana asked for copies of e-mails and other communications from county officials’ computers, County Attorney Jonathan Smith went to county offices and showed workers how to permanently delete such public documents.
Crowder also said that when adopting the county growth policy, Commissioners Brenneman, Hall and Dale Lauman unanimously removed property-rights protections, including a requirement for 65 percent neighborhood approval to institute zoning.
Thornton described a long list of what she said were Harris’ misdeeds, primarily focused on the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan.
Largely because of complaints from Thornton and others about how the Lakeside plan was handled, the county had hired private investigator Ike Eisentraut to examine the workings of the planning office. Eisentraut said he “interrogated” Harris thoroughly, and earlier this year, he issued a report clearing Harris and his staff.
After listening to tapes of those interviews, Thornton claimed otherwise.
“He didn’t interrogate,” Thornton said of Eisentraut’s sessions with Harris and other officials. “He told them the situation, and then explained why it was OK.”
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com