The Puget Sound Partnership, recently taken to task by the State Auditor for spending millions in improper, no-bid, high-cost “consulting” contracts, and ignoring a raft of other state regulations governing how it spends taxpayer money, wants the San Juan County Council to form a “Local Integrating Organization” (LIO) to implement PSP’s “Action Agenda.” The County Council will be considering this proposal on Tuesday, May 25.

What is an LIO? That’s hard to tell from the proposed Council resolution, but it includes an LIO “Accountability Oversight Committee,” an “Implementation Committee,” and assorted “Ad Hoc Technical Committees.” The “Implementation Committee” would “provide community input into prioritization of funding and improving coordination between groups working on Action Agenda implementation.” What is the “Action Agenda”? Well, for us, it is the work of the PSP’s San Juan Initiative, which spent years meeting, discussing, and interacting, yet failed to produce any valid scientific evidence of harm caused by the residents of the San Juan Islands to the Puget Sound. Despite this fundamental failing, the San Juan Initiative did manage to produce a whole list of things that the PSP now wants the County to do (the “Action Agenda”)—most of which involve burdensome regulations on “development” (this is planning-speak for building a house on your property, or a garden, or a path).

While “diversity” of species is a great concern of the PSP, diversity of opinion apparently is not. Among the 13 proposed members of the LIO Implementation Committee are governmental employees and members of government-funded groups, the “usual suspects,” as some would say, just as with the San Juan Initiative and nary an ordinary wage-earner or land owner, because our points of view apparently are irrelevant. Tell County Council that we don’t need yet another committee, commission, workgroup, task force, study group, report, plan, agenda, collaboration, “performance management,” “constructive dialogue,” or “framework alignment.” Let our government employees do their jobs, like solving the solid waste mess and enforcing permit conditions. Use any “spare” money the County finds lying about for projects that do tangible good, like removing derelict vessels and fishing gear. We can do without the $300/hour consultants, the PSP fleece logo vests, and the mahogany gift boxes of sparkling cider.

Peg Manning

Orcas