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needed to view staff as another opinion and should not be tied to staff s recommendations if they <br />find substantial evidence that goes against such recommendations. <br />George Christopher, Planning & Zoning Commission, recapped Ms. Keys comments <br />expressing that P&Z was not getting adequate legal advice at its meetings. <br />Commissioner Flescher asked Ms. Keys if his interpretation was correct that P&Z was <br />looking for more proactive -pre-emptive stance from the Attorneys and whether she was looking <br />for written interpretation on all matters. <br />Ms. Keys replied, "Yes", remarking that they have an opinion from the Attorneys in <br />addition to staff s. <br />County Attorney Collins did not think it was the legal staffs role to say whether things <br />should be approved or not but to offer legal opinion on the issues. Further, they should not be the <br />basis for P&Z's decisions; it should be the facts and evidence presented at the hearings. <br />Mr. Christopher, Ms. Keys and the Board debated P&Z's need for its own attorney and <br />legal guidance on all issues, and the legal staffs ability to handle the workload. <br />Chairman Wheeler agreed that the legal staff has more work now than it did in the past, <br />and believed they need more legal staff <br />Attorney Collins argued that it would be counter productive to have a special counsel for <br />every meeting, but agreed that they could be called as needed. <br />Fred Mensing, 7580 129th Street, lauded the Attorneys ability and was insulted by <br />comments questioning such abilities. <br />January 9, 2007 27 <br />