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Bruce Corcoran
Can Strawberry Get a Fair Hearing Before the Board of Supervisors?
I delivered these comments to the Board of Supervisors during Open Time for Public Expression at the October 20, 2015 meeting, as a continuation of my previous statement, because Supervisor Rice had cut me off at the October 13, 2015 Bently Holdings/Main General Hospital hearing and prohibited me from completing my prepared remarks.
Conversion
of half of Belvedere Place in Strawberry to medical office use, which currently is
prohibited, would increase traffic generation by about 1,200 trips per
day. Our congested Highway 101 and surface streets already are over-capacity now during peak hours. Do we want even more gridlock from this
proposal?
“Good Morning. Bruce Corcoran, from Strawberry.
I’d like to continue my comments about Bently Holdings. As you recall, Supervisor Rice cut me off last week.
Because I was speaking on behalf of the Strawberry Community Association, I requested the customary 5 minutes allotted for representatives of groups. I was the only speaker representing the public. The attorney for the applicant and the attorney for Marin General each spoke for three minutes. Supervisor Rice cut me off at 4 and a half.
This type of imperious behavior by President Rice got me thinking: Can Strawberry ever get a fair hearing before this Board? It seemed to me that all of you already had made up your minds, and you didn’t want to hear any public comments.
You have shown extraordinary bias in favor of the applicant and Marin General, and you have shown extraordinary disrespect for Supervisor Sears and complete disregard for Strawberry and existing administrative laws that prohibit medical office use. These biases were particularly apparent last week when Staff had drafted a Resolution to deny the application, but you ignored it and voted to continue the hearing again.
In August, you granted a continuance based on the flimsy and hopeful premise that the applicant would change his mind and agree to pay for additional traffic studies and a peer review, but the applicant has steadfastly and repeatedly refused.
You certainly did not grant a continuance based on an open-ended hope that a third party might appear and offer to fund the additional traffic studies and peer review. So by continuing the hearing again, you have broken your original contract with us.
Now a third party, Marin General, which is neither the applicant nor a current tenant, has agreed to pay a maximum of $20,000 for the peer review, but you have made no provision for who, if anyone, will pay for the additional traffic studies that Caltrans has requested.
In the meantime, Mill Valley, which will be directly impacted by traffic, questions County’s position that this project is categorically exempt from CEQA review.
Here are some facts I’ve been thinking about since last week, including some important new information:
- Supervisor Rice is the presiding officer of the Board of Supervisors this year.
- Marin General is in her District 2.
- Based on her comments and actions, she will do whatever it takes to help Marin General attain medical office use at Belvedere Place in Strawberry, which is in Supervisor Sears’s District 3.
- Len Rifkind is the attorney for Marin General.
- As of June 30th, Len Rifkind has contributed $750 (new information) to Supervisor Rice’s 2016 re-election campaign.
- As we have seen, Supervisor Rice holds great power over the outcome of the Bently Holdings/Marin General proceedings because she controls the gavel.
Let the audience judge for themselves how politics and partisanship influence the decisions of this Board, and whether or not Strawberry can get a fair hearing.”
For the video recording of my comments at the Bently Holdings hearing on October 13, 2015, during which I criticized the Board of Supervisors for poor governance, and Supervisor Rice cut me off, please go to this County Website link:
My comments begin at 04:10:00: http://marin.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=...
For the video recording of my comments during Open Time for Public Expression on October 20, 2015, please go to this County Website link:
My comments, which are virtually identical to the text in my blog above, begin at 00:28:00: http://marin.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=33&clip_id=7776
Thank you for watching.