The Coastkeeper and GOP Rep. Joe Wilson

The Coastkeeper took a long awaited vacation, came home totally relaxed, recharged, renewed, calm, focused and ready to get back to work.

Then I attended the Worcester County Commissioner's work session on Tuesday, Oct. 20 and all that stuff I mentioned in the first line was gone...poof....back was the brain strain, the twitchy eyeball, the muscle cramp just above that left shoulder blade.

How can elected officials, who are responsible for the well being of our wonderful Worcester County, be so off base, so uninformed, so willing to publicly flaunt their ignorance and incompetence??

The work session was for the purpose of the county staff to go over the recommended changes to the draft Zoning District Maps (based on public comments received during the open comment period this past June) with the County Commissioners- all part of the process as the County finally gets around to implementing the 2006 Comprehensive Plan. 

For the past 3 months, county staff and the Planning Commission have taken time to go over every submitted public comment regarding the proposed new zoning code and the proposed zoning districts and they suggested changes when they felt your public comments warranted the change.  Some public comments were debated at the numerous Planning Commission/staff meetings and it was deemed not appropriate to recommend any changes.  And some changes just seemed to appear out of nowhere - like that off-site septic system exemption I mentioned in my previous posting, which is now in the code but wasn't there when the public was given the chance to review the new code and make comment.

I sat in on most of those Planning Commission work sessions.   I watched and listened to the debates, the advice offered by county staff; observed the time taken to consider each request and come to a consensus.  

Guess how many County Commissioners attended these meetings?  ....and the correct answer is.....one.   During a number of these meetings I observed County Commissioner Linda Busick taking notes, sitting there in the peanut gallery with the rest of us.   Kudos, Commissioner Busick.  Was my County Commissioner there, Mr. Church, at any time?  .....and the correct answer is....no (that wasn't very hard, was it?)

So back to Tuesday, October 20, 2009.    I could count the number of citizens in the audience observing this meeting on two hands.   Good golly Miss Molly, did you ever miss the show of the year if you weren't there!  If this county ever needed to have public meetings televised, or at least have a tape recording of every word said, Tuesday, October 20, 2009 was the day to do it.  Folks, it was absolute chaos up there on the dais.

County staff  had prepared a rather large packet of information, I believe a thick notebook, that had been given to the Commissioners in advance of these work sessions, to allow them to read and see what had been done over the past three months.   (I'm sorry I have to keep saying County staff, but that's my only option these days.  This new consolidated 'department' doesn't have a name.  I can't refer to County Planning Director because we don't have one anymore.  There is a new 'Director' and a new 'Deputy Director' but I don't know what they are Directors of... but when I refer to County staff I mean Director, Deputy Director, and their staff.)

It was very obvious from the get-go that most of the Commissioners sitting up there either did not have the book in front of them, or had not even read the book to prepare themselves for this meeting.

What was supposed to be a discussion about proposed changes to the Draft Zoning Maps to reflect the Land Use elements adopted by most of these VERY SAME COMMISSIONERS in the 2006 Comprehensive Plan became a chaotic, uncontrolled display of total ignorance of the subject matter and absolutely total ignorance of the job at hand.

Commissioner Cowger admitted (knowingly but more likely unknowingly) that AFTER the public comment period had closed he had discussions with land owners along Rt. 589 who want to see their parcels upzoned to a Commercial-2 District (not as heavy commercial as to allow big box stores, but almost.)

This is wrong on soooo many levels.  First, Mr. Cowger, apparently some people in this county are allowed to continue the public comment period even now,  when the rest of us adhered to the legally set deadline of June 12.   And this might be a good place to note that while I was a good girl and adhered to the rules of the meeting President Gulyas set - no public participation during the proceedings - how is it that not a single Commissioner, and especially Ms. Gulyas, did not bat an eyelash when Mark Cropper, noted attorney to most every developer in the county, walked up ON TO THE DAIS during the meeting and whispered sweet nothings into the ear of County Attorney Sonny Bloxom???  I can only imagine what would have happened had I sauntered up to the dais and approached Mr. Bloxom during the meeting.

Second, Mr. Cowger, this is not about zoning parcels of land to accommodate the wishes of the property owner.  This is about planning a balanced use of ALL the land in Worcester County to assure the land will provide economic viability for the County, pleasant areas to live in, protection of environmentally sensitive areas, and a use of the land that will assure us the same Worcester County we enjoy today (the same Worcester County citizens, stakeholders and County Commissioners pledged to protect in 2006) will be there for future generations.

I watched incredulously as the Commissioners began to debate, argue and interject their views about this parcel, and that parcel, and actually NAMED property owners....oh my gosh, they were actually talking about how to zone parts of this county because 'so and so' owned the property.

This meeting was no longer about land use planning and zoning.  It was now about 'how can we accommodate this person and that person?'

What was so amazing to me is that everything the Planning Commission and County staff had prepared for them, which served to answer a lot of their questions, was totally ignored.   Some Commissioners did not even have these documents in front of them.  How incredibly rude, how incredibly inconsiderate to those who had prepared them. How flat out IRRESPONSIBLE to the citizens of this County!!!

Worse - the reality is this,  these elected officials who are going to vote on a new Zoning Code, Subdivision Development Regulations, Commercial Development Regulations and a new Zoning District Map don't have a clue what is in there.  They haven't read it.

And you know what is really laughable, if one can laugh at this point?  I'm willing to bet next week's pay check that every single one of our County Commissioners has at one time or another complained that our Congress is about to vote on a Health Care Bill that the elected officials in Congress have not read.

Ok, I guess at this point some of you are wondering about the title of this blog post?  Here's the reason:  on October 20, 2009 during a County Commissioner work session I almost shouted out at the top of my lungs "stop this madness! It's embarrassing!"

I truly did, in fact I felt I was so close to getting out of control I had to leave the Commissioner Chambers, go outside, bang my head against the cement pillar at the top of the steps, and talk aloud to myself like some homeless person in San Francisco (you know what I mean - you're on Columbus and watching some guy having a conversation with another homeless dude across town on Van Ness who is also talking into his shirt.)  I literally had to talk myself down, get composed, and go back inside to take my seat and adhere to the rules, and not say a word.

And now I can close my very public diary, hit 'publish', and go to bed.  But I haven't slept well since Tuesday, October 20 and I don't expect to sleep well tonight.  There is much to research, attorneys to consult, and strategies to plan with my Board.  There is serious trouble in River City folks and we need to pay attention.