The Public Comment session earmarked for citizens to voice their opinions on subjects not on the day’s agenda, had some folks calling for the current board to resign during Tuesday afternoon’s lively affair held near downtown at the David Gebhard Public Meeting Room.
Their animosity came as a result of five of the seven members abstaining on votes in recent weeks on a project that could have led to the approval of a Chick-fil-A restaurant taking over the existing Burger King on upper State Street. “The form of application does not ask for questions about the political or religious views of the applicant, which are not relevant to the job,” said Peter Cruz of the effective snubbing of the applicant whose stance on gay marriage recently made national news.
“The facts are, the application was approved three months ago; only minor changes were requested, which do not justify a rejection,” added the 14-year Santa Barbara resident. “The board should represent my interests and concerns. This group, unfortunately, does not represent my mood or feelings,” said Richard Sacco, who likened the recent actions to a pharmacist denying a patient medication after discovering the patient drove a foreign car.
After several participants from the audience aired their differences with the board, member Chris Gilliland made a public statement.
“My decision to recuse myself from the Chick-fil-A project on the 23rd of July and abstain on the 6th of August, was made to avoid having my feelings get in the way of the applicant getting an unbiased project review,” said Gilliland, who explained that he and the rest of the board had recently received training on how to handle potential conflict of interests. Apologizing for his actions, he stated it would never happen again, and his intent had been to err on the side of caution on what he learned could possibly be a personal conflict of interest.
Board member Stephanie Poole also came forward and spoke, saying that the reason for her abstention was that she didn’t get a chance to review the landscape and architect changes by the applicant. “I apologize that it happened at the speed that all of us abstained at the same time, but that’s just the way it happened,” explained Poole.
Fellow member Kirk Gradin also gave his reason for withdrawing: “My abstention also had nothing to do with the recent history of the applicant,” noting that he had been absent on the day the project had been reviewed.
In the end, city staff took matters into their own hands by approving the minor changes to the application, according to planning technician Tony Boughman, who didn’t see any reason to bring the items back before the board after it had already received final approval on April 16. Sometimes, just showing up may not be enough.