Yellow Pages
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Skagit County accused Sedro-Woolley Supervisor and Attorney Eron Berg Monday of illegally tampering with a file related to the Deluxe Recycling and Disposal case.
The accusation — that Berg “sanitized the record and tampered with evidence” — came in a motion that is part of an ongoing lawsuit involving the county, Annie Janicki, the city of Sedro-Woolley and Deluxe.
According to the motion, which was filed Monday in Skagit County Superior Court, Berg removed a letter that Sedro-Woolley Solid Waste Division Manager Leo Jacobs submitted to the Planning Department’s State Environmental Policy Act or SEPA file. In that letter, Jacobs questioned whether Deluxe could legally build a refuse facility in Sedro-Woolley and instructed that an environmental impact statement was needed.
Berg and other Sedro-Woolley city officials have long argued that private transfer stations are allowed under city code and stood by the Planning Department’s decision not to require an environmental impact statement.
Berg said Monday that, contrary to Jacobs’ sworn statement, he did not remove the letter. “His affidavit is not accurate,” Berg said.
Under the SEPA, the city was required to accept comments from the public regarding Deluxe’s proposed 30,000-square-foot solid waste and recycling transfer station to be located on Jameson Street near Sedro-Woolley High School. Most of the comments submitted to the city during the January and February comment period came from residents who opposed the Deluxe proposal, but comments from the Sedro-Woolley School District, city wastewater treatment plant staff, county Public Works and Health departments were also received and included in the file.
That file was later used by the city Planning Department in its environmental review of the proposal and by the hearing examiner, who heard and denied an appeal from Annie Janicki in May. Now the file is part of Janicki’s Skagit County Superior Court case, which is an appeal of the hearing examiner’s decision.
According to the motion filed by the county, Jacobs’ letter should have been included from the beginning, and therefore, the whole Deluxe environmental review process should start over.
The county’s filing also includes Jacobs’ testimony stating that Berg removed the letter. “On Feb. 6, 2008, I submitted the ... comment letter to the City of Sedro-Woolley Planning Department. The comment letter was accepted and stamped in ... in the same manner as other comment letters submitted in the SEPA record,” stated Jacobs. “It was my intention and my belief that the comment letter ... would become part of the Deluxe SEPA record.”
However, said Jacobs, “Eron Berg called me to City Hall to discuss the comment letter ... Mr. Berg handed the ... comment letter to me, which he had removed from the Planning Department’s SEPA file for the Deluxe proposal. Mr. Berg told me in no uncertain terms that I lacked the authority to submit the ... comment letter.”
Berg said the meeting happened, but not like that. Berg said he did not remove the letter, did not tell Jacobs not to submit it and did not even know whether or not the letter had already been submitted to the Planning Department.
“I was not tracking these comments as they came in,” Berg said. “… No. I did not take the letter out of the file nor did I ask him not to comment, nor more importantly did I direct him not to comment.”
Berg said their discussion focused on how Jacobs’ 16 numbered statements were worded, not whether he could or should make them.
“I would not interfere with the guy’s right to comment,” Berg said.
“What I told him was he did not have the authority to make conditions and that his comments would be most effective if they were written not as requirements or conclusions,” Berg said.
Some of Jacobs’ statements are written as instructions. The letter begins: “The Solid Waste Division requires that dust control and odor control systems be in place at this facility for the building and recycling yard.”
Asked about Berg’s version of events Monday, Jacobs replied: “My affidavit speaks for itself.”
