05/18/2008: "Guest Editorial"

The Goal Is Open Government By Lil Hamel

After reading the Island Guardian this morning, I find it sad that the actions of the Council would cause any candidate to consider withdrawing his/her name from the possibility of serving the county.

I am not condemning nor supporting any member of the current council or any of the candidates as I make this statement. I was not at the meeting, so I don’t know exactly what took place.

The whole idea of the Charter Government was to conduct the business of the county more openly with more input from the citizens. As I remember it, the citizens were upset that the three commissioners were doing their business secretly and not seeking the public’s opinions, let alone not listening to the public’s opinion when asked.

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San Juan County needs to have citizens run for council who wish to correct these perceived problems. I worked in the BOCC office for 15 years. Yes, there were many frustrating moments trying to get a letter prepared that expressed the opinions and concerns of three commissioners who at times, were very diverse in their opinions.

I can imagine how it is with six. That is one reason why when the Charter was voted in by the citizens with six council members instead of three commissioners that I handed in my resignation.

One problem I saw with the six member council was that it is legal for two council members to talk to each other. So I could imagine a situation happening that even though the letter was presumed to be “dead”, one council member can make his/her own amendments, talk with another council member and then that one talks to another and low and behold the issue is back alive, on the table and action taken while the public scratches its head and says, “What just happened here?”

Politicians are, and always will be, suspect in conducting the business of the people. That is the nature of the beast of becoming an elected official no matter the form of government. I have watched many would-be commissioners make all kinds of promises at candidate forums while sadly shaking my head knowing that once they are elected, it just doesn’t happen as easily as they think it will.

My hope is that we can continue to attract quality citizens to run for office who will govern the way the Charter intended and not by their own, or other’s, agendas; or at the very least, make the necessary adjustments to the Charter to correct some of these problems when the Charter comes up for review.

Lil Hamel

(Lil Hamel served San Juan County as the Clerk of the SJC Board of County Commissioners)