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Commissioner under fire to learn fate Wednesday
| Monday, Apr 21 2008 2:02 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Apr 21 2008 4:08 PM
It’s two for, one against removing Russell Johnson from the Bakersfield Planning Commission.
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That leaves it up to four council members who are holding their cards to their chests — although three may have tipped their hands.
Councilman Ken Weir is proposing to remove Johnson at Wednesday’s Bakersfield City Council meeting.
Johnson’s term doesn’t expire for another year, but Weir wants him removed now so he can appoint someone more in line with his views, he said.
It would take yes votes from five of the seven council members to remove Johnson. Last week, Jacquie Sullivan said she would vote yes. Harold Hanson and Zack Scrivner said they hadn’t decided, but then indicated sympathy with Weir’s position.
Irma Carson said she hadn’t decided.
On Monday, Councilman David Couch declined to say how he will vote but said he is “kind of shocked” the proposal has come up now because Weir already has asked a committee to discuss changing the procedure for removing planning commissioners.
There’s one sure vote against, from Councilwoman Sue Benham.
“I think Mr. Johnson has served the community admirably and I have not heard any reason articulated that would justify his removal without finishing his term,” she said Monday.
Weir and Johnson are part of different political camps within the local Republican party. Weir is aligned with the Congressman Kevin McCarthy-consultant Mark Abernathy wing. Johnson was appointed by then-Councilman Mike Maggard and now works for county Supervisor Maggard.
Weir has said he wants someone who agrees with the community’s vision for long-term planning and respects property rights, but hasn’t provided specifics on what that means. He also did not say whom he would appoint in Johnson’s place.
Since Weir took office at the end of 2006, only once did Johnson and Weir vote differently on a project — an industrial development near Hageman Road. Johnson voted against it, saying it was premature until infrastructure is built to the area.
The council, including Weir, approved the project, but with a requirement that the developer build some of the missing road.
The next likely controversy to come to the Bakersfield Planning Commission is The Canyons, a development in northeast Bakersfield that stirred controversy with plans to cut and fill the bluffs, build homes along ridges and alter the city-adopted trails plan.
Maggard was a leader in pushing back against the developers; Canyons investor Gordon Downs was a longtime client of Weir’s accounting firm.
The council will also take up the appointment of another planning commissioner.
Commissioner Jeffrey Tkac’s term is expiring. Sullivan will get to make the nomination, and she has said she plans to nominate Tkac for another term, rather than the two other men who have applied — Realtor John Boydstun and lawyer Andrew Heglund.
On the most recent controversy to reach the planning commission, Tkac voted against the Mustang Square development near Stockdale High School. When the item reached the City Council, Sullivan voted for it.
Nonetheless, Sullivan praised Tkac and said the two are “political allies.”
In other action, the council will consider:
• An agreement with Caltrans to widen the intersection of Taft Highway and Ashe Road, and install a traffic signal there.
• Imposing surcharges for industrial and commercial sites that generate large amounts of sewage, or sewage that is difficult to treat.