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Approved 12/3/14 9 431 Bryant Warren: You said if the Planning Board wanted to be at the informational meeting and they had questions 432 about it and they wanted staff to bring it to the BOCC during the quasi-judicial hearing, would that be a 433 recommendation? As long as it is presented to the BOCC. 434 435 James Bryan: There is a difference between hearing it and using it as a basis for the decision. 436 437 Lisa Stuckey: Do we clarify things or muddy the waters? They can hear it but not base anything on it. 438 439 James Bryan: Attorneys will do that. Give you background information, sort of context for it. 440 441 Tony Blake: Even presenting new facts that are not in evidence, that is not sufficient? 442 443 James Bryan: Right. 444 445 Lydia Wegman: A recommendation could be considered by the BOCC if I understand correctly. 446 447 Paul Guthrie: Are staff communications directly to the BOCC privileged? 448 449 James Bryan: No. 450 451 Paul Guthrie: So they are considered just another testifier? 452 453 James Bryan: Anytime that staff sends anything to the BOCC it is called a work product and under the public records 454 of law that is available. If it is quasi-judicial, staff isn’t supposed to be talking to the Board about the particular 455 question at hand. You deal with it by divulging the communication at the hearing so everyone knows. 456 457 Paul Guthrie: The recommendation of staff to the BOCC has to be done as a witness format? 458 459 James Bryan: Yes. Again, the statutes aren’t the best in the world. The conventional thinking is that you have a 460 board that acts as judges and anyone there has to be a party to it. 461 462 Maxecine Mitchell: My understanding from what I’ve heard, legally we really have no say but we can put information 463 out that would make the BOCC look more in depth at what they are presented. I am ok to say if the Planning Board 464 makes the recommendation. I guess I would go with before. If the Planning Board continues to make 465 recommendations, we don’t really need to be at the public hearing meeting. 466 467 Bryant Warren: If we get the information from the informational meeting, we make recommendations to staff and 468 they can give it to them. I don’t see the need for us to be at the public hearing. 469 470 Andrea Rohrbacher: For question one, I would say, yes, we still should make a recommendation and for question 471 two it should be before the public hearing and attendance at the official meeting where all the testimony is being 472 presented would be optional for the Planning Board. 473 474 Paul Guthrie: On one hand, I think one of the positive roles of this Board is that it can begin to articulate the 475 sentiment of both itself and people it deals with on issues of public concern. On the other hand, the way this system 476 is set up the way we have been talking about, the only way we can do it is at a very early stages of the process or 477 outside the confines of this Board and this Board’s responsibility. I don’t think that helps the public decision process 478 at all. I have great problems with the recommendation but I am not sure there is anything else to do. 479 480 Buddy Hartley: In the process where we haven’t got to the public hearing yet, we would have seen the application, 481 correct? 482 483