Letter: Planning commission won’t handle sign ordinance after city council vote
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Monday, July 28, 2014, 11 p.m. — The Joint City-County Planning Commission put Mayor Bill Sheckles and the city 
council on notice last Thursday by hand-delivered letter the commission would no longer administer the city’s much-debated sign ordinance.
The letter followed the city council’s vote last Tuesday to side with Bardstown businesswoman Rosemary Humkey in the council’s 4-2 vote against the planning commission’s notice of violation regarding a vehicle-mounted sign on Humkey’s car.
In documents obtained by an Open Records request filed by the Nelson County Gazette, planning commission Chairman Todd Johnson advised in the letter to Mayor Bill Sheckles the city needed to immediately take over all administration duties of its sign ordinance — including permitting and enforcement.
“This letter is official notice that effective July 23, 2014, the Planning Commission will no longer serve as the Sign Administrator,” the commission’s letter states.
According to the letter, the commission agreed to drop the ordinance if Director Janet Johnston-Crowe’s interpretation of the sign ordinance was not upheld by the council. The letter hands administration and enforcement of the sign ordinance back to the council.
The planning commission’s letter makes it clear the City of Bardstown has no grounds to reduce or withdraw its share of the funding it provides for the commission in retaliation for the commission’s actions.
The commission’s original agreement to administer the sign ordinance is an informal one and that agreement is not part of the interlocal agreement that created the commission and established how participating governments would fund it, the letter states.
“Because the City’s sign regulations are a stand-alone city ordinance, the administration and enforcement activities do not fall under the Interlocal Agreement and is not part of the City’s annual contributions to the Planning Commission,” Johnson stated in the letter to Sheckles.
The planning commission is funded by the participating local governments — Nelson Fiscal Court and the cities of Bardstown, New Haven, Bloomfield and Fairfield — via an interlocal agreement.
The commission provided Sheckles with copies of letters signed by former mayors Bill Brown and Dixie Hibbs requesting an extension of the ongoing agreement for the commission to administer the city’s sign ordinance.
The only revenue the commission has received from the sign ordinance has been from the sign permit fees.
On the same day the commission’s letter was hand-delivered to City Hall, Sheckles sent a letter to Johnson asking the commission to reconsider its decision and to continue its agreement to administer the sign ordinance.
“As a former Councilman and now as Mayor, I have witnessed the outstanding job Jan (Johnston-Crowe) has done as the Executive Director for the past 11 years. The City of Bardstown is a great place to live, work and enjoy and those qualities are obtained through Jan’s willingness to do what is required in her position.”
NEXT UP. The planning commission has a special meeting set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 29, 2014, in the Fiscal Court Room on the second floor of the Old Courthouse.
-30-
