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ANDREW MEACHAMA lawyer will replace the Board of Adjustment. Its demise may negate an investigation into alleged improprieties.
MADEIRA BEACH - The city has disbanded its Board of Adjustment, which had decided variance requests to building and zoning codes for the past 30 years.
With ordinances passed Tuesday, commissioners turned over the functions of the board to a special master, Clearwater lawyer Herbert Langford.
Earlier discussions had called for the board to shut down while an investigator delved into allegations of impropriety. But by Tuesday, commissioners had extended the special master's term from six months to a year and were talking increasingly of institutional change.
Langford will hear variance requests from the county's building and zoning ordinance for special exception uses and from those appealing decisions by the city administrative staff. Langford will cost the city $175 an hour.
For applicants, only a few details will change. The special master will hear cases on the fourth Monday rather than the first Monday. The new proceedings also will be televised locally.
With the new structure, requests will more resemble a judge deciding matters of law than a group of neighbors looking for extenuating circumstances.
Apart from complaints about Board of Adjustment members, Commissioner John Wolbert said the system of granting variances has grown too lax and needed to be overhauled.
"Everybody can't have everything," Wolbert said. "Otherwise we might as well throw the whole damn book out."
With the abolition of the board, an investigation into the alleged impropriety of two of its members may be losing steam.
Commissioner Leonard Piotti, who has alleged conflicts of interest in variances supported by board chairman Joe Jorgensen and board member Dennis Reynolds, said the commission would consider at a May 27 workshop whether to take up an investigation of the now-defunct board. Wolbert, recently elected on a campaign of cleaning up corruption, said the investigation was not a priority to him.
"Is this expense necessary?" he asked. "In my opinion, it isn't."
Jorgensen denied the allegations against him and asked commissioners why they didn't replace members they wanted to investigate instead of undoing the board.
"(Piotti and Wolbert) ran on citizen involvement, and now they are doing away with a citizen board," Jorgensen said.
Resident Sarah Nichols, 34, argued during the citizens forum against replacing the entire board.
"My main concern is that we would be placing all of our trust in one individual," Nichols said.
The legislative process that abolished the Board of Adjustment could be reversed in three to four weeks, if necessary, city attorney Thomas Trask said. The first meeting with the special master is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 28.