County Commissioner, District 1

Curt Gordon Independent

https://www.electcurtgordon.com/

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=202872234462700

- we need trusted independent leadership

- he will continue to respect the ‘spectacular backdrop’ of wildlife, views, & outdoor activities, while supporting a diverse population

- he will ensure everyone can afford to buy a home, build a business, start a family, retire

- he knows how to get things done

plans:

- bring parties together for the common good, like the budget crisis.

- focus on healthy environment. 

- reduce noise & air pollution with transit & foot ferry options. 

- maintain open space by promoting local farms. 

- adjusting ag code restrictions. 

- working with Assessor to enhance and maintain Forest Tax.

- support business by improving transport on/off islands. 

- more affordable rentals for workers.

Housing needs

- make it easier to live here, with

- affordable housing

- transportation alternatives

- promote high speed internet

He blames zoning for the aging population. 

The rise of air b&bs has decreased rentals. 

He wants to allow more small secondary dwellings. 

He wants to adjust Urban Growth Areas and Rural Areas of Intense Development to allow for infill. 

Transportation alternatives:

- reduce congestion, noise, and pollution by moving people, not cars

- increase parking in Mukilteo

- establish foot ferries

High Speed Internet

- lacking in parts of Island County

- team with local port districts to expand

I’ve known Curt peripherally for a long time. He’s a decent human being. I disagree with a lot of his ideas but we can debate them in a civilized fashion. He has done good work on the Port District. My favorite quote from Curt came as we were carpooling to a meeting and drove by a particular environmental disaster. He said “Now I’m no environmentalist, but this is just plain wrong.” Makes me think his gut is in the right place.

Late breaking news: candidate Gary Wray has withdrawn from this race and endorsed Curt Gordon.

As I’ve been saying with a number of races, we have an embarrassment of riches in the multiple candidates running this time. We could do worse than Curt Gordon, but we can also do better.

Damian Greene R

https://www.electdamian.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/islandcountycommissioner2020/

Make county government more responsive without increasing tax burden.

Will pursue ways to improve your life without increasing your financial burden.

video with sound track: God bless the red, white, and blue, with images of eagles and Blue Angels jets.

https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/letters/greene-has-a-vision-common-sense-ideas/?fbclid=IwAR3vbVUvsWIT1voh5a_JnjhiNSga1Oh_mBqy-hhuxA7yy-HPUD-zRjN-acI

letter to editor touting his commitment to efficiency and streamlining of all county processing. Somehow this involves a full-time commitment, not to be divided with other board commitments. 

“The salmon watershed needs repair from neglect.” and more such incomprehensibilities.

signed by Char Henderson, his campaign manager. 

He proposes to:

~ streamline all county processing to help minimize lengthy delays

~ repair neglected salmon watersheds

~ ease commuting for Boeing employees

~ promote more accessibility to Paine field and ferry parking

Damien posts that he attended a “love of country” rally in Oak Harbor May 24, with Char Henderson. The photo shows no sign either of masks or of distancing. I have a lot of trouble with people who do not take COVID seriously. Makes me think either they’re not conscious of the threat, which makes them a danger to those around them, or they don’t care, which makes them callous to the harm they’re doing. He was obviously aware of the problem, as he posted about disaster assistance for small businesses and a link to the News Times story about COVID testing being available back in March. 

He says he will work to create a more robust business community to increase our standard of living while protecting our natural resources and rural character.

He advocates for a transit connection to Boeing, and Paine Field, with potential long term parking at the Mukilteo ferry, and ‘strategic growth management’ to improve quality of living while limiting cost burdens to taxpayers. There is uncertainty in this COVID era because of reduced sales & taxes.

His vision:

~ help the ferry advisory board toward a cost saving 24 hr ferry service, combat line cutting, pursue passenger loading ramp, and implement county resident priority boarding

~ pursue light rail up Japanese Gulch to Boeing and Paine Field, and add ferry parking

~ improve fire/EMS to save on property insurance

~ improve application processing time; accept payment on line

~ understand assessor’s use of algorithm to determine property taxes

~ if there is to be no sewer in Freeland, then review its Non Municipal Urban Growth Area status 

~ sewers are good for health, business, & affordable housing

~ review housing policies monthly to assure relevance, compliance, and effectiveness

Given Mr Green’s stated priorities, I think he would be better off running for the South Whidbey Port District. That is the place to work on such matters as light rail on the mainland and parking in Mukilteo. I am very unfavorably impressed with his failure to address the actual health impacts of COVID rather than  just the economic impacts. There’s a lot more not to like, but I won’t go into it.

Given all the great alternatives available, I would not vote for Damian Greene.

Ed Jenkins Independent

10-12-19 Whidbey Record Port Candidate Lambastes Incumbent at Forum

The story is all about Ed slamming and slandering Curt Gordon – who remained cool and refused to rise to the bait. The story is rather mild. I attended that meeting and took notes of the whole thing. I even spoke briefly with Curt afterward. He just kind of writes Ed off as a loony to be tolerated but not accommodated. I think Curt underestimates the ill Ed can do.

I was not able to find any website, Facebook page, or other contact information – which is probably just as well. I have had interactions with Ed and they have been uniformly unpleasant. He disliked what I had to say about him in this blog last year and threatened me with a lawsuit if I did not pay to print a retraction in the Whidbey Record.

Ed should be considered an ‘also ran.’

Gary Wray R

Well, I was going to do a whole write-up about Gary, but it seems that his participation in Civility First has convinced him to bow out. Today’s (7-11-20) Whidbey News Times reports that Gary has dropped out of the race for Island County Commissioner to focus on his affordable housing projects, and has endorsed Curt Gordon.

Bottom line: Gary is out of the race. Don’t waste your vote.

Melanie Bacon D

https://www.melaniebaconcandidate.org/

"I feel deeply committed to serve as a devoted caretaker of this amazing place known as Island County. Having spent the last nine years working intimately with the Board of Island County Commissioners, and living on Whidbey, I wish to continue the forward movement of both sense and compassion established by Helen Price-Johnson and other community leaders."

~ Smart government on a budget

~ common sense ‘green policy’

~ growth with preservation

She presents a 2030 Plan for Island County. I have not read all of it but it appears to be rather well thought through. I just don’t have the energy to wade through her whole program. Overall it looks good. Having interviewed her, I get a good hit. I like this woman.

So why am I not backing her? I am bothered by the rather mainstream Dem line she is taking, aligning with Helen Price-Johnson and Suzanne Woodard. They have pretty much formed a ticket. They are appearing together on-line at all manner of events. I would have preferred to see Melanie stand on her own feet and ideas.

What killed it for me was Melanie’s insistence that public employees have no right to strike. This was based on her belief that the services provided to the public are too important to be stopped over such issues as pay and worker safety. She also was disdainful of the notion that electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) can have an adverse health impact on humans and the environment. At least as much as the specific issues is the notion that she simply brushed off the issues raised. She certainly has a very positive agenda overall, much to be praised, but I am not the least happy with the notion that she may simply brush aside a new issue for reasons she feels no need to explain.

Breaking update: Melanie has responded to my critique of her position on EMF with a video stating her position. Check it out at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw8PvWMaGDA&feature=youtu.be
I've listened to it several times and she makes a lot of good points about broadband and cell access. I particularly like the idea of making it a public utility. While she raises the issue of EMF, she only says that she has questions about 5G. The issue is far broader than that. Cooked into any plan for expansion of wireless technology must be an examination of the health impacts, both of present technologies and any proposed future technologies. Think of all the other wonderful benefits to our quality of life which after many years proved to be dangerous/deadly. We are all electromagnetic beings. We need to look at the effect of electromagnetic frequencies on our bodies. I'm not hearing a commitment to that inquiry.

Under other circumstances I would likely have voted for Melanie. Given the current embarrassment of riches in candidate choice, I will vote otherwise.

Nathan Howard D

https://www.nathanhoward.net/

What I didn’t know about Nathan until reading his website. The man must have nerves of steel. He served two tours in Afghanistan doing explosive ordnance disposal. 

Being a planner, it is no surprise that Nathan has a detailed outline of his platform. I’m not going to copy out the whole thing. You can check it on his website. But I will give you the subject headers:

01 – Create local jobs in a robust, diverse economy

02 – Invest in sound infrastructure

03 – Modernize our government to better serve the community and support workers

04 – Preserve and strengthen our vibrant communities

05 – Progressive environmental conservation

06 – Bring more civility and civil discourse to local politics

https://www.facebook.com/Nathan4IC/

Nathan has been holding weekly talks “from the camper”. He has one photo of a fair sized group of people, all appropriately masked, holding up their Nathan signs. Yeah, he’s taking it seriously. That makes big points with me.

What you get from his Facebook posts is that this is someone who thinks hard about issues and draws conclusions which very much parallel my own. He is a progressive who believes that the whole big structure of government exists to improve the quality of life for all of us. He’s well worth reading.

I know Nathan in the context of his former job with Island County Planning. He was one planner we could count on to give us genuine information, and to take our concerns seriously. And unlike many of his co-workers, he actually understood what we were talking about. He knows his stuff. Its nice to talk with people who speak your language. Recently we’ve been talking about environmental and land use issues in Island County. He’s on top of it.

I’m having trouble with Google (imagine that!) so can’t get to the long discussions on specific topics, particularly on environmental issues. I tried again today and was able to open the document - only to realize that if this blog is going to get posted before ballots drop, I can’t take the time to read his thoughtful and detailed plan. That will have to wait until you have this blog in hand. 

He’s a supporter of Ranked Choice Voting, a great way to give your vote more weight. You basically go down the ballot (like those 36 governor candidates) and mark #1 for your favorite, #2 for your next favorite – and on down. There’s usually a cutoff around 10 – 15 candidates. If your favorite got the least votes, your vote counts toward your second favorite. If that one doesn’t make it, your vote goes to your #3 – and on down until one candidate breaks the magic 50%. As with many things, its harder to explain than to do. I’d love to see it adopted and appreciate that Nathan would too. 

Along with fellow candidate Fe Mischo, Nathan has created and signed the 15% pay cut pledge. He is encouraging public officials to sign on. He knows full well that most of us are hurting, and he wants to share the burden while lessening it for others. The pledge is to reduce their own salaries by at least 15% before considering any staff furloughs or layoffs or service cuts to programs for poor and vulnerable people. That carries a lot of weight with me. 

He echoes my strong belief that government is NOT a business and should not be run like one. The bottom line (pardon the pun) for business is in fact the bottom line. The bottom line for government is to provide the services the people want and need. Yes, government can and must be careful in how it spends the people’s money, but its bottom line is not profit.

One of his conversation topics is systemic racism and how we can do something about that at the local level. 

His discussion on the right of public employees to strike demonstrates that he took his duties as a union official seriously. He cites the relevant laws and discusses the applicability and limitations. Clearly he has done some serious thinking on this subject. 

I thought I knew Nathan. Boy way I wrong. There is so much more there than I ever realized. This is one very intelligent, very articulate, very thoughtful, very progressive, but mostly very decent human being.

7-24-20 update. I have received a truly scurrilous email targeting Nathan and calling him a forger and misogynist. I'm pretty disgusted. The posting party evidently used a pseudonym. Now that's what I call brave. The accusation, as nearly as I can tell amidst the garbage, is that Nathan forged an endorsement letter from sitting commissioner Janet St Clair which was printed in the Whidbey News-Times. So I phoned Janet to ask. And of course it turned out to be a miscommunication between Nathan's campaign manager and the News-Times staff, all of which has long since been settled. Janet has indeed endorsed Nathan. She asked me to specify that she would be happy to have Melanie Bacon or Curt Gordon in that position, but that she endorsed Nathan because of his strong background in environmental policy, transportation planning, and long range planning, all issues important to her. And she wanted to make it abundantly clear that neither Melanie nor Curt would ever have anything to do with such a hit piece. We're all still wondering who is behind it. 

While there are a lot of other competent candidates, Nathan is just head and shoulders above them all. I will be voting for Nathan Howard.