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actions that the Planning Director makes and yet the body is, that's hearing the appeals is also in <br />the same department. I have to spilt staff in the same way I think that Corporation Counsel would <br />need to split their staff so that it's clear who represents essentially the Board and who represents <br />the Director and/or the Commission. So we talked about Corporation Counsel as perhaps as <br />neutral a body could be the agency which would house the Board of Appeals. Now although the <br />Corporation Counsel Wurdeman has agreed to this, I know that there has been internal discussion <br />on that the same kind of conflict though will arise within the Department. So the question is so <br />where do we house the Board then? <br />MCINTOSH: I would take it out of the County Building totally. <br />GOLDSTEIN: No, no, but that's -. <br />MCINTOSH: I would take the whole process out of the County Building and then hire <br />independent counsel to process the paper if that's what it takes and to be totally independent. <br />Because whenever an action of the Board of Appeals goes to court, you have one member of the <br />Corporation Counsel arguing in favor of the Board of Appeals, and then you have Fred Giannini <br />arguing for the Planning Commission, and then you may have someone else representing the <br />Department of Public Works arguing yet another standpoint. So here you have, and we have a <br />situation like that right now where the Board of Appeals overturned an action of the Planning <br />Commission, it has been appealed to the court, and so now we have the County in effect suing <br />itself. <br />GOLDSTEIN: That's right. <br />MCINTOSH: And so I think that the resolution of this issue is not going to be solved by <br />moving the paper from, or the function. I mean you and I have talked about this for years that it <br />really, some serious consideration needs to be given to maybe taking it out of the County Building <br />totally so that the Board of Appeals has its own independent counsel, and maybe that independent <br />counsel then processes the paper. I think this issue needs a lot more discussion before I'm <br />comfortable making a recommendation to the County Council. And I also want to clarify that the <br />issues that you talked about quasi-judicial, you're talking about special permits, for instance, that <br />we issue, and the interpretation has been that those can be appealed to the Board of Appeals and <br />then to Third Circuit Court. You're clarifying that so that the Board of Appeals is taken out of <br />those processes -. <br />GIANNINI: Right. <br />MCINTOSH: Totally and it goes directly to Third Circuit Court. <br />GIANNINI: So which means that any, that will get to the situation of any of the <br />permits, by quasi-judicial action we mean like special management area permits, use permits, <br />special permits under 15 acres, shoreline setback variances and any of those would no longer, <br />510 <br />