Harris backed day care site; Location in airport crash zone later ruled improper;

Former Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris took a personal interest in a decision to allow a day care center in an airport crash zone, according to an investigation that concluded the decision was improper.

Two Building and Planning Department employees got Harris' view on the issue when he popped in on them unexpectedly in December while they were discussing a Spokesman-Review story about their department head's controversial day care approval.

Zoning regulations specifically prohibit day care centers in airport runway crash zones, and Spokane International Airport officials strongly protested Building and Planning Director Jim Manson's decision to allow one.

"We were kind of surprised that they would consider it," said graphics illustrator Chuck Dellinger, who had been chatting with shorelines planner Bill Moser.

Dellinger said in an interview Friday that he and Moser walked down a hallway and paused in front of an exterior door with no window. Then the door opened and Harris walked in on the conversation.

Investigators' notes of interviews with Dellinger and Moser indicate Harris, a retired Air Force sergeant, told them, "I appoint the generals that sit on the airport board, and it won't be a problem."

Airport board members include retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Irv Reed and retired Army Reserve Lt. Col. Joe Shogan, who is also a Spokane city councilman. Airport Director Neal Sealock II also is a retired Army brigadier general.

"He was serious," Dellinger said of Harris' remark. "He wasn't kidding."

Nor was he angry, Dellinger said.

"He gave me the impression that it was a real positive thing," Dellinger said. "There wasn't going to be any problem with this.

"It was really quick. It was just a few seconds. We went, 'Wow.' You don't anticipate something like that."

Harris couldn't be reached for comment Friday, and Manson didn't return a call to his office.

Other notes and documents in the investigation of planner Bruce Hunt's legally protected "whistle-blower" complaint about supervisory irregularities indicate Harris was an almost daily visitor in the Building and Planning Department until Bonnie Mager unseated him. Staff members joked that Harris should have a cubicle of his own, an investigative committee was told.

Mager and Commissioners Mark Richard and Todd Mielke determined this week that Manson improperly authorized a day care in a new office building at the end of a runway the airport plans to build in the future. Manson also improperly granted a zone change by arbitrarily altering a comprehensive plan map, commissioners said.

In that case, documents show, Manson told investigators he relied on one of his three assistant directors, John Pederson. Manson said he merely reviewed and signed correspondence Pederson prepared.

The department's two other assistant directors also shifted blame to Pederson in an incident that commissioners said gave an appearance of impropriety. In that case, Assistant Director Mark Holman signed a building permit for Assistant Director Pam Knutsen over the objection of staff members.

Planners said a 1,200-square-foot "housekeeping unit" Knutsen wanted to tack on to her Newman Lake home was an impermissible "accessory dwelling," but the building permit called it an "addition," which was permissible.

A three-member investigative committee and county commissioners were unable to determine which classification was correct.

Commissioner Mielke said he thought the real problem was having a building inspector like Holman make a planning determination, but Knutsen and Holman said Pederson - who is a planner - made the decision.

In fact, a May 2005 document includes a handwritten notation by building technician Robin Burris, who has since resigned to take another job, that says the classification change was "directed by John Pederson."

Pederson didn't respond to messages on his office phone Friday seeking comment.

The dispute focuses on regulations designed to control residential density by restricting the size of structures capable of holding additional households.

Knutsen told investigators she and her husband built the "addition" to their Newman Lake home to accommodate her parents.

County commissioners haven't decided yet whether to discipline anyone for any of the actions they found improper.

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