07/17/2007: "Mr. Ranker Goes To Washington"

Councilman Kevin Ranker is off to the Washington D.C to join a panel dealing with the national Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), and also to do a bit of lobbying for San Juan County. Ranker was invited by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to join in a policy planning “Experts Meeting”.

The U.S. Congress approved the CZMA in 1972 to work with states to conserve coastal resources, protect the environment and set standards for development. According to a SJC press release, Ranker and twenty-seven others will participate in “the final phase of a project aimed at developing priorities and strategies for a reauthorized CZMA.

While there, Ranker told the County Council that he plans to meet with Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Representatives Rick Larson, and Norm Dicks, to discuss a select few of the County priorities that the Council agreed Kevin could bring up on his trip. Ranker has stated that he hopes to “help make our local issues, such as the preservation of Mitchell Hill and protecting our local orca whale population, federal priorities.”

During a discussion of his trip with the Council prior to his departure, Ranker said that if he introduces issues other than those agreed upon by the Council, he will be clear that he is speaking as “an elected official of San Juan County”, but not as a spokesman for the Council.

Ranker also informed the Council that a portion of his travel expenses will be picked up by NOAA, but not all.