And to entertain for a second the thought that staffers weren’t hired away by developers precisely because they have connections within the organization that “administers the law” as it pertains to their developments, with the expectation of BIG-BIG-bang-for-the-buck is, please forgive me, naive.

In this world there’s the paper version of how things work, and then there’s reality.

But I say again… Bravo and Brava to those folks that have found greener pastures. My concern is for the seeming lack of ethics rules in this regard that allows this to occur.

Government “planners” are not planners at all, they are administrators of the law. They don’t have authority over anyone. The law has authority. The department is called Development Services for a reason. They are their to interpret Zoning and Subdivision law. Not there to “plan” what will take place on someone else’s private property. They aren’t given a huge amount of discretion to make interpretation, simply paid to evaluate applications for compliance with current law.

That get’s very frustrating for well educated, good intending public servants who see a better way of doing things but lack the authority to do anything about it. So, they move on to greener pastures…

EDITOR NOTE–Both these guys seem to have good reps and will probably stay in government elsewhere according to what we hear.