San Benito County supervisors today at a special meeting will review the performance of County Counsel Dennis LeClere, who had been criticized in recent months for advisement to officials on the Spur Hotel proposal.
The closed session meeting is set for 4 p.m. at the County Administration Building, 481 Fourth St. The county's head human resources official, Richard Inman, declined to comment when asked whether the discussion is a routine evaluation of LeClere.
LeClere recently has been criticized for his role in making recommendations to supervisors on the proposed Spur Hotel project in Tres Pinos off Highway 25.
The board in October had approved a crucial zone change for the project from a residential to commercial designation. Supervisors were compelled to reverse their decision and start the process again because they had failed to conduct a commercial district review for the project or certify a "mitigated negative declaration" - a lesser version of a full environmental impact report that addresses piecemeal question areas as opposed to a much broader set of studies.
A three-fifths majority of the board had voted in October to forego the full EIR in favor of a lesser examination.
Two of the most vocal critics have been Spur Hotel developer John Eade, who called LeClere's guidance on the project a "disgrace," and Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, who told the Free Lance he had instructed the county counsel not to allow another "fiasco" on the hotel project.
Kollin Kosmicki Kollin Kosmicki is editor of the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 337 or editor@freelancenews.com.
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