|
|
Two weeks ago, the Cook County Board of Adjustment (BOA) decided on a case involving a state legislator, a split decision but nonetheless one that apparently raised eyebrows locally. Following that decision, Joe Friedrichs, a WTIP reporter contacted me, as chair of that board, for an explanation of that vote. Joe emphasized that the interview was about how and why we made that decision and that his personal view was not at all a part of it. On that basis I consented to the interview. Contrary to his pledge to be open and fair when he pieced the discussion together, he managed to bookend the conversation with all the reasons he thought it was a bad decision, how the applicant had violated every rule the county has in place and how the applicant was unworthy of any consideration. While I can agree with Joe that Mr. Mortenson may be a crass intemperate boor who cares not at all about local laws and has a disdain for complying with local officials, the case we were judging was not about him, it was about a land use application, nothing more.
The BOA is an established legal authority, the final word on variances and other abnormalities regarding local zoning codes. Those codes are established for a variety of conditions to protect the county ´s land resources and to establish some uniformity in the uses of those lands, they are there for a reason. Sometimes conditions exist that do not quite fit into the rules and our board is there to arbitrate between what the rule states, and the rights of a landowner to fair use of their land. We are trained by experienced legal advisors and we have a set of guidelines to help us interpret the conditions, we do not operate in a vacuum, and we take our positions seriously. We are not bound to the personality or position of the applicants; we must treat all with the same degree of respect no matter how onerous they may sometimes be; our decisions must be restricted to the facts on the land use. Such was the case two weeks go. Joe however failed to follow his own stated intentions, he was not open and fair, he injected his own opinion and he tried to paint me and other members of the board as being hypocrites for ignoring the personality of the applicant. He stated at the beginning all the despicable things this lout had committed, ignored factual elements of the case, and repeated the negative character assassination at the closing of the interview. That was insulting to me, insulting to the Board and County and insulting to the listening public. Joe owes us all an apology.
Jerry Hiniker,
Grand Marais
Leave a Reply