ESCONDIDO: Supervisor's meeting with developer irks residents fighting cell tower

County rules not broken

By DARRYN BENNETT - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 29, 2008 8:28 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- County Supervisor Bill Horn met in August with the chief executive officer of a wireless company that had already submitted plans to build a hotly contested 50-foot-tall cell phone tower in a historical neighborhood.

Although the meeting didn't violate the county's administrative code that governs when elected officials can meet with residents and lobbyists, it did revive long-standing complaints among some of Horn's constituents that the supervisor is far more accessible to developers than residents in his district.

Horn is one of the five members on the county Board of Supervisors that will determine at a hearing in June whether Cricket Communications can build the tower and a utility box on a 1-acre site at 1245 Park Hill Lane, bordering the southeast section of Escondido.

Horn's staff confirmed Tuesday that the supervisor met Aug. 28 with Doug Hutcheson, president of Leap Wireless, Cricket's parent company, adding that there wasn't anything inappropriate or illegal about the meeting because Horn didn't discuss the project with the executive.

Residents have said the tower, which would be disguised as an artificial cypress tree, would mar the character of the 1920s-era community, obstruct views and drive down property values. They said this week they feel betrayed by Horn's meeting with Hutcheson, saying it violates his own policy of not meeting with developers who have already submitted applications for projects with county planners.

Joan Wonsley, Horn's chief of staff, has told the North County Times several times in recent interviews that the supervisor's policy is to refrain from meeting with anyone involved in a project that has been submitted to the county planning department.

Instead, she said, Horn's aides meet with anyone involved in a project and then brief the supervisor on any concerns or conflicts.

Park Hill Lane resident and former Escondido Councilwoman June Rady said that's the policy as she has understood it for years as well.

"It appears to me that Horn violated his own policy," she said Tuesday, referring to Horn's meeting with Hutcheson.

Horn could not be reached for comment, but his spokesman John Culea interpreted the policy differently this week.

He said Horn meets occasionally with people associated with projects in the county pipeline, but that he never discusses those projects during a meeting.

Either way, Culea said, the policy didn't apply to the meeting between Horn and Hutcheson.

"This was a standard meet-and-greet appointment in Supervisor Horn’s downtown office as a courtesy with the CEO of a San Diego-headquartered company," he wrote in an e-mail.

Rady said the same courtesy wasn't extended to her.

"I knew Horn wouldn't see us so I didn't even ask," she said, adding that she met instead with one of his policy advisers to talk about concerns she has about the project.

The county's administrative code for elected officials is complicated, and Senior Deputy County Counsel Claudia Anzures said most supervisors usually refrain from meeting with parties involved in land-use issues to avoid potential legal implications.

After an application is filed with the county, the five supervisors are not allowed to meet with anyone connected to the project if it requires a hearing by the Board of Supervisors.

However, some projects, such as Cricket's Park Hill Lane cell tower, aren't required to go before county supervisors for approval because they don't require any major land-use changes. In those cases, the county Planning Commission has the final say on the project unless an appeal is filed.

The county Planning Commission approved the cell tower in December, but county supervisors wound up holding a hearing on the project March 26 after Rady's neighbors, Mike and Michelle Nemeth, paid the required $500 to appeal the decision to the board.

Mike Nemeth said that legal or not, Horn's meeting with the Cricket executive showed favoritism for the company.

"It seems like another example of the good ol' boys club if you ask me," he said. "A good politician is one that has his doors open to everyone."

County supervisors continued the March 26 hearing to June 25.

Contact staff writer Darryn Bennett at (760) 740-5420 or dmbennett@nctimes.com.

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