The Selectboard had a short agenda tonight, but it was not all dollars and cents for a change. The board heard from the Harris Hill Ski Jump people and approved a torchlight parade. There was a quick little update on the VY Relicensing process. And local citizens announced a conference to combat racism here in the Brattleboro area. But the big topic was the DRB and On The Record review.

For some time now, the Development Review Board under Chair Craig Miskovich has been anxious to get approval for a procedural change called On The Record Review. Under this change, the quasi-judicial body that is the DRB will be a little more judicial — witnesses will be required to be sworn in, the proceedings taped, and the board will have to produce courtroom-quality written findings in the event of an appeal.

Not everyone was in favor of it. Spoon Agave, who is on the DRB, said that under On The Record review, the local DRB hearing is the citizens’ only chance to weigh in as interested persons. If meetings are given the normal amount of notice — 24 hours — residents who are not “abutters” may not even know about a hearing until it’s too late. Dora Bouboulis also felt that the notice requirement needed to be addressed.

Environmental Court Judge Tom Durkins was on hand, and while non-committal as to how the board should vote, did say, among other things, that issues surrounding adequate notice to citizens could and should be addressed.

The Selectboard voted 4-1 to approve On The Record review with Rich Garant the only hold out. He asked for and did not receive a continuance from the board to make sure concerns about better notification were addressed prior to a vote.

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Chair Dick DeGray offered condolences to Peter Cooper and his family on the death of Gail Cooper. DeGray called Gail an “unsung hero” of town, someone always willing to help make Brattleboro better.

DeGray also congratulated the BUHS Band, who had their Main St parade a couple weeks ago.

And he noted that “we do have races” for the three Selectboard seats being contested this year. Dora Bouboulis is running for the one year seat, against John Allen and Jesse Corum, and George Harvey for the three year seat, against Dick DeGray.

Town manager Barb Sondag gave her remarks, reminding people to check out the schedule for Winter Carnival which runs for ten days, starting February 20. She also said, vis a vis snow, that she was aware that streets were getting “narrow” in some places, and that Public Works was out there trying to move it out. She said they were working on a number of streets south of Canal Street right now.

Finally, she congratulated the Brattleboro Police Department on their “big drug bust” over the weekend. Chief Wrinn later revealed that the entire bust including overtime had been paid for by a grant.

Sondag also had an interesting update on “stimulus” money, which she said may not be forthcoming at all, at least not on the local level. She said that the word she was getting was that money funneled to states would be used to plug budget gaps, while towns would be forced to apply as usual to the Federal Highway Administration — for which they were unlikely to qualify. Rich Garant was surprised and dismayed at this news.

During Public Participation, Paul Cameron, the town Energy Coordinator, invited renters and homeowners to apply for a free energy assessment, to be conducted by trained, local volunteers. Participants will get a list of ways to make their homes more energy efficient, and will also get some nice freebies — low flow shower heads, compact fluorescent bulbs, and programmable thermostats. Interested persons should call Paul at 251-8135.

Larry Bloch announced that BABB has installed a water cooler in the River Garden, which is open 7 days a week.

As Liquor Commissioners, the board approved a second class liquor license for McNeill’s brewery so they can sell kegs and “seconds” from their north Brattleboro location. Sondag quipped that it was a great town where you could buy seconds of Ben & Jerry’s and beer... McNeill’s will also be supplying the brew at the Harris Hill “Brattleboro” Ski Jump on the 14th.

Future Search Conference

Planners for the Future Search Conference talked about the anti-racism conference they’re giving this weekend. The conference will be a three day event in which a diverse group of participants from across Brattleboro and surrounding towns will talk about race, with the goal of producing an action plan for the future. Planners said that the conference grew out of the community’s response to the racism incidents at Brattleboro Union High School two summers ago. This was an attempt to follow through on that energy.

Said Julie Cunningham, “The community was disturbed by those incidents in a way I’ve not seen before.” She said she was hoping that the conference would spur further community action.

Sondag said that racism isn’t just a school problem but a community problem. She said also that Martha O’Connor will be attending the conference as representative from the Selectboard.

Harris Hill Ski Jump

Reps from the Harris Hill Ski Jump were on hand to talk about plans for this year’s ski jumping weekend. Before they began, someone walked up and presented Dick DeGray with a ceremonial green cowbell.

The Harris Hill folks thanked the town for its support and for their kickoff grant of $35,000 almost five years ago. They said that they’ve raised in all $590,000 to refurbish the ski jump to FIS standards. She said that thanks to all who helped, the town has a 90 meter FIS-approved hill, which they are calling the Brattleboro Ski Jump. It will be able to host international events in the future, which they think will be a boon to Brattleboro.

This year’s competition will have 27 jumpers from America and Europe, the first of which will be hometown boy Spencer Knickerbocker.

Andrea Livermore of BABB announced a rewards program for ski jump attendees, inviting them downtown for special deals at downtown shops. Look for your rewards invitation on the back of your ticket.

In honor of Ski Jump weekend and jumpers past and present, the event organizers asked permission for a torchlight parade, to be held Friday, February 13. The parade was approved 5-0.

DRB Request For “On The Record” Review

Craig Miskovich, chair of the Development Review Board, pleaded his case for approval of On The Record review to govern all DRB proceedings. He said he wanted to introduce the topic because “things may devolve into discussions and debate,” alluding to his appearance before a previous board on this topic. That board refused approval of the procedural change, on the grounds that it would impair the abiity of citizens to weigh in on town development matters.

The reason Miskovich, and some if not all DRB members, say they want On The Record review is because it gives more weight to their own process and findings should a decison come up for appeal before the state Environmental Court. Presently, Brattleboro and all but 12 other Vermont towns, have their appeals conducted “de novo” which means that a new hearing is held at the state level. Under On The Record review, the Environmental Court would review the DRB’s evidence and findings, and make a decision as to whether or not the DRB decided correctly.

Miskovich and others referred to the procedural change as a matter of “local control,” arguing that conducting a fresh hearing upon appeal rendered moot the “good work” the DRB had done already. He said that issues the prior Selectboard had about adequate citizen participation had been addressed by the DRB and that for the last 18 months, the DRB has operated in a matter almost wholly consistent with On The Record review. He said that he has received no complaints and that he anticipates none.

Miskovich also said that with regard to concerns that citizens would not have enough time to react to a new project under existing rules for notification, that they had addressed those as well by being “patient” and willing to grant extensions if people ask for them at the hearing.

In order to fully implement On The Record, Miskovich said they’d need to do technical training, get better taping apparatus to record hearings, do a better job of collecting evidence, write better findings to “withstand the scrutiny of the Environmental Court,” and make people aware that the change is being made.

Spoon Agave said that most citizens would get no more than a few days notice of any such hearings, and that under On The Record review, citizens need to be prepared because there is no second chance for input. He said there was nothing in the proposal to create a better notification system so that people would be aware, saying that there was “nothing on iBratt” about DRB meetings now.

From a citizen’s standpoint, he said, it pits ordinary citizens, who take longer to get up to speed, against lawyers who have had weeks if not months to prepare. As to Miskovich’s contention that the DRB has addressed participation concerns by being generous with extensions, Agave said that it needed to be written into the board’s procedures to be binding.

Agave suggested that time be taken to examine the issue more carefully and make sure concerns are addressed.

Jesse Corum asked when the change would take effect and was told June 1, 2009.

Dora Bouboulis, a DRB alternate, concurred that a big problem was inadequate notification of residents, saying the system was stacked if favor of applicants. She felt that smaller projects were more likely to suffer for lack of notification, while with larger projects, word would get out anyway.

Dora took issue with Miskovich over the granting of extensions on DRB hearings, saying that sometimes people ask for extensions and the board decides to hear a case anyway.

Several other DRB members spoke in favor of On The Record review. Said Marta Bernbaum, “We hear a lot about how people feel about the land, how they walk their dog there but they have to understand that we’re thinking about parking, lighting, stormwater runoff.” She said that people can affect those things — parking and the like — but that “feelings don’t hold up” at the DRB or Environmental Court.

Tom Durkin, one of two Environmental Court judges, said that it was important to keep in perspective the scale of the problem the DRB was seeking to solve. He said that he believed there was one appeal pending from Brattleboro, and that there was never more than two or three. He also stressed that most land use decisions are in fact made locally by local DRBs, because only a small fraction of them are appealed to the Environmental Court.

He felt that the process had to be fair and that due process had to be granted — proper notice and proper ability to be heard. To the DRB, Durkin said that when people are prepared, the DRB is able to render better decisions. Otherwise, he said, they will be appealed. And he said, the best decisions are where neighbors are talking to the applicant and problems worked out in advance.

Rich Garant, who was on the board which originally voted against On The Record, said that nothing had happened to change his mind. He read from a letter written by former DRB chair David Gartenstein, saying that On The Record would be “solving a problem that didn’t exist.” The letter went on to say that On The Record complicated the process for small property owners, making a lawyer more necessary, and that the downside outweighed the benefits. Garant closed by saying that he didn’t support the motion, but would support tabling it for further discussion and addressing of problems.

Miskovich sought to discredit the Gartenstein letter by asking when it was written. Garant said June of 2007, and Miskovich said that that was exactly when the DRB changed their procedures to address those complaints. He was not specific on which changes or how they had addressed Gartenstein’s specific points.

Martha O’Connor said that people who didn’t understand the letters they received (property abutters are notified by mail) should seek help and find out what the letters mean. She said it was everyone’s responsibility to find out for themselves about matters that affect them.

John Allen said the issue had been kicking around for a couple years and it was time to approve it, although he confessed that he lacked a legal mind and had a tough time making heads or tails of it.

Jesse said he had received information in his “packlet,” corrected himself, then went on to say that although he had had questions at the outset, that Miskovich had answered them all in just his introduction. He felt that the conversion to On The Record would be easy, and that he had “no problem going forward.” Then he said it again — “we’re in a position to go forward.” And then again: “Nothing to gain by waiting.”

DeGray said he would vote for the motion as well, but that he would like to see notification and process issues worked out.

The board approved On The Record review by a vote of 4-1 with Garant against.

Appointment of New Zoning Administrator

Brain Bannon was appointed new Zoning Adminstrator with much good-natured chuckling from Planning Director Rod Francis. Bannon has eight years in Brattleboro, loves the town, and has a background in economic geography which he says will be helpful in his zoning administration.

Towing Service Policy

The Brattleboro Police Department got approval of their new internal policy on towing services, aka “wreckers.” There will be three lists — heavy duty, light duty, and AAA. The wreckers will be obliged to pay a modest fee to be on the list. Chief Wrinn said there would be a meeting of the police with all the wreckers to go over the new policy.

Chief Wrinn was queried by Martha O’Connor and the two talked past each other for several minutes.

O’Connor: Will this be different than before? Remeber the big uproar about this policy years ago?

Wrinn: Was it 1995?

O’Connor: I’m not sure. So you’ll be talking to them?

Wrinn: This policy is finalized. We want to meet with them to go over it.

O’Connor: Do they have input up front? Because if not, we’ll be right back where we were in 1995, or whenever it was...

Wrinn: The policy is finished. We want to go over it with them. If they don’t want to be in the rotation, they don’t have to be.

John Allen then jumped in: “You’re happy with this? Because that’s all I care about.” Wrinn said yes, the Police were happy with the policy. Sondag said not all the wreckers would be though.

There appeared to be no vote on the matter, probably because the BPD doesn’t need it to adopt internal policy.

ENVY Intervenor Status Update

Anticlimactically last was town attorney Bob Fisher’s update on the town’s observation of the VY relicensing proceedings. Fisher said that while the Windham Regional Commission had declined to be for or against the upgrade itself, it had set some conditions on relicensing that they wanted required. He read a number of conditions including cost analysis for decommissioning, rate cuts for Vermonters, a reduction in spent fuel, and work on dry cask storage.

Fisher explained that VY has more spent fuel than it has dry cask storage to accommodate it.

Only Corum responded to the report, saying that it was “informative and helpful,” and that he now feels vindicated in the board’s decision “to monitor and not do anything else.” He felt that the Windham Regional Commission’s recommendations adequately dealt with the issues.