JEROME - The public hearing for a controversial feedlot has been postponed indefinitely after commissioners decided Monday the county's planning and zoning administrator may not have allowed the public due process in denying written comment on the proposal.

The board ruled Monday to postpone the hearing to grant the public and Big Sky due process because the deadline for testimony was unclear. The hearing, scheduled for next week, will be rescheduled at a later date.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Art Brown told Dean Dimond, who lives near the proposed Big Sky 13,000-animal feedlot, that it was too late to submit written comment Friday because he was one day late.

Under county code, comment is accepted for 15 days after a public notice is published in a local newspaper. In this case, the notice was published in the July 19 edition of the North Side News. Brown said that edition was available on July 18, making the deadline Thursday.

But under Idaho Code, "The time which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day â€- ," making the deadline Friday.

Jerome County Prosecutor Mike Seib told the Times-News last week he interpreted the deadline to be Friday. "That's usually how the Idaho statues work," he said.

The proposed feedlot has angered some residents, including Dimond, who say they have little input in the county's livestock permit process. The National Park Service also opposes the proposed feedlot because it is near the Minidoka Internment National Monument where thousands of Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during World War II.

Brown's actions raised the ire of Rich Carlson, an attorney for the Idaho Rural Council, who submitted Monday a letter to the board calling for disciplinary action. Environmental group Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment asked Commissioner Charlie Howell to dismiss Brown.

Howell stopped short of calling Brown's action a mistake.

"I don't think he made a mistake," Howell said late Monday. "But I think it could have been handled differently."

Brown could not be reached for comment for this story.

Times-News staff writer Matt Christensen welcomes comments at 735-3243 and at matt.christensen@lee.net.