From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

I’m back! With the high-larious SiltBOTs highlights from last Monday (6/9).

When last we visited those wacky SiltBOTs, they were still struggling with the cantankerous concept of conflict of interest. They just can’t seem to get their minds around it. This week was no different.

The Mayor and Bobby both stated they would have a conflict of interest with Silt Discount Liquor license renewal on the Agenda. Tod asked them to explain the reasons for their conflicts. The Mayor said he would have a conflict because Rick Aluise ran against him in the last election. Bobby said he had a conflict because of the pending lawsuit against the Town by another previous liquor license applicant. Attorney Duran said that neither of those constituted a conflict of interest.

Wow. He gets it. He really, really gets it.

Because you see, in order to have a conflict of interest with a liquor license renewal a SiltBOT or his/her spouse would have to own or work for a competing liquor store, or own or work for the actual store applying for renewal. Or if he owned the building or supplied the liquor, or something like that. Remember! A conflict of interest means a business and/or financial interest.

That WILL be on the quiz!

So anyway, Dave and Bobby did not have to recuse themselves from the Silt Discount Liquor license renewal, which passed unanimously.

Funny how during the campaign Dave was going around telling anybody who would listen, that because Rick Aluise had been Town Administrator, he would have too many conflicts of interest to be Mayor. He said Rick would have to recuse himself all the time – which wasn’t true. Since the election however, Dave has recused himself from one or two Agenda items at every single meeting – except for the meeting he didn’t attend because? He had too many conflicts of interest.

Dave thinks a person is not qualified to be Mayor if he has too many conflicts of interest. So Dave ought to resign.

Now boys and girls, have we all learned something about conflict of interest? I certainly have. It would seem that a certain SiltBOT is in the habit of diluting the true concept of conflict of interest, thereby causing confusion and arbitrary enforcement, for his own purposes.

But on to the really funny stuff to which the title refers …

In the previous episode, the Mayor shed crocodile tears for Stillwater’s demise. This week there was an Agenda item for a Request by Stillwater Commercial LLC for a Sketch Plan approval and PUD zoning on 51.13-acres of the Dixon annexation. When the item came up on the Agenda, the Mayor interrupted and steered the bus in a whole nother direction.

First Dave complained that since he only received the PUD sketch plan a few days ago he hardly had time to go over it in detail and the Staff should give the Board more time for review.

Well duh. Isn’t that the whole purpose of a sketch plan approval? To give the Board more time to go over the details?

Then Dave stood up and handed out sheets of paper to the other SiltBOTs and the Staff. Evidently he didn’t have time to review the sketch plan but he had plenty of time to write a 3-page diatribe. He claimed he objected to the procedure, meaning the preliminary approval of a sketch plan. I can’t remember the exact order of things, but Bobby and Duran both called for Point of Order. Duran explained that the Mayor’s paperwork should have been presented to Staff prior to the meeting along with a request for an Agenda change.

Then Dave got all yelly and berated Staff. Seeing him in such a lather made for extreme funny. LOL time. An entertaining and heated discussion ensued and even though the Mayor was completely Out of Order he drove the bus into the ditch anyway.

BTW, here’s a new SiltBOTs drinking game for those of you who watch on the TV. Every time the Mayor begins a sentence with “Correct me if I’m wrong”, you have to take a drink. Then try to decipher if he’s wrong and whether anyone actually corrects him. The drunker you get, the funnier it gets.

Anyway, back to the discussion. In so many words, the Staff (meaning Town Planner Gale Carmoney and Attorney Duran) explained to the Mayor that the sketch plan approval process was part of the procedure outlined in Silt Municipal Code and they were simply adhering to a process that has been followed in the past while at the same time setting forth guidelines for handling future applications. Duran then pointed out the need for setting guidelines for other applications – such as Autumn Ridge. But Dave got all pissy and railed about precedent. He claimed he just wasn’t comfortable with the precedent they were setting with this process. You know, the one where they all follow the Code and play by the rules.

When the dust settled, what it all boiled down to was the Mayor objecting to the Staff following the guidelines set forth in the Silt Municipal Code regarding a sketch plan approval on a PUD that contains a request for a zoning change. How weird is this?  Dave’s Autumn Ridge project is ALSO a PUD that contains a request for a zoning change. Except so far it has not appeared that the process will be handled in the same way as other PUDs have been handled in the past. Fr’instance, the Autumn Ridge sketch plan has not been presented to the Board for preliminary approval.

The purpose in a developer presenting a sketch plan for preliminary approval is that it gives the Trustees a sneak preview into what’s coming and it also gives them an opportunity to ask questions, voice concerns and objections, and recommend changes before the PUD and zoning change is presented at a Public Hearing. Assuming the Board members see it as their duty to represent the citizens – and I realize I’m going out on a limb here but hang with me – then it would follow that in viewing a sketch plan, the Board members would not only take into consideration the Municipal Code, but they would also anticipate the questions and concerns of the public.

In a perfect world, of course.

And Silt is far and away from a perfect world.

For now anyway, in Monday’s SiltBOTs episode the result was –

Staff: 1

Mayor: ZERO

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