###

A month after unanimously censuring former Humboldt County Planning Commission Chair Alan Bongio for making racist and derogatory remarks at an August 18 hearing, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider changing some things about the commission, including reducing its size and possibly altering the way commissioners are appointed and removed.

The board is also set to adopt a new set of rules governing the commission, one that includes a “Code of Conduct and Ethics.” Among other things, this code says planning commissioners’ behavior must be “above reproach” and avoid “even the appearance of impropriety.”

The commission is currently composed of seven members, including one appointee from each of the five county supervisors plus two at-large members, whose appointments must be approved by a board majority.

That’s unusual, turns out! Staff in the County Administrative Office recently surveyed 21 other counties and found that only two of them have seven-member planning commissions. One has a whopping nine-member commission, but the rest all have just five.

Why does ours have seven? Who knows?

“It is not clear why 7 commissioners were chosen as the appropriate number to serve on the Planning Commission,” a staff report admits. “It may have been to ensure there were sufficient members available to provide a quorum. Based on the information from other counties, this does not seem to be an issue for counties with 5 commissioners.”

Staff recommends that the board reduce the number of commissioners to five, which would eliminate the positions currently held by Melanie McCavour and Brian Mitchell.

While Bongio’s behavior has drawn the most attention, the Wiyot Tribe filed a complaint last month alleging, among other things, that McCavour has a conflict of interest because in addition to serving on the commission she works as the tribal historic preservation officer for the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria.

While McCavour has recused herself on matters that require her professional opinion, the Wiyot Tribe argues that her dual roles nonetheless give her “special privileges” in conversing with the rest of the Planning Commission. 

Eliminating her position from the commission entirely would obviously settle that particular dispute, but it would still leave the matter of Bongio, who was appointed to the commission nearly a decade ago by First District Supervisor Rex Bohn. At the meeting where Bongio was censured, Bohn made it clear that he had no intention of replacing him.

“I just can’t bring myself to it,” Bohn said, later adding, “I can’t fire my friend.” The board did ask Bongio to step down from his chair position, and he complied.

But tomorrow the board may also opt to change the procedure for removing a commissioner. The staff report says planning commissioners shouldn’t have to worry about being removed arbitrarily, “but if a Planning Commissioner acts in a way that is offensive and unbecoming to the county, then there should be a way to address that by the Board of Supervisors.” Presumably they mean something beyond a censure, which serves as a formal rebuke but carries no further repercussions.

Half of the 22 counties surveyed by staff (that’s including Humboldt County) allow for removal of a planning commissioner through a majority vote of the board of supervisors. Two counties leave it to district supervisors to initiate removal. Humboldt is one of them.

Curiously, in seven of the 22 surveyed counties “there are not clear provisions” for removing a commissioner. If you’re keeping track, that leaves two counties unaccounted for. In them, the staff report says, it takes a four-fifths vote from the board to boot a commissioner.

County staff thinks that may well be the best approach. 

“A simple majority vote to remove a Planning Commissioner could be too low of a threshold,” the staff report says, “but the requirement for a 4/5ths vote would provide the opportunity to consider the matter and ensure that the Board is aligned in taking action to remove a commissioner.”

As for the code of conduct, it runs just over 15 pages and includes a number of provisions that have relevance to Bongio’s recent controversy, including one governing conflicts of interest. 

Bongio’s impartiality has been called into question for his behavior during a series of hearings related to permit violations on a home-building project from local business owner and developer Travis Schneider. Bongio has consistently and fervently advocated on Schneider’s behalf during these hearings, claiming, for example, that the applicant has done everything that’s been asked of him despite ample evidence to the contrary. Bongio’s wife is also related to Schneider through marriage. And the North Coast Journal‘s Thadeus Greenson reported that Bongio performed concrete work at the construction site and failed to disclose it.

The code of conduct slated for adoption states:

No Commissioner shall engage in any business, transaction or activity, or have a financial interest, which is in conflict with the proper discharge of official duties, which would tend to impair independence of judgment or action in the performance of official duties, which creates the appearance of such conflict, or which otherwise violates applicable County policies or state or federal law.

The main source of controversy for Bongio has surrounded his comments about local tribes. To recount, he accused two Wiyot-area tribes of being dishonest and manipulative, made a veiled reference to a derogatory term that’s rooted in a negative stereotype and repeatedly referred to those tribes collectively and disapprovingly as “the Indians.” 

The code of conduct notes that the Board of Supervisors recently added diversity education to the county’s list of required trainings. This new line of training includes education on implicit bias and cultural humility plus two sections that explicitly recognize “the important historical role of local tribal communities.”

Under the “Principles and Standards” section the document says, “The professional and personal conduct of Commissioners must be above reproach and by the law must avoid even the appearance of impropriety, which is critically important for maintaining a positive and productive image of county governance.”

The Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday inside board chambers at the Humboldt County Courthouse.  Theoretically you should be able to stream the meeting via Zoom by clicking a link that will appear on this page shortly before start time, but last week the county had technical difficulties that rendered the stream non-operational. But you can still participate by phone if you call the conference line 720-707-2699, enter Meeting ID 870 5493 8437 and press star (*) 9 to raise your hand. 

###