To the editor:

The Langley City Council is about to embark on the hiring of a hearing examiner. This person will be a qualified professional from outside the city of Langley who will be charged with interpreting and implementing the land use regulations in Langley; from small variances to major subdivisions. This person will not be responsible to the planner or the Planning Advisory Board.

In fact, it is unclear whether he reports to anyone. His “salary” will come directly from user fees, i.e. the resident applying for a variance, or a developer applying for a subdivision of land. Those fees will be attached to the permit cost. The only recourse to a decision by the hearing examiner is to file suit in Superior Court.

The city council has washed their hands and that of the PAB in having to deal with land use regulations.  Developers and builders beware: Your costs to do business in Langley have just gone up again!

My point in writing about this is not to object to a hearing examiner per se. I wish the council had employed such a person to review Langley Passage. My intent is to ask why hiring a professional from out of town — a range rider, so to speak — to “interpret, review, and implement land use regulations … and other ordinances, with regard to issues and matters as assigned, delegated or referred to the examiner” is OK, and hiring a trained professional manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city is not.

Does anybody besides me see a real case of double-speak here?

BARBARA SEITLE

Langley