By STAN MATTHEWS
County Communications Program Manager
On Monday, Feb. 26, members of the San Juan County Council gathered at a meeting room at the Friday Harbor Labs to reflect on the last year and look forward to the challenges the Council will face in the remainder of 2008.
After more than four hours of discussion, the Council Members and the County Administrator looked at notes of their discussions, ranging from transportation and land use to governance, affordable housing and environmental policy and each voted for the ten specific projects they felt deserved special attention.
The items getting three or more votes included:
• Inter-island electronic connectivity and teleconferencing for meetings. This was a top priority that Council members felt saves time for staff, council and citizens who often must spend much of a day traveling to participate in meetings on other islands.
• Adopting a ferry and transportation policy and working with other ferry-served counties to advance common interests. Much of this policy would be targeted toward influencing Washington State Ferries and legislative action in 2009-2010.
• Creating a five-year budget and staffing forecast as part of a strategy to develop a sustainable county budget. County Administrator Pete Rose has warned that current levels of service cannot be maintained over the long term without budgeting changes.
• Offering training for the county’s many advisory committees and their legal and operational responsibilities.
• Evaluating the county’s capital budget needs. Some urgent maintenance and construction projects have been postponed for years, including the repair/rebuilding of a wall at the courthouse that has been leaking for nearly 20 years. The County has also been hard pressed to find adequate workspace for some of its employees and departments.
• Considering strategies to limit “large footprint” homes, including accessory dwelling units (“guest houses”) in the analysis. Exploring the inclusion of fee surcharges or a cap on house size.
• Resolving to look at the effects of Council actions on both the environment and affordability. In arguing for this, Councilman Rich Peterson expressed concern about the affordability of the islands. Councilman Bob Myhr supported the item noting that in the quest for affordability the Council needs to preserve the things that makes people want to live on the islands
• Evaluating what the county will look like as it is “built out” and determining the “absolute carrying capacity” of the islands – what population the islands can sustain, with a special focus on water supply. Along those lines, Council Members also voted to encourage staff to “get ahead of the curve” in studying the impact of desalinization plants, and the use of rain catchment and graywater systems on the environment.
Because of budget and staffing requirements, the study of the County’s population “carrying capacity” was slated for implementation in 2009 and full implementation of the teleconferencing links with other islands may also have to be put off a year.
The priorities discussed at the retreat were reviewed and discussed at the Council session on March 4 before being officially adopted as priorities by the Council.
A mid-year retreat may be scheduled to review progress on the core initiatives.
