The second Pre-hearing Conference was held yesterday morning. The new schedule was necessary because some timber industry folks challenged on the Reconveyance.
Three interesting things came to light, one old and one new and one a little of both.
First, when challenged, the County is supposed to make a complete record of the material used to arrive at a decision available to the challengers. What the County did include in the record was a limited amount of material. It doesn't even include the minutes of the Council meetings last year when the County requested reconveyance and the intertrust transfer. The record the county introduced, aside from two or three documents, included nothing prior to July of last year. I will even have to apply to the Hearings Board even to have the SEPA document included. Some sparks flew over that between the industry challengers and Royce Buckingham who is handling the case for the County.
Second, Royce let it slip he had asked the Department of Natural Resources to intervene in the case or, at least, that is how I took his comments. Interesting the County is recruiting interveners. Actually, I think that one may backfire on the County but we will see.
Last, it seems the timber people and the County have agreed to continue the discussion regarding some kind of settlement. The County had turned me flat down on a settlement that would include the county doing the things necessary to legally rezone the property so, I wonder what the alternatives might be. In my view if the County is not willing to do the job properly then the challenge should continue. We'll see.
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