New hearing examiner knows silliness when she hears it.

There is a look that crosses Meredith Getches’ face from time to time, an arch to the eyebrows that suggests she knows a silly argument when she hears it.

Not that the city’s new hearing examiner will hold it against you; she seems almost relentlessly good humored, in even the driest of proceedings.

But she does reserve the right to derive a little private amusement from painful contortions of logic, sometimes demanded of those in the legal profession in the service of their client.

“I look at lawyers I know,” Getches said, “and think, ‘Ouch, does it stick in your throat to say that?’”

Getches, 59, joined the city in January under contract as hearing examiner, a position in which she will decide the fate of various land-use proposals and appeals.

It is familiar territory; she served as Seattle’s hearing examiner from 1990 until stepping down last April, saying the job had lost its fun.

Retirement to private legal practice didn’t last long; she jumped at the chance to apply for the Bainbridge post, which had been filled pro-tem for years.

Getches says her dissatisfaction in Seattle wasn’t with the work so much as the type of cases that were coming before her; she grew tired of dealing with folks upset with their business and occupation tax bills or contesting license suspensions.

Land-use hearings were becoming few and far between; the city had raised the threshold for appeals, after a period in which neighbors sent “every eight-unit apartment in Ballard” to Getches’ bench for review.

And that’s what she really likes: land use issues, complex and technical and controversial.

In the early 1970s, Getches earned a degree in the nascent field of environmental studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara, then served as project manager as that city developed its first shoreline management program. Among her credentials are a University of Oregon law degree, with a specialization in ocean and coastal law, and a certificate of mediation skills from the UW.

While she admits to having “very strong views about a whole raft of things, environmental, political and social,” Getches says they do not encroach on her decision-making.

“My environmental background means I have the education and experience to read a report by an engineer or a hydrologist and know what it says,” she said. “I’m an ‘environmental generalist,’ if you will, and have a smattering of knowledge in many environmental fields.”

Respected

Profiled in the Seattle media last year, Getches was both buried and praised by those who had appeared before her in proceedings.

Some citizen activists complained that she was routinely deferential to City Hall, and that appeals to her bench were a waste of time; others lauded her for her willingness to overrule the city in favor of the little guy.

Still others, including an attorney who over the years found himself on both the right and wrong ends of her rulings, said Getches was ultimately objective and fair.

Getches is circumspect, saying the appeal process is by nature adversarial, and that opinions largely depend on how one’s particular issue fares.

“People don’t like to lose,” she said. “My job is to give them a full and fair hearing, and then see what the law says.

“This is very jokingly put,” she added, “but my job is to make everybody equally unhappy.”

That notion seems improbable. Spend an hour in one of Getches’ hearings at City Hall, listen to her banter with applicants, appellants and counsel, and it becomes clear that abundant good humor is fundamental to her style.

Recently, hearing an application by a Rich Passage fish farm to modernize its equipment – fiercely opposed by those who have built homes next door – Getches found some fun in the minutiae of environmental studies, trading repartee on the life of algae.

Later, told by an attorney that he did not intend to “browbeat” an expert witness, Getches responded drily, “Oh, darn.”

One Bainbridge applicant who has appeared before her praised Getches for her good nature and professionalism.

“She made positive comments, which gave me a good feeling that she was going to work with us,” the applicant said. “It was like a team effort, not just someone who was programmed to fight against any development.”

How Getches the judge will be judged in the Bainbridge court of public opinion remains to be seen. She cautions that it takes a few years’ worth of decisions to really measure a hearing examiner’s effectiveness.

Getches also cautions that because she is ultimately guided by the law, not even she is always happy with her own rulings.

“I’ve had to hold my nose to render decisions,” she said, “a bunch of them.”