A new district court filing alleged Cody’s City Planner had multiple conflicts of interests regarding the building approvals for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) temple.
The group, Save our Cody Neighborhoods, which hassued to stop construction of the temple, submitted the filing. The group says documents they have indicate Todd Stowell, the Cody city planner, helped the church file an application to build the temple. Group spokesman Terry Skinner said the man who donated the land to the church, thanked Stowell, and offered him a job through a text.
Skinner said the text was, “basically acknowledging that if things do fall apart, that the fall back position for Mr. Stowell would be a job with him.”
The brief also alleges Stowell is a Bishop in the Church, and that he quoted scripture in an official staff memo. Skinner said the religious references in the staff memo are inappropriate.
“Whether it’s a temple project, or any church, or any other development project, it has no bearing whatsoever on what the planning and zoning board should be seeing,” he said.
The group’s filing also claims they tried to obtain city records that included the text as early as May, but the City of Cody only provided the records in mid-September.
Scott Kolpitcke, the city of Cody attorney, said he has not had time to review the brief filed October 23.
But, he said, “I reviewed the state statutes in Wyoming for conflicts of interest, what the statue refers to as personal or private interests, and what I can tell he did not have a personal or private interest.”
When asked about the perceived conflict of interest last summer, Stowell wouldn’t comment. The building permit has been issued, but construction hasn’t started.
The October 23rd district court filing is asking for a stay, to prevent construction of the temple until the court rules on claims from LDS, the City, and the Save Our Neighborhoods group.
