Planning Panels Denied Legal Aid : Vote by Supervisors Leaves Status of Groups in Limbo

County supervisors refused in closed-door session Wednesday to grant legal aid to 97 county planning groups.

The board members faced the question of whether county lawyers are required to defend the advisory groups against lawsuits filed by irate citizens disagreeing with their decisions. The issue arose after a Valley Center resident filed suit recently against two members of the planning group there. The two had requested legal representation from the county.

Last week, both Valley Center and Fallbrook planning groups adjourned their meetings without acting on full agendas of planning matters, awaiting a positive action by supervisors. Both planning groups are scheduled to meet next month to decide what course to take in the wake of the 3 to 1 vote against providing legal defense services. The three supervisors who voted to withhold county legal assistance to the 931 volunteer planners represent mainly the incorporated cities, which are not affected by the action.

Rural Vs. Urban

In the executive session Wednesday, Board Chairman Brian Bilbray and Supervisors Susan Golding and Leon Williams voted against using county attorneys to defend the county advisory groups. Supervisor John MacDonald, who represents the North County area, voted to provide such legal representation, and Supervisor George Bailey was absent, attending a hearing in Sacramento.

MacDonald declined comment on the action taken by the board until an official news release was completed, then left the city on vacation before the board decision was made public.

Bilbray said that when advisory groups were first formed in 1968, “it was not the intent of the county to establish these community groups as official agents or functionaries of county government, but rather as neutral and private citizens who would enhance public involvement in the planning process.”

To provide legal status to the advisory groups, Bilbray said, “would immediately subject all members of the nearly 100 community advisory groups to provisions of the Political Reform Act and eliminate their independence. In effect, it would effectively cripple the impartial status of such community-based groups.”

Pair Asked for Help

When Craig Johnson, a Valley Center resident, filed suit against several federal, state and local government agencies--including San Diego County, the county Board of Supervisors and two Valley Center Planning Group members--in an attempt to halt installation of sewers in the rural community’s town center, the two volunteer planning group members, John Mitchell and Harold Jensen, asked the supervisors for legal aid.

Mitchell, chairman of the Valley Center planners, refused comment on the group’s plans Wednesday, but Ruth Parsons, planning group secretary, said the group planned to meet Sept. 7--Labor Day--to discuss what course to take.

David Lowry, chairman of the Fallbrook planning group, could not be reached for comment. However, Fallbrook planning group members were warned, before adjourning without taking any action Aug. 17, that they faced steep legal fees to defend themselves, even though they were not individually liable for planning group decisions.

Diane White, president of the Fallbrook-area Realty Board, said Wednesday that the local planning group members faced possible lawsuits “within the next few days” from property owners irate over a recent land-use recommendation to the county by the advisory group.

Went Against Majority

White said that the group’s recommendation went against the wishes of the majority of Fallbrook residents, according to polls and public testimony, and accused Lowry of “manipulating the vote” of the advisory board to suit his own purposes and those of his friends. She also said that Supervisor MacDonald was a possible target for a Fallbrook residents’ suit because of campaign promises he made to anti-growth groups.

“The whole thing was railroaded, I feel,” she said of the group’s rejection of one-acre minimums in rural lot sizes. “Somebody is going to pay.”

Johnson, a member of the Valley Center planning group, said that his was the first lawsuit filed against a county planning group member locally and probably statewide.

He said he felt no qualms about serving on a county advisory group without county legal assistance, “because I have nothing to be concerned about.” But, he said, the county should be willing to provide legal representation to members of its advisory groups “or else cut them loose.”

Members of county advisory groups are either a recognized part of the county’s planning and land use system, and deserve county legal representation, “or they should not be making decisions on important land-use matters,” Johnson said.