The Island County Democrats publish a monthly newsletter, which we are posting here. We believe that the statements made by the leadership of each party is of general public interest.
Message from ICD Chair, Jennifer Haase Morris
Navigating the Burnout Blues
If you are a fan of Pinterest, you’ll notice that lots of people love the fall season. The temperatures drop, the nourishing rain returns, there’s football to watch, and the autumnal colors blanket the landscape. But this fall rushed in so quickly that we were caught a little breathless, a little overwhelmed with the sudden shift. And while we are still off center a bit, we are surrounded by such tragedy and grief abroad and closer to home that I often feel like I can’t quite get my bearings.
I find myself feeling that way more frequently right now about the state of our democracy as well. Democracy demands our energy, passion, and commitment. There are moments when we need to amplify our efforts, rallying for the causes we hold dear. The intensity rises, and that’s when we gear up to push against injustice.
But here’s the reality check—recognizing when to take a breather is just as critical. Burnout is a real struggle, and it’s vital to identify when it’s time to step back and recharge. Burnout is not a sign of dedication; it’s a red flag that we need to prioritize self-care.
So, how do we strike the balance between fighting the good fight and preventing burnout? When the pressure or the grief becomes overwhelming, and the challenges seem insurmountable, it’s okay to take a step back, catch your breath, and rejuvenate. Reflect on our victories, big or small, and acknowledge them.
Last week brought criticisms and challenges about how disorganized we are as a Democratic Party. It also motivated 80+ people to crowd into a garage to raise money for a Democratic candidate that they believe can protect and sustain so many positive things about our life in this beautiful state. The news of yet another mass shooting broke my heart. The grief and devastation in Gaza sorely test my belief in humanity. And then I participated in a webinar with a group of social studies teachers, and the First Amendment expert presenter reminded us that the recent successes have actually outnumbered the setbacks.
Democracy is a collective effort, and we’re in this together. Let’s gear up when the challenges are formidable, and consciously step back when our well-being calls for a timeout. Don’t let your burnout blues turn you completely away from the important work ahead.
Put your ballot in the mail. Take a breath. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself. And then let’s all get ready to fight for what’s good. What’s true. What’s needed.
Message from Island County Commissioner, Janet St Clair
Dear Friends,
Fall is here and with the turning leaves, the Board of Island County Commissioners is preparing to turn the calendar and prepare for 2024. We are working to finalize our budget for next year, prioritizing investments and stewarding the work of local government. I encourage those interested in following the work of the board and our most important legislative and policy document, the budget. You can follow our meeting agendas and choose to receive notifications by signing up here: https://www.islandcountywa.gov/list.aspx. We are also preparing our 2024 work plans and docket items, with a strong focus on our required Comprehensive Plan Update governing growth, land use and other policy priorities. You can sign up for those updates at the same link.
Recently, I am proud that we have completed careful work to update our animal welfare code. Sheriff Felici notes this will help both our two animal control officers and our deputies in investigating and responding to animal neglect and cruelty cases in Island County. As animal cruelty and neglect can be indicative of other criminal and public health concerns, this will help us protect both animals and people in our community.
The Board’s work is often the day-to-day issues faced by our community. I appreciate the opportunity to serve you.
Warm Regards,
Janet St. Clair, Island County Commissioner
Message from Island County Commissioner, Melanie Bacon
As you all probably know by now, every week I write a fairly detailed newsletter about Board actions over the previous week. I’ve decided to start using my time in the ICD newsletter to highlight some of the work I’ve done over the last month.
October highlights:
- We passed an Animal Welfare Code, a revision of the County’s animal control code. Now anyone operating a kennel, either commercial (5+ animals) or personal (10+ animals) will be required to have a license and will be subject to inspections. Revision of this code, in response to a terrible animal abuse case last December, was one of my priorities this year.
- We began to talk with our state lobbyists about our legislative priorities for the 2024 session. We will have three requests: focusing on a couple of issues to strengthen the Ituha Stabilization Center, and a request for money to study our water quality and quantity (I asked for this because of my concern about planning for population growth in our comprehensive plan update without knowing what our long-term water capacity is).
- In our final Budget work session (passage scheduled for December) I spoke in support of funding emergency preparedness, which is another of my priorities. The budget we will consider will now include a 2-year position to train County staff and citizens to be prepared for earthquakes, fire, and other emergencies, as well as establish a new Emergency Preparedness Fund to build up supplies.
- The Board held a listening session with builders and developers to get input about our permitting processes. Dissatisfaction with permit times is the primary complaint I hear from citizens.
- We awarded an ARPA Affordable Housing contract of $3,900,000 to the Opportunity Council for the construction of an 82-unit apartment community in Oak Harbor. The issue of housing is the other major complaint I hear a lot—from concerns about people living in their cars or RVs on the street to the difficulties professionals have in finding quality housing on the islands. The Board remains committed to assisting in the development of affordable housing—including homeless housing, permanent supportive housing, and workforce housing.
I try very hard to be accessible and to keep citizens informed. You can subscribe to my newsletter by emailing me at district1@islandcountywa.gov.
Thank you for your support.
Melanie
Message from State Representative, Dave Paul
Our public schools play a critical role in our community, providing students with the tools they need to be successful after graduation. We know that great public schools change the lives of young people, help expand the middle class, and help train the workforce of today and tomorrow.
I’ve had the privilege to collaborate with two terrific Island County school board directors who have served their community and our schools extremely well.
I’ve collaborated with Jessica Aws in her role as a school director for the Oak Harbor School District and with the Oak Harbor Youth Coalition. In her current roles and in her previous job with the Sno-Isle Library, Jessica has demonstrated that she’s dedicated to helping young people both inside and outside the classroom. I’ve worked closely with Jessica to identify innovative ways to support young people, and her knowledge and experience are critical as we work to improve educational outcomes and youth mental health in our community.
Nicole Tesch has brought a wealth of nonprofit and public experience to the Oak Harbor School District. I worked closely with Nikki to help secure funding for two new schools in the House construction budget. We were neighbors with Nikki and her family before she was appointed to the Oak Harbor School Board, and I know she is a strong advocate for kids. As a school board director, she’s proven to be a smart and enthusiastic advocate for taxpayers and OHSD.
With tight budgets and a front-row seat to partisan bickering, it’s not easy to serve on school boards these days. I know how important it is to have hardworking individuals who prioritize students and families over ideological posturing. Jessica and Nikki have demonstrated their commitment to our students, families, and schools. I endorse both without reservation—and I hope they can earn your support.
Sincerely,
Dave
Message from State Representative, Clyde Shavers
Dear Friends and Family,
As we prepare for the 2024 legislative session, I have been busy working on numerous policies, meeting with community members, and looking for ways to fund community projects.
Last month, I shared my thoughts on two legislative priorities – environmental protection and support for our veterans. In this newsletter, I would like to discuss opportunities to improve health care and the challenges/benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Better Heath Care
Working families already struggle to pay for essentials like housing and food, and the current health care system is struggling to meet the needs of our state. Health care can be too expensive, slow, and complicated.
While there are many reasons for this, a large problem is the recruitment and retention of health care workers. Demand for health care workers continues to rise faster than supply due to an aging population and increase in behavioral health conditions.
Looking ahead, I remain committed to creating new and better career pathway programs to address this workforce shortage. This means programs that develop a new generation of health care workers through high school curriculum and credentialing.
Since the end of the 2023 legislative session, we’ve been designing a new high school program called Core Plus Allied Health Care. The Core Plus program uses hands-on curriculum for professional development and career learning. So far, high schools provide Core Plus Aerospace, Core Plus Construction, and Core Plus Maritime.
Core Plus Allied Health will focus on professions that are in high demand / low supply including long-term care, mental health, medical assistance, and sports medicine / physical therapy. This program will rely on education systems, public and private sector employers, and community-based organizations.
Recently, I visited the Seattle Children’s Hospital to discuss youth mental health and intensive care, as well as Oak Harbor’s “Your Story Doesn’t End Here” event about military mental health. This is a big undertaking, and your feedback is critical in ensuring our healthcare system serves all communities.
Challenges and Benefits of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of computers and robots to think and act like humans and make predictions, recommendations, or decisions on their own. Current examples include Alexa / Hey, Google, voice-assisted smart phones, language translation, map assistance, and tools like ChatGPT.
As AI continues to make enormous developments, there will be wide-ranging implications for almost every industry in our state that we must prepare for. Ultimately, AI is the most powerful technology humans have ever had access to, and it will fundamentally change our world.
Last month, I spoke with a former executive at OpenAI about the enormous risk and benefit of AI from curing cancer and Alzheimer’s to creating autonomous weapons and super intelligent machines. What we’ve heard from private companies, is that it’s time to build a regulatory framework to ensure this technology helps, not harm, us.
In upcoming legislation, we will strive to define elements of an AI system that adheres to ethical principles such as privacy and data security, non-discrimination, inclusion and accessibility, and transparency and traceability. This is an important step as we build a technological future that’s safe, secure, and ethical for everyone.
As always, thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue my life-long dedication to public service. As a veteran having attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School, trained at a naval nuclear reactor plant, and served in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as a public affairs officer, I am honored to serve you here in the Washington State Legislature.
Always at Your Service,
Clyde
Message from US Representative, Rick Larsen
In the last month of the chaos caucus’ in-fighting, we have met a lot of characters — from McCarthy to Scalise, Scott, Donalds, Jordan, Emmer, and now Louisiana’s Mike Johnson.
With every new name they threw in the hat, we learned a little bit more about the direction the GOP wants to go with leadership in Congress. Here is what you need to know about their newly-elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson:
- On Democracy: Mike was an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He filed the amicus brief for Texas to sue Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin over their election rules and results.
- On reproductive freedom: Mike supports a sweeping nationwide abortion ban, outlawing critical reproductive health care from the moment of fertilization.
- On LGBTQIA+ rights: Mike opposes LGBTQIA+ civil rights, and has penned support of damaging conversion ‘therapy’ approaches. Johnson introduced deeply problematic legislation similar to the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, that would prohibit public schools and libraries from mentioning gender.
- Science: Mike chooses to disregard science on the most pressing issue of our time — climate change. Despite ample evidence, he denies climate change exists at all.
As a reminder: House Democrats are eager to get back to work. We must take expedient action to pass a budget, to lower costs for working families, to tackle climate change, and make our communities safer. It is abundantly clear: we have to head into this election season strong and ready to take back the House majority if we are going to accomplish anything.
Rick
News from the Washington State Democratic Party
Chair Shasti Conrad wanted to make sure we all knew a few things about our newest Speaker, MAGA Mike Johnson:
- Johnson was a leader in the fight to overturn the election and subvert our democracy — and pushed his Republican colleagues to get on board.
- Johnson is an anti-abortion extremist and bigot who is a vocal supporter of a national abortion ban and spent his career as an attorney writing in support of the criminalization of gay sex.
- Johnson has a history of supporting and elevating white nationalist conspiracy theories on “the great replacement” and Democrats turning “illegal [immigrants] into voters”
- Johnson supports many of the most extreme, unpopular parts of the MAGA agenda — including slashing Social Security and Medicare.
The chaos we’ve witnessed over the past several weeks drives the message home loud and clear that Republicans are unfit, and unable to lead our nation.
We are just a few seats away from winning back the U.S. House, and nearly every path to victory involves defending WA-03 and WA-08 in 2024 (and of course WA-02)
MAGA Republicans have put a guy who denied the results of the 2020 election in charge of the body that could ultimately decide the next one. It’s music to Donald Trump’s ears — and it only underscores why it’s more important than ever that we win by just as big and decisive of a margin as we did in 2020.
Please help us elect Democrats who will fight to protect our rights and ensure a brighter future for all!
Fe Mischo and Albert Ondo, your Washington State Central Committee Members
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