Fine-tuned. Overhauled. Tossed out altogether.

The choices will be almost limitless when the soon-to-be-created Charter Review Commission gets around to conducting its review of San Juan County’s Home Rule charter, and then offers up a list of recommendations as to what that guiding document ought to contain in the future.

“There’s no real limitation on their authority or on what they can do,” Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord said of constraints on the review commission. “That means they can even recommend a return to the commission form of government.”

Ratified by voters in 2005, the county charter ushered in sweeping changes in the way local government is structured, how it operates and in the amount of access and influence islanders can have over decisions made by the county’s elected legislators, primarily through the process of initiative and referendum. The charter stripped the former county commission of its executive powers — management of county personnel and day-to-day business — in favor of an administrator hired by and that serves at the pleasure of the County Council. It divided the county’s previous three legislative districts into six, with a mostly equal number of residents in each, allowed for each district to elect a representative of its own to the county council, while at the same time doing away with countywide elections for the county’s legislative body — the council. But that’s not all. The charter also turned the three former commissioner positions into six non-partisan, part-time posts, and created a citizens’ salary commission to determine how much the county should pay its elected officials.

Is the charter performing as billed? That depends on who you ask.

San Juan Island’s Greg Hertel, a former member of the Board of Freeholders, which created the charter, maintains the amount that the county’s part-time legislators are paid – around $35,000 a year plus benefits – and influence of the salary commission are two areas that the charter review commission should revisit. That’s too much money for part-time work and encourages council members to become too involved in areas in which they needn’t be, Hertel said.

“It’s set too high,” he said of the part-time pay. “I think there’s a feeling that they have to be involved in more than they should be.”

The former chairman of the freeholders, George Johnson of San Juan Island, is among eight candidates competing for three positions on the review commission from District 1, one of three on San Juan. Voters will select a total of 21 people to serve on the commission in the November election. Johnson said that he’s vying for a seat on the commission largely because of “unfinished business.” Knowing there would be a chance to make changes five years down the road, Johnson said the freeholders were conservative about the degree of change the charter should include at the outset. He said that advocating for greater change, such as consolidating departments and eliminating elected positions, could have sparked a backlash.

Still, Johnson believes county government could become more efficient and that, like Hertel, it may be better off if more constraints were placed on members of the council.

“We were afraid if we changed too many things that people wouldn’t vote for it,” he said of the 2005 election. “And that having a council giving up power would mean delegating more to the administrator, staff and the advisory committees. Well, that was obviously naive.”

Compared to most of the county’s elected positions, the prosecuting attorney, as well as those of the district and superior court judges, is somewhat unique. Under the Washington state Constitution, it cannot be eliminated or altered by a home rule charter, and the prosecutor remains the county’s only partisan position.  The council still holds sway over the county budget, however, and the office of prosecuting attorney is not immune to its financial decisions or the drain that the council can cause on its administrative staff. Gaylord maintains the council and the various subcommittee it’s formed, such as those devoted to solid waste, general government and the budget, tend to consume too much of time of the administrator and staff.

“I prefer a system where the administrator wasn’t so much of a staff to the county council,” he said. “I like to see Pete (county administrator) be able to spend more time in the field with the troops.”

County Councilman Rich Peterson, San Juan North, believes council subcommittees are among the charter’s many benefits. Unlike with the former commission, two or three members of the council can get together to ferret out information or talk over an issue without being a quorum of the county legislative body. Peterson said subcommittees have proven instrumental in helping the council and its administration to whittle down a backlog of pressing business, like finding a solution for funding the county solid waste operation.

“It’s one of the gigantic benefits of the charter,” Peterson said of council subcommittees. “When we get that backlog cut down the council positions should really become more of a part-time sort of thing.”

Council subcommittees have been both a blessing and a curse, according to Administrator Pete Rose.

“The council’s subcommittees have been good in helping me and others work through policy issues,” Rose said. “But they do take a certain amount of care ad feeding, though not all the time.” The council has a tendency to become consumed by the “crisis of the hour,” he added. “It’s hard to lead when you’re always reacting.”

Still, Rose said perhaps the biggest obstacle to a more “effective” government is that the county remains out of compliance with the state Growth Management Act, an overdue critical areas ordinance update the prime example. The county will continue to miss out on potential funding from the state Public Works Trust Fund and its Centennial Clean Water Fund, from which millions of dollars flow to local governments every year, until its compliance issues are resolved.

“The whole idea of the home rule charter does not stop us form being a subject of the state,” he said. “We pay a big price for being out of compliance.”