According to a Memo from City Manager Mike Daly, over the last few years some significant legal decisions have been published ruling that a Councilperson (or Planning Commissioner) can be disqualified from voting on an issue if a certain level of bias toward a decision is indicated by a council person prior to the issue being afforded its procedural process. Daly indicates that the most significant case that pertains to this situation is Nasha LLC v. City of Los Angeles, 125 Ca.App.4th 470 in 2004. The general conclusion of the case was that a decision maker must be disqualified for “an unacceptable probability of actual bias” prior to a project’s due process review. Daly also poses that the Nasha case raised First Amendment concerns from the public entities, as it particularly relates to expressing opinions during election campaigns. The League of California cities had submitted a request to de-publish the Nasha decision.

Ultimately, this request was denied by the courts last year, thus the decision stands as the precedent for future legal challenges, according to Daly. The Council Members and Planning Commissioners were informed by the City’s legal counsel, Tom Gibson, some two months ago about the Nasha decision ramifications and the potential consequences associated with being perceived as pre-judging a project. City Manager Mike Daly says that, “They (the city council and planning commission members) have to be careful about; expressing their opinions, as well as, how they express them, so they don’t appear to have already made a decision before it comes before them at a public hearing.” For example, the Council would have to be very choosy in their comments concerning Big Box stores as they can be viewed as directly pertaining to Home Depot. Also to appear on the agenda is an Easement Deed for as Retention Basin that could help alleviate some of the drainage issues for the Pine Meadows and Jackson View Subdivisions, located off Scottsville Rd in South Jackson. Apparently, Parcel D in the Pine Meadows subdivision was originally intended to be dedicated to the City of Jackson for use as a sediment retention pond.

 However, with the severe drainage issues facing both Pine Meadows and Jackson View subdivisions, City Engineer Roark Weber has proposed construction of a larger, single retention basin, to serve both projects, on an adjacent property which is owned by William Bassett. Staff has agreed that Parcel D would be retained by the developers of Pine Meadows, with the City Council approval, if both developers agreed to construct a larger, single retention basin on Bassett’s property. The retention basin has been constructed and all the conditions requested by Basset have been met according to staff. Basset has agreed to sign over the Easement Deed to the City of Jackson. The Easement Deed that will appear on tonight’s agenda is first in a series of three deeds to be recorded for the establishment of the retention basin for the City.