As a former chief deputy prosecutor, I am acutely aware of the power that a commissioner can exert over staff and matters before them. However, if, due to a commissioner’s intercession, an applicant “moves up,” then another must necessarily move down; if a staffer is pressured to favor a particular application, then the indelible impression is one of wrong — violation of what courts call the “appearance of fairness” in a different context — as it seems less a matter of the merits than a matter of who you know, which I and others abhor. Employees accountable to politicians must look over their shoulders for political implications instead of merit.
The hiring of Sen. Don Benton as environmental services director, which cost Clark County a quarter of a million dollars in damages alone, is one example of inappropriate intercession. The proposed home rule charter will go a long way to ameliorate such concerns, and I urge that it be approved.
Steven B. Tubbs
Vancouver
