OPINION: Good government or political retaliation?

TIM HUTCHINS

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, 1 p.m. -- By the time I arrived at the WBRT radio studio this morning for today's edition of The Brooks & Ken Show, the word was already out: Magistrate Tim Hutchins was coming by to talk about what happened at Nelson Fiscal Court this morning.

At Nelson Fiscal Court today, the members discussed the reappointment of Mike Zoeller to the Joint City-County Planning Commission.

Zoeller lives in the county's 1st District, and the magistrate in that district, Maynard Wimsett, has nominated his cousin, developer and real estate broker Harold Wimsett for that seat on the commission. Fiscal court spent quite a bit of time at today's session discussing this appointment.

This isn't a debate over Harold Wimsett's qualifications; he's been part of numerous successful developments and projects through the years as a Realtor, investor and businessman. He clearly knows his business.

The focus instead should be on why Tim Hutchins wants to boot Mike Zoeller off the planning commission.

To his credit, Hutchins pulls no punches. He said today that the commission needs "changes" because the commission has taken action that went against the wishes of Nelson Fiscal Court. He noted there were four occasions, three of which were in the past year.

One of those incidents had to do with the the commission enacting new subdivision rules -- rules that even Hutchins says the commission had the power to enact. But while he agreed the commission had a right to take the actions it has, he maintains the commission should instead have -- in all four cases -- accepted the wishes of Nelson Fiscal Court.

So no laws were broken, though it appears some politicians' egos were bruised.

When I asked Hutchins about the incidents on the air today, he admitted that there were no laws broken; the commission acted lawfully in accordance to KRS and KAR. If you dig deep enough, you will find that state law gives planning commissions the power to enact these regulations for this very reason -- to prevent politicians from having undue influence on regulations that are designed to improve communities. It's these rules that some developers -- and magistrates who are builders and developers -- might take issue with.

And yes, Tim Hutchins is involved in building and developing, there's no crime in that. He's an advocate for what he calls the "streamlining" of planning and zoning regulations, which he says will make it simpler for the small businessman.

Hutchins makes no secret about his anger over the planning commission's decisions that he believes went against the wishes of fiscal court. The commission's "sin" was apparently its arrogance: How dare they do the job they were appointed to do and ignore the pressure applied by the politicians who appoint them.

Mike Zoeller is chairman of the commission. He and the other appointees have the unenviable job of trying to preside over the county's growth. It's not an easy job, but its one the commissioners take very seriously.

On the radio today, Hutchins never gave a solid reason for not reappointing Zoeller beyond his repeated call for "change," change which Hutchins said is necessary after the commission took action on which he and Fiscal Court did not approve.

In my book that's exactly the reason Fiscal Court needs to reappoint Zoeller.

Should we condemn the members of a commission who -- in the face of political pressure -- took actions they believed were in the best interest of the entire community? The members of the commission surely know who appointed them; and in the face of eventual political retribution, the members of the commission were willing to put their appointments at risk in order to make decisions that were for the greater good of the community.

Nelson Fiscal Court had a split 3-3 vote today on the appointment, so it remains to be seen exactly what will happen. Should Zoeller or other planning commissioners lose their appointments over their "sins," I hope they will bring their backbone, character and civic-mindedness into the political arena and consider running for office.

From the looks of things, we need all the help we can get.