Herald staff
A usually routine appointment to the Snohomish County Planning Commission turned into a pointed round of questioning of an environmental activist by a Snohomish County Council member on Wednesday.
Corinne Hensley sparred with council member Gary Nelson for several minutes before the council voted 3-2 along party lines to appoint her to the committee.
Hensley is past president of the Little Bear Creek Protective Association, a south Snohomish County group that lobbied the county on land-use decisions and sued the county in 1999. She has been part of five appeals of county decisions to the Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.
Nelson clashed with here over whether Hensley would continue making legal challenges to county land-use decisions while she serves on a commission related to those same issues. Nelson said an appointment to the commission in the 1980s was rejected because the person was involved in legal disputes with the county.
"This is not unprecedented," he said.
Hensley declined to make a broad promise not to participate in legal action, saying she wouldn’t give up her First Amendment rights.
"I probably won’t (take legal action). But that doesn’t mean I won’t assist someone else," she said.
Nelson and fellow Republican John Koster voted against the appointment. Democrats Dave Somers, Kirke Sievers and Barbara Cothern voted for it.
Each council member is allowed two appointments to the commission, which reviews and recommends land-use and development regulations to the council. Somers named Hensley to finish the final year and a half of a vacated seat.
Bob Diepenbrock, a Cothern appointee, was approved 5-0 for a full four-year term.
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