Island County Commissioner, District 3

Island County Commissioner, District 3

I did a fair amount of work on these two candidates for the primary. I’m using what I posted then as the basis for this update for the General election. You can also scroll down to my notes from the 9-24-18 and 10-2-18 candidates’ nights. They reveal the candidates under a bit of stress and in front of a crowd.

I need to clear up some confusion. Island County, like most, has 3 County Commissioners, each representing their own district. Only the residents of the district vote for a commissioner in the primary. The general election, by contrast, is open to everyone in the county. This is the chance for all of us to weigh in on the District 3 commissioner’s race.


Rick Hannold, R, incumbent    http://www.rickhannold.com/
rhannold@comcast.net

I’ve been watching Rick Hannold for the last 4 years and to say that I am underwhelmed would be a gross understatement.

Rick Hannold has concluded that the way to win votes is to claim that Whidbey Environmental Action Network supports Janet St Clair. While individuals involved with WEAN do support Janet St Clair, the organization, being a federal tax exempt organization, does not endorse candidates. While this was made clear by WEAN, Hannold failed to get the message. He believes his claim is a dog whistle for his far right constituents.  Given that he does not believe that climate change is real or caused by humans, and given that WEAN is busting a gut and more to get the climate change message across to the public, along with the message of what we can do about it, there are some obvious differences.

I appreciate the work of the anonymous person who compiled stories from the Record about Hannold.

6-16-18  Planning Commissioner’s remarks reflect lack of empathy.
This was the statement by Hannold’s Plannning Commission appointees that people had to earn the right to live here, and those living in tents were making a lifestyle choice.
6-27-18 Hannold defends Planning Commissioner’s remarks.
The latest in a series of foot-in-mouth episodes involves Hannold’s appointment of Planning Commission members. Each County Commissioner appoints 3 Planning Commissioners from their district. Hannold chose to appoint 3 women who all believe that people should have to earn the right to live in Island County, and that people who live in tents in the woods do so as a lifestyle choice. After 2 years of work on an Affordable Housing plan, Hannold’s latest appointee torpedoed the whole thing – and Hannold defended her. The Planning Commission holds a great deal of power over how we live our lives in Island County. Hannold has made it clear with his appointments that poor and working people need not apply for residence.

But then – and this is classic Hannold – he takes credit for having recently passed the updated Housing element of the Comprehensive Plan, presumably over the objections of his appointed Planning Commissioners.

6-23-18 Commissioners were right to join opioid lawsuit.
Hannold voted no. This is a multi-jurisdictional national lawsuit to hold the manufacturers accountable for their massive advertising and distribution of opioids. Hannold’s comment was that this was a law enforcement matter and they just needed to get the dealers off the street. Right.

5-19-18 Commissioners have questions about city request.
Oak Harbor requested review of the just completed Joint Planning Area, asking for expansion. The commissioners voted not to reopen the issue. Hannold voted in favor of reopening. This is tied to the Wright’s Crossing proposal to build 1500 houses on farm land south of Oak Harbor, which incidentally is currently in court. Oak Harbor needs that new review to make the development happen. Hannold has claimed to be against that development, but then he just voted in favor of it.

5-12-18 Commissioners decline federal funds for trail.
This is the Ken’s Corner to ferry proposed trail which has long been in the county’s trails network plan. At a recent candidates’ night Hannold said he opposed it because it was uphill all the way. Yep, and if you’re going the other way it would go downhill, but he evidently forgot that part. Hannold and Jill Johnson turned back that funding because they had other priorities in their own districts. Never mind that there was no funding for those other priorities. We end up losing the Clinton trail and having no funds for the Oak Harbor and north trails. Good work, guys.

He has consistently refused to spend and even refused to accept funds for projects in districts other than his own – and when he is overridden, again, he claims credit for the good the projects have done.

3-18-18 County board revisits debate over health.
This is about the health impacts of growler noise. Hannold expressed his frustration because as far as he was concerned the issue was closed. “I thought we put an end to this conversation, but it still comes up every meeting. Life can cause illness and adverse health effects. The only way around it is death.” If I were less charitable I would translate this statement as an invitation to residents of the prairie to drop dead.

10-27-17 County continues home nurse visits – for  now.
Hannold said “I don’t question the value of the program. I question what part county government is responsible for.”  It follows for the rest of us to question how this valuable program would continue without Island County’s participation. Hannold said he believes that mental health issues start in homes and schools, and that government should ‘unshackle’ parents and teachers from ‘a lot of liberal rules and regulations.’  I think the public needs urgently to know just what ‘liberal rules and regulations’ are such an imposition on parents and teachers.

10-13-14 Candidates take on spate of topics at South Whidbey forum.
 Island County Commissioner candidate Rick Hannold told the audience that the threat of global warming is largely overstated. “I feel its just part of the natural course of things. You can skew the facts either way depending on who’s paying for the study.”


Hannold has consistently tried to shut down the Conservation Futures fund and program. In his campaign literature he claims to have “successfully reorganized” Conservation Futures. Right. His reorganization eliminated the Technical Advisory Group, which did the research on which decisions were based. Conservation Futures is the program which provides the seed money which Whidbey Camano Land Trust so skillfully leverages into significant grants which they then use to buy such places as the Trillium forest, conservation easements all over Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve, and Barnum Point on Camano, among many others. Without that seed money those other grants are not available. Rumor has it that Hannold tried to sell off Barnum Point to developers. Failing that, he then took credit for what I hear is becoming a great public asset. And in his campaign material he even takes credit for the Land Trust’s work securing the Fakkema Farm. Now that is some chutzpah, given that WEAN spent inordinate amounts of $$ defending Island County against Oak Harbor’s demand to annex the farm, and WCLT eventually raised the multiple millions to buy the development rights. Hannold’s only participation was his signature on the enabling ordinance.

One of Angie Homola’s accomplishments as a commissioner was to create the Clean Water Utility, intended to fund projects to do just that. I found the minutes of a Water Resources Advisory Committee meeting from late 2016 in which it was reported that “C/Johnson and C/Hannold were not in support of implementing this phase of the CWU. Bill Oakes has a million dollars in reserve with approximately $600,000 spent annually. They voted 2-1 to not release the money this year.” One might conclude from this that Hannold is not interested in protecting our water quality, even when specifically designated funds are available and waiting to be spent.

Hannold also claims to have saved Island Transit from bankruptcy. Right.

Most egregious is Hannold’s claim to have “led Island County’s victorious fight to keep multi-national open net fish farms away from Whidbey and Camano Island waters.” Maybe I’m most PO’d about this one because I was so intimately involved in the entire process. It began in 2010 when Angie Homola convinced her fellow commissioners to support a ban on Atlantic salmon net pens in the upcoming review and update of Island County’s Shoreline Master Program. The review and update went forward and eventually was sent to Ecology for review and approval. Ecology held the Shoreline Master Program hostage, demanding Island County remove the ban. There were a series of meetings and hearings, all of which Steve and I attended. Steve wrote a major paper summarizing all the science he could on the subject, and Ecology’s negotiator, Mr Tim Gates, acknowledged that Steve’s paper was the reason they waited 2 whole years to respond, and when they did it was to cave in and allow Island County’s ban. Rick Hannold’s only involvement in any of this was to approve the final adoption – and to add a weakening amendment allowing for industrial shellfish harvest on our shores. Once again, he takes credit for the work of others.

I need to repeat that Rick Hannold does not believe that climate change is real, so sees no reason why Island County should prepare for it. It might be interesting to hear his response to the recent report by the IPCC telling us that unless we take action NOW, we are all cooked.

I have just posted an inquiry to both Rick Hannold and Janet St Clair asking for their responses to the IPCC report. I will post as soon as I hear back.

I have very strong feelings about giving credit where credit is due. There is no shortage of this commodity and it doesn’t cost a lot to acknowledge what others have done. Rick Hannold has obviously never learned this lesson and takes egregiously inappropriate credit for the actions of others.




Janet St Clair, D    http://www.janetstclair.com/
stclair4islandcounty@gmail.com

Janet is more than a breath of fresh air. She’s a bit of a strong wind who will stir up Island County government in a most positive way. Her background is in human services. She sits on the Island County Community Health Advisory Board, so already has some idea of how things work (or fail to work) at the county. Among other things she has seen just how personally offensive some county commissioners can be, which has caused her to take a pledge for civility. That in itself is a welcome and long needed change.

Unlike incumbent Hannold,  Janet has genuine hands-on experience in developing and administering significant budgets. I also discovered in my research that Janet is the co-author of a published paper on providing comprehensive physical and mental health services.

Here are the points Janet makes in her campaign literature:
* Access to healthcare, including mental health and substance abuse treatment
* Dignified retirement and resources to age in place
* Affordable housing and economic opportunities for Island County residents
* Parks, access to beaches and open space for everyone to explore our outdoor wonders
* Stewardship of the natural beauty of our islands through sound planning and policies
* Respectful, experienced leadership that values community and people above all

Janet believes climate change is real and that human activity is responsible for it. She sees that Island County can reduce its impact and can prepare for such things as sea level rise. She already leads a small environmental organization in public education on these issues.  She proposes, as commissioner, to work locally and regionally to develop policies and provide incentives for positive behavior. She is a proponent of low impact development, reducing stormwater runoff, working toward converting the county’s vehicle fleet to lower energy, providing more electric vehicle charging stations, and supporting I-1631, intended to move Washington from dependence on fossil fuels.

She has plans to deal with homelessness and affordable housing, and the background and experience to lend some reality to those plans. Here’s a quote:
     She supports the following strategies that can increase housing inventory while staying within GMA mandates and protect the rural and small town nature of our communities.
a. Increase in-fill housing inventory in established urban growth areas and incorporated towns/cities.
b. Create and incentivize co-housing and shared housing policies that meet septic and water standards.
c. Develop policies for micro-housing on large parcels that do not detract or damage our environment and farms.
d. Provide incentives for owners to transfer existing housing from a VRBO inventory to rental inventory where fiscally possible.

At the candidates’ night Janet pledged to hold town hall meetings on a regular schedule, both on Camano and North Whidbey, in the evening so working people can attend. She also wants to work on ‘virtual representation.’ Something Angie Homola spent years accomplishing was a video link between the county courthouse and the Camano annex, so people on Camano could participate without driving for several hours. The technology has advanced and Janet wants to make use of those advances to increase distance participation.

On the environmental front, she spoke about the need to  “de-armor” Island County’s shorelines. There are in fact regulations to prevent new bulkheads, but those are honored primarily in the breach. The effect of all these bulkheads is that the waves which would otherwise run out on the shore are blocked, but bulkheads have ends, so the blocked waves go around the ends of those bulkheads with more volume and energy – and erode the neighboring properties. There are technologies called “soft shore armoring” which could in many cases replace those bulkheads, reduce the wave energy, and prevent damaging erosion. Janet gave the recent project(s) at Cornet Bay as a great example.

Someone raised the issue of NAS and Growler noise over Coupeville and the prairie. Janet responded that this was very much an economic issue, and that even the Navy itself says that there are alternatives. They just don’t want to implement them. Janet sees the preferred alternative as having too great an impact on central Whidbey. She is very clear that challenging the current and proposed flight patterns and numbers does not make people anti Navy. She sees a tremendous adverse economic impact which she does not believe the people on central Whidbey should have to shoulder. She intends to consult with Rick Larsen and Senators Murray and Cantwell to address this, and ask them what plans they have to buy out all those impacted homes and farms. She believes that Island County needs economic mitigation for the Navy’s plans.


What this election comes down to is wildly divergent views of what government is all about. Rick Hannold comes from a military background. The military is organized as a hierarchy. Orders come down from above and are carried out by those below, without questioning the whys or wherefores. That is necessary in a military situation but it is totally counterproductive in a civic situation.

Janet St Clair, by contrast, believes that government is all of us taking care of the business of all of us. As she puts it, government works best when we all participate. There is no imposition of orders from above but rather a community discussion which, with luck, leads to a consensus on the best course of action. Admittedly this democratic approach is much messier than simply giving and carrying out orders, but it does give everybody who participates a voice.

That admittedly messy inclusivity is terribly important to me.

Which is why I will be voting enthusiastically for Janet St Clair.