11/13/2008: "Referendum Rockets to Success"

(Don Burkhart presents signatures to SJC Elections Supervisor Doris Schaller)

After the County Council passed an ordinance banning all “safe & sane” personal fireworks in San Juan County, Don Burkhart filed an appeal with the County Auditor.

The appeal filing was the first step in putting the ordinance to a vote of the people, using the same referendum process that overturned the stormwater funding ordinance.
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It took only 65 days to gather enough signatures for Referendum 2008-2 to be certified by County Auditor Milene Henley. On October 9th, Fireworks Unrestricted of Blakely Island submitted 1,915 signatures, but because SJC Elections was so busy with the general election, five weeks passed before they had time to tally up and certify the result.

Of those signatures submitted 1,647 were validated, well in excess of the 1,522 required. The County Council must now decide whether to cancel the ordinance outright, or to place it on the November 2009 general election ballot.

“We had 1,600 signatures in the first 30 days (by Labor Day), but continued to gather ‘insurance signatures’ for another month to ensure success”, said referendum sponsor Don Burkhart, “That shortened time frame demonstrates the broad level of support our effort enjoyed. Council would do well to recognize that their ban is a real dud, and that SJC voters demand a say-so in any curtailment of their personal freedom.”

Burkhart proposes a new so-called ‘designated areas’ ordinance to replace the existing ordinance. The new ordinance could prohibiting fireworks in fire-prone forested and vegetated areas, as locally identified by each island.

Burkhart said “there are two critical principles that must be observed. First and foremost, the voters of San Juan County must be the ones who make this decision; secondly, SJC is unique in its makeup as a number of distinct islands each with its own individual situation."

He also pointed out that "what’s a problem in Friday Harbor may not even exist elsewhere. We all chafe when the Fed or State comes to us with a one-size-fits-all solution. Is it so difficult to understand that the same is true downstream? Local control is not being incorporated into the governance of San Juan County, and this desperately needs to change.”

For Burkhart, the best outcome would be for the Council to concede that the ordinance was a mistake, and to not waste any more money -or the council and the voters’ time- on it, butadded "I advocate the Council substituting a designated areas ordinance, and then pushed THAT to the ballot."

It is his personal hope that the Council will take an active leadership role by canceling the ordinance outright, rather than waiting a year for it to come to a ballot vote; where, in his view, it will likely fail.

It will now be up to the County Council to take action, or to let the measure go to a vote of the people.

When the sponsor of the stormwater referendum submitted an appeal of an ordinance, the council responded by suing. (related story) It is not expected that the Council will sue Mr. Burkhart, in that the fireworks ban is not a land use issue -but then the sponsors of the stormwater referendum did not expect to end up in court either.