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No Immunity
He saw one of the largest problems facing members of local government as the lack of immunity to suit as an individual. Lindstrom told the audience that million dollar lawsuits brought against members of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors as individuals ‘‘for failure to give a developer exactly what he wants” had resulted in the entire Board disqualifying itself from acting on any issue relating to the suits until they were resolved. The Supervisors disqualified themselves after the Commonwealth Attorney agreed they had a conflict of interest because they couldn’t be fair and objective while the lawsuits were pending, according to Lindstrom.
On the basis of what happened in Albemarle, “anyone who wants to see something stopped can bring this kind of suit and paralyze the Board of Supervisors,” Lindstrom maintained.
In additon to the threat of individual suit. Supervisors face pressure from a community polarized between growth and no growth, he continued. Lindstrom said this pressure makes Board members lose sight of staging and planning, throwing the county into a growth spiral that nobody can control.
“How can Supervisors deal with pressure, with polarization and with people who give a comprehsnive plan only lip service?” Lindstrom asked. “That’s the biggest problem.” "If you think you’ve got a good Board of Supervisors, then sunnort them,” he advised. “The pressures are tremendous.” In the question and answer period that followed the panel presentation, Newbill Miller noted that all of a locality’s solutions to growth problems were economic solutions such as requiring expensive water and sewer systems and streets. “Somewhere along the line, we have to be able to say we’re doing this because the majority of our citizens want it.” “I don’t look at Richmond as the villain. I think they just don’t understand,” Miller continued. There’s an “ignorance of what really exists,” he maintained. “We have to make sure that our legislators understand what they’re doing and the impact of their decisions.”
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—Novalis r
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