Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Fri., Dec. 9, 2022.
Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 49th week of 2022. Please stay safe and warm this weekend, as it sounds like we could have bad weather. After I finish writing this newsletter, I’m going to the grocery store to get food that won’t need heat or refrigeration, just in case the power goes out again this weekend.
Special Session held Monday the 5th: Public Hearings on the 2023 Island County Budget/Proposed Levies. You can watch it at this link.
| We approved the 2023 Budget and the 1% levies on current expense, county roads, and conservation futures. |
| We were disappointed that no members of the public attended this meeting. Adopting the annual budget—making the decisions about how your tax dollars will be spent for county services during the next year—is a critical function of the County Commissioner job. |
Regular Session: You can watch this week’s Tuesday meeting at this link.
| All of the public comment was on the property tax appeal process the county followed with last month’s Board of Equalization meetings. The BOICC action was to approve holding those property tax appeal hearings. |
| Resolution C-85-22 established the Island County 2023 Annual Review Docket for Comprehensive Plan Amendments; mark 00:29:14 in the above video. |
| We voted to enter into an interagency agreement with Puget Sound Partnership to receive financial support for the coordination of the Island County Integrating Organization (ILIO) but we weren’t entirely happy about it (and one of us voted against it). We think the work is important, but we don’t appreciate the top-down approach that takes away local control. Mark 00:39:08 in the video. |
| The agenda for next week’s regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, including how to attend virtually, can be found here: Island County Board of County Commissioners Meetings |
Board of Health: We held a special session of the Board of Health on Tuesday this week. There were only three items on the agenda: changes to the consolidated contract, the election of the Chair for 2023, and discussion of an interlocal agreement with Tacoma-Pierce County Health to provide funding to support a provider website. If you had to choose just one meeting to listen to this week, I hope this wasn’t it.
Work Session. We held a 6-hour meeting on Wednesday, most of it was discussions on various contracts. You can see the agenda for the December 7th meeting here, and access the audio for it here.
| An add-on to the agenda: We heard a grant-writing presentation from Merchant McIntyre Consultants in Washington, D.C. We expect to enter into a grant writing collaboration with them, with hopes to obtain funding for Whidbey and Camano projects from some of the trillions of dollars the federal government is giving out in grants right now. In this newsletter next year, I anticipate you’ll hear a lot more about Merchant McIntyre and the grants we will pursue over the coming months. You can listen to this conversation at mark 2:11:01 in the audio recording. |
| We discussed the pros and cons of forgiving an old surface and storm water loan for a community also facing a new loan for new improvements. In the end, we decided not to forgive the old loan; I made that decision because of the potential ramifications of setting that type of precedent. Mark 3:31:01 in the recording. |
| Planning staff gave a presentation on interpretations of the critical area code, to provide clarity for a couple of situations. Mark 4:14:47 in the recording. You can also access their presentation under “Other” for December 7th, here. |
| The agenda for next week’s work session, including how to attend virtually, can be found here. Two issues that citizens are very interested in, fireworks and PBRS, are both on that agenda for discussion, although no decisions will be made on either until next year. If you have comments you wish to make on these or any other issues, you can send us comments in writing or speak with the Board during the Public Comment period at the start of our Tuesday meetings. We do not take verbal public comment during our Wednesday meetings, although any written comments sent to us for that meeting will be made part of the record. BTW: I encourage you to send your comments to all three Commissioners or to CommentBOCC@islandcountywa.gov or vj.shaddy@islandcountywa.gov. We do not share our emails with each other. |
Last Friday, Commissioner St. Clair and I toured the SunLine Transit agency in Palm Springs along with other members of the Island Transit Board. SunLine is a leader in the use of electric and hydrogen-powered buses, and I was grateful for the tour and the time the SunLine management team spent with us telling their story and answering questions. Island Transit intends to move to clean energy buses and the board members are doing our due diligence before we make these expensive decisions (these buses cost almost $1 Million each). To be honest, the main problem I see facing us in making this transition is our unreliable electrical power on Whidbey and Camano.
Next Tuesday we expect to select Commissioner St. Clair as chair of the Board of County Commissioners for next year. Commissioner Johnson has been selected to chair the Board of Health.
This afternoon at 4:00 pm I will attend the Canvas Board meeting to certify the results of the hand-recount of the Island County Assessor position. On Monday the 12th, there will be a machine recount of the Legislative District #10 position 1. The Canvas Board will meet to certify the results of that recount on Tuesday, December 13th , at 9:00 a.m. Observers are welcome at all recounts and certification meetings, which are held in the Elections Office, 400 N. Main Street, Coupeville.
The Council of Governments (COG) will meet virtually on Wednesday, December 28th at 9:00 a.m. To attend virtually click here: 1-323-433-2396 Phone Conference ID 829 612 938#. We will talk about Broadband and the FCC maps; if you have issues accessing the internet due to where you live, you may find this meeting of interest. We may also talk a little bit about the county’s upcoming grant writing collaboration with Merchant McIntyre Consultants.
The Commissioners will not be holding any of our regular meetings the last two weeks of December. I plan to write newsletters both of those weeks, though: on December 23rd , an encapsulation of Board actions in 2022; and on December 30th , a discussion of the issues I hope the Board will address next year.
Monday Tea with Melanie: I will be at the WiFire Community Space at 3:00 p.m. this next Monday, December 12th. That will be my last Monday Tea until the second Monday in January.
Thanks,
Melanie
“We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.”
~ Marilyn Monroe
