The crowd attending the August 2014 Public Hearing for the Summers End Group marina CZM permit was unprecedented and vastly exceeded the capacity of the Cruz Bay hearing room.  Participants were limited to 3 minutes of testimony, and even with that limitation the hearing continued late into the night.

Commissioner Brion Morrisette spoke early in the hearing about his conflicts of interest.  Since he had represented the applicant – The Summers End Group LLC – as General Counsel and in other paid capacities he had a clear conflict under the CZM rules and regulations.  However since there were only three members of the St John CZM Committee  (notwithstanding the fact that two highly qualified individuals had volunteered prior to the meeting for appointment), and since quorum required three members, Commissioner Morrisette attended the hearing to make quorom.  This participation by Morrisette in a hearing involving a prior client of his would become an issue in future litigation.

In his opening remarks Commissioner Morrisette made the following comments (see the transcript below, pages 21-25 for the complete statement): “Under the CZM Rules and Regulations, having a conflict — which I have a conflict, and I want to put it bright and clear on the record, I have done legal work for the Applicant. I make my living as an attorney. I’m entitled to make my living as an attorney. Before I was on the CZM, I took on these clients for some very limited work. I also was a part of a marina that was permitted eight years ago. I feel that that constitutes a conflict as well. There has been no bones about that, there has been no hiding of that, there is nothing funky going on with this committee, and I am offended and I resent those who suggest otherwise.”

The two documents below are the written testimony which I submitted to CZM during the public comment period, and which I summarized in the 3 minutes allotted to me for testimony, and the full transctipt of the proceedings.