Politics & Government

Update: Dirks Voted Off of RB Planning Board

Longtime member Joe Dirks, who is also a member of the Rancho Bernardo Community Council, was removed from the Planning Board on Thursday.

Updated 10:14 a.m. Friday

The Rancho Bernardo Planning Board on Thursday voted to remove longtime member Joe Dirks amid accusations of “embarrassing” behavior, though Dirks said he plans to run again and is not ashamed of anything he’s done.

“I behaved honorably,” Dirks said after the meeting in which he was voted out, 14-4-1. “I don’t feel any regret. If you don’t speak the truth, what is your word worth?”

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Dirks had been the board’s treasurer in the last term that ended in March and parliamentarian, though the latter position was recently eliminated because it was not a specified position in the group’s bylaws. Dirks had been accused of violating board and/or city of San Diego policies regarding board member conduct by “at least” 10 different people, including city officials, Board Chairwoman Teri Denlinger said though she refused to identify any of the individuals and said some of the complaints were verbal though board policy requires them to be in writing.

Most of the complaints centered around Dirks’ questioning of the board’s compliance with board, city and state policies about public meetings. As an advisory arm of the city of San Diego, the board is subject to Council Policy 600-24, its bylaws and the state Brown Act which governs public meetings.

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Dirks would often raise questions about the board’s compliance with these regulations, from providing enough notice about items to be voted on to allowing members of the public to speak at meetings. In one instance, a resident was waving his hand at a meeting but was told by Denlinger he could not speak and would be asked to leave if he continued to try to do so.

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Some board members on Thursday said the constant questioning was embarrassing to the board and a disruption to the meetings.

“We are so stifled by these guidelines. …I think we’re all overwhelmed with rules and guidelines that we spend 95 percent of our evening on. I think the rules are there to guide us, not hinder us,” board member Eugenia Contratto, from Bernardo Heights, said.

Board member Robin Kaufman pushed back against the notion that the regulations are simply guidelines—a view also expressed by Denlinger and the board’s vice chair—saying the city follows them to the letter.

Others objected to the way in which Dirks brought up the compliance questions, even if he was right, saying he had a mean-spirited “gotcha” mentality by choosing not to give Denlinger, as chair, a courtesy call beforehand when he noticed possible issues on the agenda.

Denlinger also said that some city officials had considered it “weird and creepy” that Dirks would videotape meetings and that it “intimidated” them. The Brown Act allows members of the public to record any public meetings, as long as they are not being disruptive.

But while board members were questioning Dirks’ approach—including refusing mail and email about his removal, and opting not to meet with the executive committee instead of having a public meeting—others wondered what the board hoped to achieve by removing one of its own.

Seven Oaks resident Jerry Sack, who is also an at-large member of the RB Community Council which Dirks serves on, defended Dirks as a “highly-motivated professional and valued volunteer.”

Dirks was the Community Council’s volunteer of the year in 2010 and has been the sole representative for Seven Oaks on the board for the past 18 months, even though there are two designated seats, Sack said to the board.

Sack suggested the board have a “cooling off period” and have a mandatory team-building retreat to sort out issues and review the various regulations.

Community Council member Debbra Jacobs-Robinson had another idea.

“You folks need a therapist,” Jacobs-Robinson said, chiding board members for trying to rush through the process for resolution. “Your job is not to move on; your job is to resolve it.”

While Dirks was wrong to refuse letters from the board about his removal, it’s understandable that he wouldn’t meet with the executive committee due to how many people were said to have complained about him, she said.

“It seemed the decision was already made. …I don’t think he had a chance. I think he knew the handwriting was on the wall,” Jacobs-Robinson said, adding the board should put off a vote and go talk with Dirks about a solution.

Dirks, who could have met with the executive board to sort out the complaints but chose not to, said he wanted the allegations to become public because they were so blatantly false that he did not trust the executive team.

“When they are that far off base, you don’t come to that same group and say mea culpa,” Dirks said, citing an accusation that he disrupted an administrative meeting though he has video where he does not speak at all.

Denlinger also took issue with Dirks talking to the media about his pending removal instead of coming to the executive team. (Dirks to talk about the allegations.)

At least two board members, at Thursday’s meeting, said they were put off by Dirks’ refusal to say “hi” to them at recent meetings. When asked after the meeting if he was being childish by not saying hello, Dirks said no because these were executive committee members who had moved forward with the false allegations against him.

Dirks’ removal was approved by a 14-4-1 vote, meeting the two-thirds approval requirement. Vicky Touchstone, the board’s newest member who was seated at Thursday’s meeting to represent District F (Bernardo Heights), cast the lone abstention. The votes were cast by signed written ballot, though the names and votes are open to the public. An early attempt by Kaufman to have the vote deferred or removed from the agenda because Dirks had information that the board had not yet seen was rejected.

Dirks said he plans to run again in March to represent Seven Oaks.

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