Fresno County Supervisor Bob Waterston this week cast the key vote needed to ease a long-standing policy that prohibits county supervisors from talking with people once a land-use application is filed.

The policy has been in place since 1978, and in the past, Waterston has been among the board members who refused to change it.

But on Tuesday, Waterston switched sides, joining Supervisor Susan Anderson and Board Chairman Henry Perea in approving a change. Now, supervisors will be able to talk to people on both sides of a land-use issue before a hearing is held. The supervisors also must publicly disclose who they’ve talked to prior to the hearing taking place.

Waterston said he changed his mind because he realized the policy was keeping him from receiving information that he needed to make informed decisions.

The policy was enacted at a time when county supervisors and planning commissioners were making back-room deals with developers, former county supervisors have said.

Those former supervisors – John Krebs, Sharon Levy, John Donaldson and Armando Rodriguez – lobbied against changing the policy last year. They said county supervisors shouldn’t be discussing land-use issues behind closed doors.

The policy doesn’t apply to land-use changes that affect the entire county.

On Tuesday, Supervisors Judy Case and Phil Larson were the only ones who wanted to keep the policy intact. Larson put it this way: “If it’s not broke, I don’t think we should try and fix it.”

The policy change doesn’t take effect until July 1. That means it won’t have any effect on a controversial land-use issue that’s before the board – a request by Calaveras Materials to mine 315 acres on the south side of Goodfellow Avenue, east of Sanger.

Waterston said the board purposely delayed implementing the policy change: “That was the reason we did that. All we know about it is what staff has presented to us.”