JOHN DAY – For the third time, the John Day City Council has upheld the conditional use permit for the proposed aquatic center at the Seventh Street Sports Complex.

The council voted 4-0 on Feb. 1 to uphold the permit, rejecting an appeal by John Morris. The council is down to six members since the resignation of Paul Smith. Mayor Ron Lundbom and Councilor Shannon Adair have recused themselves from voting on the appeal because they had spoken in favor of the project at the Nov. 9 meeting of the John Day Planning Commission, when the commission approved the permit.

In his appeal, Morris argued that the Planning Commission was biased in its decision to grant the permit because it did not give him the same opportunity to provide testimony as supporters of the project. He also argued that his right to appeal the decision to the City Council was impaired because Lundbom and Adair spoke in favor of the project before the Planning Commission. He raised a number of other objections to the project as well, which he expanded on in 15 pages of written testimony submitted to the council at his appeal hearing on Jan 5.

The council voted to uphold the permit at that hearing, then reversed itself on Jan. 11 and voted to reopen the record for additional written testimony, with Morris being given the opportunity to provide a written rebuttal prior to the council’s next meeting on Jan. 25.

At that meeting, having received no additional testimony, the council voted to uphold the permit. Afterwards, however, it was determined that Morris had submitted additional information a few hours before that meeting, but due to a miscommunication it was not presented to the council.

At a special meeting on Feb. 1, the council reviewed the 17 pages of written material submitted by Morris on Jan. 25. Morris raised objections to City Manager Nick Green’s statement of findings regarding the earlier appeal hearing, repeated an earlier assertion that there was inadequate public notice for a neighborhood meeting about the pool project in August, complained that he was not given adequate time to submit rebuttal testimony and claimed that Green made a false statement to legislators to obtain grant funding for the pool.

Councilor Dave Holland addressed Morris’ concerns one by one. In each instance, he said, his conclusion was either that the concerns were unfounded or that they were not relevant to the question of whether the conditional use permit was improperly granted.

After discussion, the council voted unanimously to uphold the permit and reject the appeal, with Lundbom and Adair recusing themselves from voting.