Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Proposed Changes for Planning & Zoning Commission

This morning a new application form for all county boards / committees was approved with a unanimous vote of the Hernando County Board of Commissioners. This new application form includes questions relating to arrest records for felony prosecutions, 1st & 2nd degree misdemeanors, plus questions in reference to civil litigation involving the applicant. This new form will aid in preventing any future problems with applicants for the Planning & Zoning Commission with the added verbiage that states, in part, "By my signature below, I hereby authorize Hernando County to check my references and my background including, without limitation, obtaining a criminal history check and/or consumer credit report". As a current member of the Planning & Zoning Commission, this morning I authorized the Board of County Commission to conduct a search on my background, to make it a level playing field with all new applicants, even though the BOCC had not chosen to make this provision retroactive for current members. This stringent new application is necessary to protect the integrity of this quasi-judicial board. Hopefully, a more relaxed application form will be made available to all other committees / board positions for the county volunteers. After much discussion, the Planning and Zoning applicant interview process proposal brought forward by Commissioner Stabbins, was postponed until their November 1, 2005 meeting so Garth Coller could obtain more information on a process currently utilized in Citrus County.

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