Lynwood : Planner Reprimanded for Conflict-of-Interest Vote
A member of the Lynwood Planning Commission has been reprimanded by the Fair Political Practices Commission for voting on an issue when she had a conflict of interest.
Elizabeth Dixon voted last September against an 86-bed halfway house planned within 300 feet of her home. She was sent a letter of warning by the commission Friday.
Dixon, who was appointed to the commission in July, 1991, was clearly in violation of state law, commission counsel Ani Armen Kindall said. She was given only a warning because of her inexperience as a public official and her failure to influence the approval of the project, Kindall said.
If formal charges had been pressed, Dixon could have been removed from the board.
“Although ignorance is not a defense, we have considered it a mitigating factor . . . because you have been in public office for a short time,” Kindall wrote to Dixon, adding that she was “apparently unfamiliar with the conflict-of-interest provisions” of the law.
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