The rising mound at the corner of Jackson Gate Road and Highway 49 was rumored to be the site of a Rite Aid.

Photo by: Jerry Budrick

Amador County has been experiencing rapid and highly visible changes in a number of areas, most notably in what has come to be known as "the corridor," the section of Highway 49 from the Sutter Creek bypass south to the Highway 88 junction.

Large housing projects in unincorporated areas such as Wicklow Way, land divisions, major water projects and other discretionary projects submitted to the county for consideration are subject to review by the Amador County Technical Advisory Committee.

TAC was formed in 1988, with a mission of providing recommendations to the elected county supervisors and their appointed planning commissioners.

According to the county code, TAC membership consists of the county public works director, the county planning director, a county building official, a county health officer and the water resources director (a position that does not presently exist). The Amador Water Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service may provide non-voting representatives to the TAC. Meetings are held most Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. in a conference room at the Amador County Administration Center. Agendas are posted online at the county Web site, www.co.amador.ca.us/calendar/index.cfm.

When the committee was established, it was stated in County Code 2.94.020 that TAC meetings are subject to the Brown Act. This means that the meetings are open to the public, public notice is required to be given of a scheduled meeting and an agenda is written and posted 72 hours before the meeting. There is no requirement that detailed minutes be produced. TAC minutes used to be kept, but were discontinued in September 2004.

Amador County Environmental Health Department Director Mike Israel has been chairing TAC meetings for 14 years. "Fatal flaws are flushed out at TAC meetings," Israel said. For projects that come to TAC, "the planning department is generally the lead agency."

When asked about the absence of minutes of TAC meetings, Israel said that County Counsel Martha Shaver had told him that minutes were not required. He also said that applicants and committee members tended to feel constrained in their candor by knowledge that every word was scrutinized and possibly publicized.

Shaver corroborated Israel's statement, explaining the reasoning behind the decision to discontinue the practice of producing minutes. She described the atmosphere at TAC meetings in the old county building as intimidating. Committee members, she said, sat in the high seats designed for august bodies, such as the supervisors or planning commissioners. Dropping the minutes was part of a democratization process.

The 2005-06 Amador County Grand Jury reviewed TAC, avowedly because of citizen interest in the planning and development process in the county. In its review, the jury found the absence of minutes worthy of a recommendation that the practice be resumed.

The final grand jury report includes this response as coming from the county planning director (on behalf of TAC), Planning Director: "A decision was made in October 2004 to discontinue producing formal minutes due to the limitations of our staff resources. Since that time notes have been taken and the issues discussed, recommended conditions and any other recommendations made at the TAC meetings are relayed in the staff report that eventually is produced when the project is taken to the decision making body (i.e. Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors). The TAC does not make any decisions on projects, only recommendations. For these reasons no change in our procedures will be made."

The report also included this response as coming from the board of supervisors: "This recommendation will not be implemented. The County no longer has sufficient funds to provide the level of staffing needed to maintain TAC minutes."

The basic contention at the county offices involved is that TAC is purely an advisory group, with absolutely no decision-making power. County Planning Director Susan Grijalva displayed sympathy for information-hungry residents or journalists, while pointing to the planning department policy of full disclosure. Grijalva offered access to project files, but explained that producing minutes for weekly meetings is tremendously time-consuming. She also said that TAC meetings, though open to the public, are not public hearings, which are subject to more stringent rules about minutes.

In a test of full disclosure, inquiries were made into mountain-building activities at the intersection of Highway 49 and Jackson Gate Road, across Jackson Gate from the new Kragen store.

The planning department insisted that it is not yet involved in that project, but had heard of a grading permit issued by the Amador County Public Works Agency, just across the aisle from planning.

Public Works' Bill Smiley retrieved the file for the project, which he described as a "stockpile" that has grown on the site as part of a Ron Regan plan to develop the parcel. The dirt was brought from the Kragen/SpeeDee Oil Change project across the road, under terms of a grading permit issued to Regan.

Contractor Regan, Smiley said, had hired a consultant to show that an apparent wetland on the parcel is not one. Smiley also had a detailed drawing by Carlton Engineering that showed the elaborate drainage system for the parcel.

The word is that Regan is in negotiations with the Amador County Transportation Commission and Caltrans for installation of a four-way traffic signal at the intersection.

ACTC will be the next stop on the road to full disclosure.