A few weeks back, members of local planning and zoning boards were solicited for an evening workshop at a restaurant in Sullivan County. A number of workshop presentations were to be made by top attorneys from some of the state's big law firms, all handling big development projects around our region, that would result in state required education points. Such things are needed for such volunteer positions; the idea is to acquaint everyone with the subtleties of land use planning as a government tool, including the much-praised State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) that requires certain standards of public review for all developments.

We listened to complaints before the event and subsequently noted that these experts had long been part of the state's training process for SEQRA. But then, after it happened, we have found ourselves increasingly troubled by what attendees told us about presenters suggesting that environmental assessment forms can be fudged to a great extent, and that having too much public involvement in review processes can be detrimental to local economic health (as well as the ease, and speed, of planners' work).

Looking at the agenda for the upcoming Association of Towns workshops in New York City in mid-February, we've noticed a growing number of similar pro-development lawyers making presentations, and topics for "classes" including pesky properties and how to get them developed, as well as ways of spurring economic growth through land use laws.

Combined with trends that have seen the state Department of Environmental Conservation both employing many of the top environmental attorneys in the state, effectively silencing their input from the outside, and a gutting of enforcement arms of the agency, we're wondering whether some form of messaging is in effect. More and more now, big private projects are joining up with state initiatives to further their ambitions as "economic development," muddying the public review processes. And worse, the state, along with many of our county and even municipal governments, are refusing to comment on any of this, choosing to deal with the public, via we the press, only through official releases of their own writing.

"When we took on this work we did so as a steward of the public," said one veteran planner and zoning board member who attended the recent Sullivan County soiree, and has been watching the trends as well. "Now we're expected to rubber stamp things others further up the line want. That doesn't seem right."

Say it, sister!

What else has our hackles up of late? How about the politicization of the weather, as evidenced by this past week's "blizzard" and the endless posturings of governors, various county executives, and the mayor of New York City as to who was most concerned, and inevitably the most responsible public servant. Travel bans threatening citizens with arrests, and fines plus jail time, for trying to get to "non-emergency" work. What about deadlines and others responsibility? And what happens, now, with anyone arrested during that brief period before everyone came to their senses Tuesday morning.

Even worse, whatever happened to that old postal service motto about nothing stopping delivery? Why'd everything close down before the first flakes fell on Monday? The private carriers kept delivering, and profiting, as did all those stores catering to disaster hoarders and anyone lucky enough to be advertising during weather news broadcasts.

Yes, we've heard the arguments about us all being better safe than sorry. But do we really need to live with such fear of Mother Nature so often? Is every weather event in the government's purview now?

We come back to one real issue here. Yes, this stuff is serious. But instead of focusing all our attention storm to storm, how about investing some real political will and working to rebuild our systems to cope with what's happening. Other countries have. We have, in the past.

If the power going out is dangerous, bury the lines. If flooding knocks out important infrastructure, raise it. If we're worried about what happens when everyone's loose on the roads in their own cars, build and promote workable public transport systems that compensate.

I've traveled Alaska in winter. It's workable. I've also been in Florida and France when it snowed where the reactions are scary, but in the end kind of silly.

It weather's to be politicized, we say, let's use our politics to work towards real solutions.