Nerditorial: Plain Language, Common Sense, and the County Code Scrub

This is a Whatcom County government issue, so if this is not your thing... you can stop reading now.

The County Executive, Jack Louws, has assembled an ad-hoc committee to recommend the specifics for a Code Scrub of the Whatcom County Code... which is the statutory law that governs public business transacted by the County.

This Code Scrub committee is focusing on Title 20, which is the Whatcom County Code governing land use.

The idea is to use Plain Language and Common Sense to render the County Code to be cleaner and more comprehensible.

And it sets my political Spidey-Sense just a-tinglin' like the dickens.

The problem with Plain Language is that it usually is only plain to the person who is writing it.

The problem with Common Sense is that there is nothing common about it.

And the potential problem with the Whatcom County Code Scrub is that it is relying on both of these false premises to make county statutory law easier to use and understand.

Both Plain Language and Common Sense rely heavily on the most notoriously unreliable element of the human condition: good intentions. Good intentions are the mortar used to hold together the bricks that pave the road to Hell.

More to the point, if good intentions were good enough, then laws wouldn't be written the way the are written.

Now, I endorsed Jack Louws for County Executive in 2011, and I did not do so lightly. So, my concerns about who he has appointed to this ad-hoc committee should not be deemed a simple partisan attack or a case of me rescinding my endorsement of Executive Louws. Mr. Louws is a serious man, who is taking his job as Executive seriously.

I just am not filled with confidence about the line up of this particular committee.

Take a look:

Roger Almskaar... from Citizens Alliance for Property Rights

Kate Blystone... from Futurewise Whatcom

Brian Evans... from the Builders Industry Association of Whatcom County

Jay Irwin... a land use consultant

Leroy Plagerman... a farmer based in Lynden and member of the County Ag Advisory Committee

Jaime White... a land use consultant

The rest of the committee was appointed by others.

The Planning Commission appointed from its own membership...

Ken Bell... County Planning Commissioner

David Onkels... County Planning Commissioner

The County Council did the same.

Ken Mann... County Council

Sam Crawford... County Council (*cough*land use consultant*cough*)

And two staff members from the County Planning Department will be serving on the Committee.

Gary Davis and Mark Personius

I understand that Mr Louws is a member of the GOP and that he hails from Lynden. So, I didn't expect that this would be a committee dominated by progressive powerhouses... but... damn.

My initial reaction to this was... why are there an even number of members on this committee? This increases the risk of deadlocks substantially. An odd number of committee members at the very least creates the ability to break a deadlock. But that is the least of my concerns.

Because this committee isn't going to find itself in terribly many deadlocks.

The prevailing collective Common Sense of this group is that of strengthening property rights and weakening environmental protection. Because, you know. Common Sense.

I already have a strong sense about what this Committee may well be recommending to be scrubbed from the County Planning Code.

My understanding of the Code Scrub is that it is supposed to take existing statutory law and make it easier to understand. It is not supposed to change the legal effect of existing statutory law. And by that virtue, a Code Scrub should not result in an increase or decrease of property rights anymore than it should result in an increase or decrease in environmental protection.

But considering the narrow range of views on this committee, I submit that there is a real risk of groupthink coming into play. The notion that a group dominated by one specific point of view will be able to transcend their own personal biases and make it look easy only happens in television shows written by Aaron Sorkin.

It is the job of the County Council to pass substantive changes in the legal effect of the County Code. That job is baked into the County Charter.

Finally, there appear to be no attorneys on this committee. That strikes me as the most peculiar thing of all. If you are going to make a law more understandable, you would think that at least one attorney should serve on the committee to make sure that in the effort to make a law easier to read that its legal meaning and force are kept in tact.