Davis stumbles through IV 4 ruts

Politics has entered the cratered streets of Inverness Villages 4.
​
First, the news: The board, on a 3-2 vote Tuesday, killed an ordinance designed to require expensive stormwater collection systems for anyone in IV 4 who adds an “impervious surface” to their house. Typically, that’s concrete or rock.

While that would stop new homes from pouring rainwater into the awful streets, it would also require the current residents to install the same expensive system if they wanted to add something like a pad for their generator.

---

Residents who have had it up to here with the county’s solutions hated the idea. Every single one who showed up at Tuesday’s public hearing asked commissioners to vote it down.

So three commissioners — Rebecca Bays, Ruthie Davis Schabach, and Diana Finegan — said no. 

With the defeat, the county’s year-long building moratorium in IV 4 comes to an end today.

End of news report. Now, onto commentary.

The vote is a stunning rebuke to Chairman Holly Davis, who saw fellow commissioners take the side of residents over hers. It suggests what I’ve felt all along — four commissioners were never really keen on the moratorium or where it was headed.

Let’s break it down.

Lord knows I love my IV 4 pals, but that development is a political trainwreck. No good comes to any commissioner who dives into that pit, which is probably why it was ignored for so long.

Davis, to her credit, took that dive. And quickly learned it was a quagmire. Simple government solutions that fit every other category didn’t fit this one. So much was out of the county’s control, and definitely outside our expertise.

I remember pressing Davis in February or March last year about an IV 4 moratorium. Why is the county still issuing building permits for new houses when it knows each house adds to the disaster?

Her answer: We can’t stop permits.

A month later we could. Except the county didn’t call it a moratorium. I forget the exact terminology, but the idea was to force the large landowner to sell his lots for drainage.

Let’s stop right there.

That is where the problems started. We had a moratorium, but no direction other than a vague notion of getting necessary drainage lots for cheap. Commissioners left the details to Davis, and every time one of them — Bays or Finegan come to mind — started asking questions, the conversation went nowhere.

Look. I’ve written about county government since I was a wee child. I can see an organized plan in action and one that’s kinda bouncing from here to there with little more than hope as its guide. Time eventually catches up with No. 2.

It’s not unusual for commissioners to step aside and allow a colleague to champion a cause without getting too involved. What they don’t like though, is the feeling that it’s turning south.

It started with the MSBU study that pegged assessment costs at $109,000 per lot, based on the world’s worst-case scenario. First, county officials hid results from the public, then they were presented during a contentious public meeting where residents left grumbling with more questions than answers.

Commissioners missed a huge opportunity. That’s when they could have stepped in and said, “Whoa, what the heck is going on here? How did we get to that number? What can be done to reduce it?”

Instead, the four backed away. The moratorium clock kept ticking and nothing was getting done.

Then came the decision to red-tag all current building permits in IV 4. Lots of discussion, and Davis received a reluctant 4-1 vote (Schlabach voted no). Two days later, the county administrator said the direction was illegal. Davis apparently had not cleared this idea through the county’s own lawyer.

And now, this last vote. The moratorium is a year old, and Davis herself said the county faced a “legitimate” lawsuit if it went another day. This ordinance was her last chance to get something done in IV 4 before home construction resumes.

One thing Davis told residents Tuesday really bothered me:

“I fail very seldom in my life. So far, I have failed to fix it for you all.”

Here’s the deal. It’s not Davis’ problem to fix. It never was. There are five commissioners for a reason. I don’t recall Davis ever asking colleagues, “Boy, I’m stumped. Do you have any ideas?”

Even from my seat in the back of the room, it seemed that the vote really stunned her. IV 4 residents got a victory, I guess, though it seems rather hollow.

This whole thing stinks. It just stinks.

Join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Enjoying the blog? Please consider supporting it at Venmo, PayPal, or Patreon.