By Emerson Drake
4/7/11
Was he trying to put the fix in?
There are three members of the Special Economic Development Committee, Chairman Joe Muratore who had business elsewhere and didn't attend, Vice-Chair Brad Hawn and Stephanie Burnside were present, both of whom knew Kristin Olsen and her husband Rod, so Rod naming his wife seemed, well, almost redundant.
They were there Wednesday March 30th on the sixth floor of 1010 10th St. to interview six applicants for four positions. There were two openings on the Modesto Planning Commission and two openings on the Board of Zoning Adjustment or (BZA).Only one member of the public was present.
The four open positions were four year terms and after the four years are up you had to go through the process again.There was only incumbent applying and she seemed well versed in her past duties. All of the rest were new comers to their respective committee positions.
The BZA is known as the baby board where one can aquire the experience needed to advance to the Planning Commission.Many of the people applying had previous experience, mostly from the other side of the table, with one or both of the boards and none professed to have an agenda.
Some were concerned about development infill opportunities in Modesto and two mentioned the carrot and stick phrase that never actually does, but supposedly means jobs that being shovel ready land.
As we all know it's just developer speak for the use of eminent domain and picking the low hanging fruit of others, also called farms and homes.Indeed Rod Olsen was one of the two who pointedly used the phrase.
He also reminded the committee of his past, spent in part with PMZ Caldwell, but now he's a house husband.
But Mr. Olsen was the only applicant to invoke his or her spouse's name to the committee members.
Mr. Olsen, saying this was no occasion to be modest, also laid claim to being the prime mover and shaker behind Modesto getting the Amgen Tour.
Will his blatant attempt to ride his wife's coattails work?
We'll have to wait and see.The committee's ranking should be out very soon.As soon as the City Attorney dots the I's and crosses the T's.
We'll let you know how their rankings compared to ours after they're released.
Added later: Rod wasn't chosen.
