County sacks longtime planner

SANDPOINT — The Bonner County commission fired longtime land use planner Clare Marley on Tuesday.

"Clare Marley is no longer a county employee," commission Chairman Cary Kelly said on Wednesday.

Marley was hired by the Planning Department in 1989 and appointed director in 2002. Kelly said county employees were notified of Marley's termination through an email.

"That is about all we put out on the matter. Everything else is confidential," said Kelly.

The move comes three months after Marley was either demoted or stepped down voluntarily as chief of the planning department. Marley began serving as acting director and senior planner in October of last year.

Associate Planner Saegen Neiman has been appointed acting planning director while the county completes a nationwide search for a new director.

"I don't really have a lot to say right now until I talk to my attorney and then I'll let him do the speaking for me," said Marley.

Marley added, "I believe all that they've done is wrong."

Marley disputed a substantial portion of a Blue Sky Radio news report that she was suspended with pay and that she was asked to leave voluntarily with a severance package. That information was attributed to Commissioner Glen Bailey in the news report.

"None of that is true," Marley said.

The initial shift in Marley's employment status coincided with the firing of Senior Planner Dan Carlson, another longtime department employee. Carlson is seeking up to $1 million in damages for wrongful termination and has a civil suit pending in U.S. District Court which alleges retaliation for reporting abusive conduct by Commissioner Todd Sudick.

Carlson alleges Sudick had developed a habit of berating planning department employees. That allegation was backed by other department employees, although Sudick denied the allegation and is being backed by fellow commissioners.

Commissioners have been vocal in their desire to see planning regulations and fees become less onerous on landowners. The county has since adopted an ordinance exempting some structures from building location permit requirements, despite concerns raised by Panhandle Health District officials that landowners could inadvertently build over septic drainfields or drainfield replacement areas.

Kelly said the public has welcomed the concept of eased regulations and fees, although some are uneasy and are concerned that the county is angling to hamstring or dismantle the planning department.

Kelly said those concerns are misplaced.

"We need the planning department and there's never, ever been any kind of thought of downsizing or limiting their responsibility," he said.

Various county commissions have long grumbled about the planning department's resistance to change and cloistered culture. Marley has pushed back against that perception, contending commissioners had underestimated the department's willingness to help them carry out their goals.