Council to Consider Planner’s Behavior

Upset over a commissioner’s refusal to take part in a late-night public hearing in July, Thousand Oaks Planning Commission Chairman Forrest Frields said Tuesday that he will seek direction from the City Council to prevent what he called “disorderly conduct” from recurring.

Frields said he requested that the council take note of this “unprecedented action from a commissioner” so it doesn’t happen again.

But Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter, who left a July 29 hearing after 11 p.m. because no members of the public were present, said her departure was a legitimate act of protest in defense of the interests of the residents she represents.

“We should not be holding public hearings when the public is not there,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said the July 29 hearing, to debate the approval of an environmental report for a portion of the 2,350-home Dos Vientos project, was very important to Newbury Park residents.

But because of the lengthy debate of an earlier case on the same development, the discussion of the environmental document began after 11 p.m. While a handful of members of the public had filed cards to address the commission on the issue, by the time the hearing began, all were gone because of the late hour.

At the time, the commission discussed whether to hold the hearing with no public input or try to schedule a new meeting. In view of the impending summer recess, the commissioners decided to continue into the late night.

The city attorney had informed the commission that the case had to be heard before the August recess, said Frields, who condemned Carpenter for her departure during Monday’s Planning Commission meeting.

The environmental report was approved by a 2-1 vote July 29, with Frields casting the dissenting vote. With a “no” vote from Carpenter, the environmental report would have been rejected.