County Commissioner Candidates' Night, 10-10-12

notes from the Candidates’ Night 10-10-12 at Clinton

     There were a fair amount of people in the Clinton Hall for this event, but there were plenty of empty seats, and not that many chairs had been set up. Which means that most of you did not hear what the county commissioner candidates had to say. Unlike the presidential debates, which are available on line, I've had to settle for actually scribbling notes and transcribing them.

      Here, for your amusement and edification, are those notes.

1. Fire/EMS, whether or not to grant Fire/EMS district 3 a $0.15/$1000.00 property tax increase.

            This is the second time I’ve heard chief Rusty Palmer and Dean Enell argue this issue. My overall impression is that Dean has not researched deeply enough to ask the most penetrating questions, and that chief Palmer is skating. It feels for all the world like junior has once again brought the car home with new dents and parts missing, and once again expects mom and dad to fork over to fix it. After all, its the family car. Dean, in the position of dad, keeps asking what he did to make the car so beat up so quickly, and junior just keeps repeating that the car is very important to the family and really has to be in tip-top shape, so please folks, just fix it.

            It would take a whole lot of research to discover how big a fire station really needs to be, and how much hanging onto two parcels of bare land is costing us, even if they are free and clear. Chief Palmer pointed proudly to the fact that administrative offices are now in the bedrooms of the new, huge Freeland fire station. I never got to ask, why does the Freeland fire station have bedrooms if it has no paid firefighters to occupy them?

            As I wrote in my election crib sheet, this is a reluctant yes vote, which feels like my insurance rates have gone up and my ratification is really an after-the-fact sort of thing.

2. This was the real show of the evening. All 4 candidates for both County Commissioner seats were at the table. The audience was allowed to pose questions by writing them down and giving them to the moderator, Sherry (she used to be Mays), who acknowledged being a bit discombobulated.

In case you’ve been on Mars, there are now two candidates for each of two seats on the Board of Island County Commissioners.

District 1 (Clinton to Oak Harbor)

Helen Price-Johnson, D

Jeff Lauderdale, R

District 2 (Oak Harbor)

Angie Homola, D

Jill Johnson, R

Each candidate was given 5 minutes to make an opening statement.

Helen started by saying that her priorities are and have been public health & safety, a vibrant economy, quality of life, and open, transparent government. She said that transparency actually reduces the workload because people know what’s going on so don’t have to ask as many questions. She said it reduced Public Disclosure Act requests significantly. She works with the Economic Development Council and the Tourism Commission to increase tourism related revenues to local businesses.

Angie talked about having grown up camping all over the country, and how that awakened her environmental sensibilities. She talked about how having been a machinist, a carpenter, and an architect connected her with working people. She talked about raising her two kids in Oak Harbor and about her husband being in the Navy. She spent many years volunteering in the Oak Harbor schools, often in a teaching role. What woke her up was a letter to neighbors of a proposed annexation into the Oak Harbor Urban Growth Area. She felt a need to learn more and do more about this proposal. She ended up running for office and becoming an Island County Commissioner.  She found there had been a long time emphasis on growth and development, but no thought to how to deal with the impacts of that growth and development.  She had more to say, but her time was up.

Jill Johnson said she grew up in Oak Harbor, spent 10 years away from the island working as a fundraiser and learning to navigate the world of politics. She said Angie calls it non-transparency, but its really knowing how to get things done. She sits on the Oak Harbor Planning Commission. She has worked on school revitalization projects. She presented this pithy quote: “In government’s attempt to take the risk out of life, it is taking the life out of risk-taking.”

Jeff Lauderdale said he first came to the island in 1971 as a Navy airman. He listed his various positions in the Navy, including mechanical and nuclear engineer. He said he was very well versed in chemistry and physics. He said he’s been everywhere and done everything, and had come to Whidbey by choice. He’s been attending County Commissioner meetings for 2.5 years. Both the natural and human environment need protection. Government has hit an affordability wall. Island County has problems. It needs to return to the core values of protecting life, liberty, and property. It doesn’t take regulation to protect property. There is a more effective and responsible course.

Then came the questions, most of which were directed at all 4 candidates.

1. What is your biggest challenge or achilles heel?  2 minutes/ candidate

 You may notice that none of the candidates actually answered the question.

Jeff Lauderdale - We need a baseline budget scrub. We need more deputies. He promises to find any and all loose $ and devote it to more deputies, and then see what’s left. He acknowledged that assessing, collecting, and distributing taxes is important, but its secondary to public safety.

Jill Johnson - Every challenge is really an opportunity. She will bring fresh eyes with no preconceived notions. She has new ideas, a new perspective, and a new tone.

Angie - How to accomplish our mission? She’s already on the BICC, and they inherited the current recession when they came into office. Dealing with a 20% budget cut has been a major challenge. The county’s mandate is to protect life, health, and safety. Most taxes are earmarked for specific items. There is only $300k in discretionary spending. She has worked to save Meals on Wheels, disease prevention, and animal control. And she finds it very important to keep the public informed.

Helen - The elections office is swamped, all two of them. She had prioritized Law & Justice. She wants to reorganize local government to make it leaner but still accomplish its goals. She says they need a new paradigm. She wants seniors to be able to age in place, she wants at risk kids to have counselling available. She wants to reduce the cost of overhead, in part by increased use of technology.

2. What have you done as a volunteer in the last 10 years to serve the community?

Angie - talked about the many projects in the Oak Harbor schools which she initiated or in which she was involved, including noxious weed pulling, scuba trash patrols in the bay, lesson planning, teaching; working with Habitat for Humanity, and the Veterans’ Support program.

Jill - said she’d been involved with United Way, had worked on the High School stadium bond and on renovations. She’s a Big Sister. Her job as director of the Chamber of Commerce is paid, but it involves community support. She says she represents the voice of Business.

Lauderdale - says he’s a newcomer. He spent the first 2.5 years building his house, and that’s a significant contribution to the tax base. He became involved in the septic system program and helped there. He became involved in the Freeland Water & Sewer District and was asked to run for office, so here he is. He says its been a long and difficult time, and he’s trying to be involved.

Helen - was elected to the South Whidbey School Board in 2001 and served for 7 years. She’s been a youth leader at her church, she works with Hearts & Hammers, she sits on the Senior Services Board, the Island Transit Board, Ebey’s Landing Historic Reserve Board, the Mental Health Board, the Area Agency on Aging Board - and I know I missed a few.

3. What is your position on Conservation Futures and the Clean Water Utility?

Jill - says she’s not against Conservation Futures, but would not support a 1% increase. She wants all lands acquired through Conservation Futures to be open to the public. Only unique properties should be acquired. She’s concerned about properties coming off the tax rolls. The program need not be as big as it is or on the front burner. She doesn’t like the Clean Water Utility. She says its too expensive, its poorly communicated, and people distrust it.

Lauderdale - says Conservation Futures was a good idea once. Good things run out of steam. The tax rolls have to make up the difference for every property acquired. He wants a moratorium on land acquisitions. He’s even less a fan of the Clean Water Utility. He says it has nothing to do with drinking water. Its all about surface water. Its entangled in the current expense budget. He would trade off the Clean Water Utility for more important things.

Helen - says the Clean Water Utility is well thought out and integrated, and it leaves general fund $ for law and justice. Our water is too important to depend on Wall Street. We need to manage our own clean drinking water and surface/storm water. Conservation Futures acquisitions can mitigate some stormwater problems. She cites the blowout of Glendale Road as a problem which can now be solved because of the CWU.

Angie - says we need the Clean Water Utility to deal with the fact that we are a Sole Source Aquifer and have a very real threat of sea water intrusion into our freshwater aquifers. She says they’re being pro-active to protect water quality. She says Conservation Futures is very popular and very cheap. It comes to +/- $1.00/month and allows us to keep working farms, communities, and open space. She says its well worth the cost.

4. Do you support the restoration efforts at Deer Lagoon? Addressed to Angie only.

Angie - Habitat restoration is important everywhere. Deer Lagoon has been identified as a top priority for restoration, but this has to be done in the context of protecting the homeowners surrounding the Lagoon.

5. What role does planning play and should it be budgeted?

Lauderdale - says planning has its place, but it also has its limits. Current planning is for vertical growth because current planners assumed people would need to live where they worked. That is no longer the case. Because of the internet people can live anywhere. Planning should not be a major funding priority.

Helen - pointed out that county government is an extension of the state and must abide by state laws. The Growth Management Act requires counties to plan. If they defy GMA they stand to lose funding for all sorts of county functions. The current planning process is still picking up pieces and leftovers from the previous administration which did not meet its obligations. The planning dept does more than just long range planning. It also processes permits.

Angie - says they’ve cut 48% of the planning dept and the $350k/year land use attorney the former administration had. The current budget is actually super low. It does take planning to keep the county running.

Jill - says planning is important and says that a 40% reduction in staff should equate to a 40% reduction in permits processed. She says its wrong to budget $60k for a new planner.

6. What have you done or will you do for Veterans?

Helen - says that veterans are 15% of the county’s population, no doubt having to do with NAS Whidbey.  (I didn’t hear the rest of Helen’s remarks, or Angie’s or Jill’s. I got back as Lauderdale was talking. That said, I have heard Angie mention on several occasions how proud she is of the fact that they've increased the county's assistance to veterans more than 10-fold.)

Lauderdale - speaks as if all veteran resources were on the mainland and talks about making transportation to the mainland available for vets. He says he does not want Island County’s safety net to exceed that of the federal government.

7. Would you add deputies?

Angie - sure, she’d love to, but where do you find the money? She says she could eliminate whole departments and still not have enough to fund a single deputy.

Jill - says its a priority. That $66k for a planner could have gone toward a deputy, or even a patrol car. Saying its a priority and then not doing it is hypocrisy.

Lauderdale - says there is only one #1 priority and that’s law and justice. He went on a long diatribe about how few deputies are on patrol between 1:00 am and 6:00 am, and how its been 2.5 years and still there are no solutions.

Helen - says that law and justice suffered far fewer cuts than any other department. They whacked all the other departments to the bone. With nowhere else to turn they went to the public and asked for a tax increase via proposition 1. She reminded Lauderdale that he and Kelly Emerson campaigned actively against prop 1 and that loss was the coup which cut law and justice. And she wanted to remind Lauderdale and others that its not just deputies but also jail staff and courts.

8. Do you favor a Clinton Community Council?

Helen - Yes. It will help distill ideas, which will then be brought to the commissioners.

Angie - says its a new idea, that she’s not used to a RAID (Rural Area of more Intense rural Development, the designation for Clinton, Ken's Corner, Bayview, etc)  having a council. She supports it.

Jill - says she’s from a city. She finds a community center important. She’s not opposed.

Lauderdale - says Clinton is where Freeland was before it was made an NMUGA (Non-Municipal Urban Growth Area). Its vulnerable under GMA. Its wonderful to create a voice to protect a community from Olympia, and maybe even from him (implying his election). They need a broad spectrum of representation on any community council, and to stay involved for the long haul.

9. Has Island County participated in a LEAN training for all employees?

(I’ve just gone on line to figure out what LEAN is, and find that there are dozens if not hundreds of companies offering training. All I’ve seen thus far is training for management, manufacturing, and students. Nowhere have I found any kind of definition, but I gather from what I did see that it is intended to streamline businesses, shorten the decision making process, and thereby increase profit. I’m not at all clear on how this would apply to a government.)

Helen - says they’ve talked about it, and the county has just been awarded the opportunity to do this for the permitting process. This comes out of business management.

Angie - says its a great opportunity, but the county has 478 employees and they’re still working to spread the idea.  She’s still working on trying to consolidate the motor pool and purchasing.

Jill - says that much in the business world is transferable, but not everything. Finding ways to be more efficient is the duty of all county commissioners.

Lauderdale - goes on record as agreeing with Helen on this.

Closing Statements

Lauderdale - this is not about personalities or politics but about priorities. Public safety, deputies come first. The second priority is the economy. Do everything necessary to keep NAS Whidbey because it provides 85% of Island County’s funding stream. Third, help the economy. Growth and development generate profits, not costs. We don’t need any more regulations.

Jill - says she was raised here. Her heart is here. She cares deeply. She says she is balanced, independent, has no predetermined ideas. She knows they have to work together. This election is about priorities: law and justice, the economy, and improving the tone of the County Commissioners. She says she’s not perfect, she’ll do her best.

Angie - goes back to the budget. The cuts that were made impacted the medical benefits of all employees except the deputies. The pay of administrative staff was frozen. They have to keep the chemical dependency program because the alternative, leaving those people on the street, would be far more expensive. The county used to be able to raise its tax base by 6%. The previous Republican administration did that regularly. Now the maximum increase is 1% while the rate of inflation is 3%. Yes, deputies are a priority. You should help us pay for them.

Helen - We have an aging population. We need to reorganize all our public agencies. We need to preserve public resources, improve transportation, take preventive measures, and leverage public funds. She supported the COPS grant, but the county did not have a community policing policy so was not eligible.

And there the meeting ended.

I found some pretty remarkable statements by some of the candidates. The emphasis on deputies by Lauderdale, and to some extent by Jill, demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of county budgets. No, you can't just rob Peter to pay Paul for more deputies. Funds are very specifically allocated to certain functions and departments. You can't just short one in favor of another. That's why Angie and Helen went to the public to ask for a small tax increase - and the very people demanding more deputies campaigned against that request. 

Lauderdale's claim that building his house constituted public service elicited some snorts from the public. Its obvious he does not have a clear understanding of what volunteer service is about.

Jill Johnson mentioned several times wanting to improve the "tone" of the commissioners' offices. That seemed a bit odd, since it was she who was doing the sniping. I didn't actually write that part down, but she took several low shots at Angie and Helen during the evening. She also has a reputation for some pretty loud confrontations, so I'm wondering what 'tone' she intends to improve.

Its clear that both Jill Johnson and Lauderdale would do away with Conservation Futures at the first opportunity. And without Conservation Futures, we will see no more acquisitions of those very special places which make Island County such a great place to live and visit. As for the Clean Water Utility, it is obvious that neither Johnson nor Lauderdale are even aware of what it is or what it does, or that doing away with it will leave the county open to lawsuits and sanctions by the state. 

You can't expect a challenger to know all about what's going on at the county, but if they're serious about the office they should at least try to educate themselves. Jill Johnson has attended either two or three commissioner meetings. Jeff Lauderdale has attended staff sessions and hearings for more than two years and evidently hasn't learned a thing in that time. He still doesn't understand the budget process or which departments are mandated by the state and must be funded.

One of the more offensive claims by Lauderdale is the demand for more deputies at the cost of everything else the county does. There is a great deal of evidence to the effect that providing an ounce of prevention in the form of parks, open space, and services for kids, seniors, and those with mental health problems is worth many pounds of cure in deputies dealing with kids going wild and adults wound too tight. The mayor of Los Angeles has instituted a program of providing parks in the worst neighborhoods because it reduces the crime rate significantly. You'll note from the exchanges above that Jill Johnson has now drunk Lauderdale's kool-aid and is singing the same tune. For someone who has served as a Big Sister, this seems rather inconsistent.

Now its your turn to think about all of this.