Kevin McCorried, chair of the planning and zoning board, told the Humboldt County board that his panel has completed a third draft of a wind-energy ordinance and asked the board to pursue outside legal review before adoption. "We feel it would be appropriate to get third party attorney to kinda review an attorney that's versed in this type of ordinance, just to make sure that we're covering all our bases," McCorried said.

Board members discussed options for counsel and whether to start with names McCorried provided from firms in Des Moines. One board member noted the county's insurer had expressed interest in reviewing the draft as well. According to the transcript, the chair said the insurer "would also like to have a look at it because if this is challenged in court, they're the ones who will be defending us."

A motion to have a third-party lawyer review the draft was made and seconded during the meeting. After additional discussion about which firm to use and whether to wait for an insurer recommendation, the board voted to provide the draft ordinance to the county's insurance company for review and to solicit the insurer's counsel recommendation. The motion to refer the draft to the insurer was recorded in the meeting as carrying.

Meeting participants named two Des Moines firms as possible counsel — Whitfield and (transcript: "Eddie") and Ehlers and Cooney — and mentioned attorneys Thomas Bridal (name from the transcript) and Tim Whipple as contacts. The transcript shows McCorried said one of the suggested attorneys had experience working with MidAmerican, which they believed relevant to energy-related ordinance drafting.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: the planning board will provide the latest draft to county staff (Trish/Ben were named as staff contacts in the discussion), and the draft will be forwarded to the insurance company for review and for a recommendation on which attorney to hire. No firm was selected and no ordinance was adopted at the meeting.