Meeting ends in assualt charges

A meeting with Mineral County Commissioners to discuss the future of the county’s planning office turned ugly Wednesday when an angry developer physically confronted county planner Tim Read.

“Has anyone called Ollie St. Clair and said ‘I apologize, I had misconduct in the field?’ No,” said developer Ollie St. Clair at Wednesday’s meeting.

St. Clair is part of a group of developers that have filed complaints against the county’s planning office and its head, Tim Read.

Wednesday’s meeting was the fourth of several meetings to address the complaints first aired last month when attorney Lance Jasper spoke out against Read and the planning office along with a group of landowners.

Jasper accused Read of using obstructionist tactics and being “anti-development.”

In a meeting held earlier this month, several Mineral County residents came out to defend Read. Mineral County Planning Board Chair Denley Loge said that Read is merely following regulations that have already been set forth and he has done nothing to stop people from developing.

Many of those with complaints said that Read is largely overworked because he is both the county’s planner and sanitarian. Ron Warren suggested at a June 19 meeting that the county contract out their planning work and relegate Read to the position of sanitarian.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the commissioners announced the first steps they plan to take regarding the complaints filed against the planning office.

Their first step was to provide developers with a Planning Department Initial Contact Report, developed by Read, to record what was said at meetings with the planning department. Since many of the documented complaints claimed that Read’s demeanor during meetings was hostile and he had treated developers like their projects would never pass muster, the commissioners felt that this would provide a record of exactly what has happened at meetings.

The documentation will include written statements about what was said in the meeting by Read and the developer as well as some clerical information about the proposed development.

Commissioner Judy Stang also encouraged developers to contact the commissioners directly if they felt they were being mistreated by the planning office.

“We want to make sure everyone’s getting a fair shake,” Stang said.

She said that if people came to them immediately with concerns then they could handle things faster and there would not be a buildup of animosity towards the planning office again.

The commissioners also announced that they were advertising for a new employee who would be contracted part-time to work on subdivision applications and lighten Read’s workload.

The advertisement for the new employee, who will be paid $18 per hour, expires on Aug. 8. The commissioners hope to have someone in the position by then.

After discussion of the new plans, many developers at the meeting said that they felt the commissioners had not done enough to fix the situation.

Rick Jasper asked the commissioners why they had not taken Warren’s advice and contracted out Read’s planning duties.

Stang said that the county could not afford to pay for that kind of change immediately and it would take a great deal of time to get something like that set up. She added that hiring a part-time employee to take some of Read’s developments off of his hands was a step in that direction and if need be they could always hire a contracted planning firm in the future.

Several developers, including St. Clair, asked why the commissioners had not taken action against Read in light of all of the complaints filed against him.

“Well I think as long as we keep Mr. Read in his position everybody’s going to feel threatened,” St. Clair said.

Mineral County Attorney Shaun Donovan said that in order for Read to be fired from that position the commissioners would have had to investigate each and every complaint made to determine its validity.

Read has responded to the complaints in a document and he said that he feels that he has not done anything illegal or malicious.

Donovan said that while the commissioners are not merely “sweeping the problem under a rug,” they are taking the actions that they feel are appropriate and will prevent these situations from coming up in the future.

“We don’t have a 100 percent solution. Basically what we have today is a solution that is there for you and can be worked on,” said commissioner Clark Conrow.

St. Clair felt that the commissioner’s response was not nearly severe enough and after more than two hours of meeting and discussing with the commissioners he directed his complaints directly at Read.

“Is he calling me a liar?” St. Clair asked Donovan. “Is that what this commission and you are telling me? I want to know if somebody is calling me a liar.”

Donovan told St. Clair that neither Read, nor the commissioners were calling him a liar and St. Clair continued to raise his voice.

“Do we have a problem because we [Mike Galloway and St. Clair] are both Native Americans? Is it further than that, Tim?” St. Clair asked.

Donovan told St. Clair that the problems had nothing to do with his race and as Donovan spoke, Read grabbed his papers and stood up to leave the meeting. When he passed by St. Clair’s seat, St. Clair stood up and blocked his exit from the room and began to accost him. St. Clair swore and continued to block his exit.

Read made his way past St. Clair and into the hallway, St. Clair followed him and he could be heard shouting expletives in the hallway.

A few moments later Read could be seen from the commissioners’ doorway walking down the hallway with Mineral County Sheriff Hugh Hopwood.

St. Clair was cited for misdemeanor assault and appeared in front of Justice Wanda James Monday.

Jasper said that it appears the only avenue the developers have left to get justice for how they feel Read has treated them would be through legal means.

Donovan said that while he hopes it does not come to that this is the commissioners’ decision and they plan to see how it works. Stang said that she encourages developers to come to the commissioners if they still have problems with the planning office and they are willing to work to make Mineral County a good place for them to work in.