The race is on for District 6.
Lopez residents Jerry Gonce, Bob Myhr, and Jamie Stephens are in the running for San Juan County Council, representing District 6 – Shaw, Lopez, Blakely, Decatur, and Center Islands.
The top two vote-getters in the Aug. 17 primary will advance to the Nov. 2 general election.
About the candidates
Jerry Gonce
“I am running because having observed the county council for the past few years, it’s obvious to me that it’s business as usual and we’re going broke,” Gonce said. “We’ve got a solid waste program that’s almost scandalous. And a few of our local issues, including the Odlin Park debacle, generated a lot of interest. My background is one of a frugal and hard-nosed manager, and I don’t see that happening in our county.”
Gonce and his wife Barbara have lived on Lopez full-time for six years, but owned property on Lopez since the late 1950s. He has three decades of experience as a city manager in California. Since retiring to Lopez, Gonce has been involved with Lopez Senior Services.
If elected, he says his top priorities are to stop county tax increases, resolve the solid waste financial dilemma, and finish the Critical Areas Ordinance.
“I think the CAO will have a major impact on every property owner in San Juan County,” he said. “Just because the state says you have to do it, it doesn’t mean the county has to.”
Gonce also doesn’t agree with the county’s decision to “hire a new employee in the public works department to revise the solid waste plan.”
“That person isn’t necessary,” he said. “There are two people in that department who should be able to do that. The county should have many, many years ago been a more lean operation, but when money is easy … it’s easy to grow and add people. I feel the county over the years has not been very perceptive in how you keep a well-oiled organization running.”
Bob Myhr
Most of what Myhr considers are his greatest accomplishments as a council member revolve around land use.
“(I am most proud of) establishing the Lopez Village Planning review committee, preserving Lopez Hill with $5.95 million funding from the state and 50-year lease, and completing the upgraded Fisherman Bay Road,” he said. “I have been open and available for community response by holding my regular meetings for citizens. We completed the Lopez Village UGA, finally. And I initiated the process to keep Odlin South a county preserve.”
Myhr serves on the County Council’s general government subcommitte and represents San Juan County on the following regional and state agencies: Salmon Recovery Council, Northwest Regional Council (area agency on aging), North Sound Mental Health Administration, and Legislative Steering Committee of the Washington State Association of Counties.
One of Myhr’s top priorities is keeping the Lopez transfer station a self-haul facility and maintaining Neil’s take-it-or-leave-it mall, and adopting the most cost-effective operational procedures.
“I am disappointed that the economic downturn and reduced volume of waste has meant the shift to co-mingled recycling from user-separated recycling in order to reduce transport and staff costs at the Lopez transfer station,” Myhr said. “Fortunately, unlike Orcas and San Juan, the number of hours the Lopez dump stays open has remained the same.”
Myhr and his wife Joyce have lived on Lopez for more than 25 years. Myhr is a member of the OPALCO board and was executive director of The San Juan Preservation Trust, 1985-2002.
“I think I have continued work to do,” Myhr said. “I have built up the experience necessary to run, and it takes time to really understand what’s going on in the county, so I am eager to run again. I am also the most dedicated voice of conservation on the council.”
Jamie Stephens
Stephens says he decided to run after attending several of Myhr’s monthly community meetings.
“I really feel we need an engaged representative who can see the big picture and see how policy decisions affect Lopez and Shaw,” Stephens said. “Whether it’s the dump or the CAO process or the ferry schedule, I think there is a lot of upheaval about things that could have been avoided if somebody had been more forthcoming.”
If elected, his top priorities include solid waste, Critical Areas Ordinance, and ferry schedules.
“Not only is solid waste broken right now, but in two years the contract with waste management is up,” Stephens said. “I think there are some solutions that could be handled right away … There is $200,000 to $400,000 available just from equalizing the rates. Right now, on San Juan Island, for every $3 a self hauler pays, San Juan Sanitation in the Town of Friday Harbor pays $2.”
He is also troubled by the council’s handling of the CAO process.
“The CAO draft, which a committee spent a year crafting, has been tabled,” he said. “The only thing they are looking at is adjustments to the current CAO. It’s hard to tell what’s going to come out of it. Whatever comes out, it needs to have balance and things that really solve the problems for shorelines and wetlands and not just ‘feel good’ measures. And property owners need to know how they fit into the scheme of things. An example of that is stormwater drainage in Fisherman Bay. We affect on Fisherman Bay by how we treat our stormwater.”
Stephens has served on Lopez Community Land Trust’s Board of Directors during construction of the Common Ground neighborhood. He says he is familiar with many of the issues facing the county through his work on numerous boards and his service as Port Commissioner for Lopez. He is a member of the Lopez Village planning committee, board member of Fisherman Bay Water Association, and board member of the Family Resource Center. Stephens also substitutes regularly at Lopez Schools and organizes the yearly Fourth of July Parade. He has two children in college, and has lived on Lopez for 14 years with his wife Lauren.
“Lopez and Shaw needs proactive representation on the Council that pays attention to all of the issues and concerns, not just a select few,” he said.
For more info on the candidates
• Jerry Gonce: www.jerrygonce.com
• Bob Myhr: www.bobmyhr.org
• Jamie Stephens: www.electjamiestephens.com
The League of Women Voters of the San Juans has scheduled primary election forums on San Juan, Lopez and Orcas Island. Candidates for all contested elections have been invited. The Lopez forum is on Saturday, July 17 at Grace Church from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the Orcas forum will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Senior Center on the same day.
