Part III
Plan to abolish planning groups

By DAVID ROSS

Third in a series of articles about a proposal to end planning groups as we know them in San Diego County. Click here to read Part II
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On Friday attorneys for the non-profit public corporation CalAware filed a lawsuit against the county Board of Supervisors accusing the board of violating the Brown Act in the way it adopted the recommendations of the “The Red Tape Reduction Task Force.”

To view a copy of the lawsuit, click here.

The vote to adopt the task force’s recommendations, which includes abolishing or severely limiting the function of community planning groups took place on on Dec. 7 of last year, a date that one member of the local planning group, Rich Rudolf, considers particularly appropriate since for him it constitutes another “day of infamy.”

The recommendations of the Red Tape Task Force are supported by Supervisors Bill Horn and Ron Roberts, under whose auspices the task force was created last April.

According to the lawsuit the Board of Supervisors was provided with a copy of additional documentation from staff, “which was not made available for public inspection at the meeting,” and “that the agenda for the meeting made no indication that there would be any action even considered at the meeting, and instead merely recommended receiving and direction staff to evaluate the report, the Board decided to implement the Recommendations that it had already secretly received from staff…”

Both allegations, if proved, could constitute Brown Act violations, and might force the Board of Supervisors to go back to square one on going forward with adopting the task force’s recommendations, which the board is scheduled to vote on Feb. 29.

A Public Records Act request by The Roadrunner disclosed the names of the task force members.

They include:
• Paul Ecke III, owner of Ecke Ranch, which sells poinsettias.
• Mike Edwards, attorney and partner with Byron & Edwards APC., which represents architects, engineers and other construction professionals, according to its company profile.
• Cindy Eldred, attorney of the Law Office of Cynthia L. Eldred, which, according to its Web site specializes “in land use and environmental law, real estate and business transactions.”
• Ivan Holler, chairman. Holler was at one time a senior staff officer for Supervisor Horn Holler also served as Deputy Director of the San Diego Dept. of Planning & Land Use.
• Mike Reynolds, of Mike Reynolds Communities, builders of “more than 3,500 homes in Southern California and Arizona,” according to its Web site.
• Tom Story, vice president of development for Sunroad Enterprises, a 30-year old, privately-owned company that specializes in the management and development of office buildings.
• Steve Wragg of RBF Consulting, whose company profile lists it as is “one of the Nation's leading planning, design and construction firms.”
• Jim Boylan, CEO of Balboa Pacific Corp., which designs waste to energy systems. Boylan is also principal of PathFinders Organizational Effectiveness Consulting.

The composition of the task force complies with criteria established by the motion by Horn and Roberts, i.e. ““an independent task force comprised of land use experts in areas such as engineering, architecture and planning.”

The county staffer assigned to the task force was Megan Jones of the Land Use & Environmental Group (LUEG).

Presentations were made to the group by David Sibbet, Planning Manager, DPLU; Rich Grunow, Chief, DPLU; Vince Nicoletti, Chief, DPLU; David Lindsay, Group IT Manager, LUEG; Rick Lantis, LUEG Program Manager, DPW; Ed Sinsay, Project Manager, DPW; and Claudia Anzures, Chief Deputy, County Counsel.

According to Jones, “all agendas were posted a minimum of 72 hours in advance of the meetings per the Brown Act requirements. The meetings were held on the 3rd floor of the County Operations Center (COC) at 5500 Overland Dr. in Kearney Mesa in the Large Conference Room. There were two instances when the meetings were held in other locations - the initial meeting was held at the County Administration Center (1600 Pacific Hwy) and one meeting was held on the 2nd floor of the COC, same building when there was a conflict with room reservations.”

TO BE CONTINUED