PORT ANGELES — The City Council will try patching the truncated Planning Commission tonight by changing the board’s selection process to allow temporary or interim appointments in emergencies.
The change would allow the appointment of a former city councilman and planning commissioner, Jim Hulett, giving the seven-person board a fourth member and a sitting quorum.
Hulett was a city councilman from 1993 to 2001 and also served 10 years on the Planning Commission.
City Manager Mike Quinn also is contacting other former planning commissioners to see if they are interested in serving temporarily until the board’s four vacancies can be filled through the usual selection process.
He hopes to have at least one more name for consideration at tonight’s meeting, Quinn wrote in a memo to the council.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
Without a quorum
The city’s seven-member Planning Commission was left without a quorum when members Linda Nutter, Charles Schramm and Bob Philpott resigned Dec. 8 to protest a departmental reorganization plan that the City Council approved.
The reorganization changes the community development director position — which also serves as the Planning Commission’s secretary — to a deputy director position underneath a newly expanded community and economic development director.
Combined with Dylan Honnold’s earlier resignation due to moving outside the city limit, the planning board was left without a majority.
The three remaining planning commissioners are chairman Fred Hewins, Len Rasmussen and Fred Norton.
Rasmussen is on vacation and unavailable for comment on his future with the Planning Commission. Norton said before leaving on vacation that he was undecided.
Hewins has stated he doesn’t support this City Council, but as chairman feels an obligation to remain, unless everyone leaves.
