03/31/2006: "What The Hell is Going On !!"

First. Why is our County Council even considering an advisory ballot on anything? After completely ignoring 73% of the voters, and in some cases insulting them by saying, "They didn't fully understand what they were voting on" (I guess if you don't agree with their view you don't understand what you are doing) why waste our time and money?

Second. Why is our County Council even considering issues, at the taxpayers expense, that they can not have any effect on? Out of one side of their face they are complaining about long hours and not having enough time in a day to do their jobs, and then out of the other they spend time discussing national issues that they have no control over. The good news is that Councilmen Myhr & Ranker both understand this, the bad news is they failed to quash the issue.

Third. How can our County Council bemoan the loss of Wick Dufford as one of the best Hearing Examiners the County could hope to have had, and then pass over the opportunity to retain him, and chose Bill Nielsen instead? Maybe we should just give the keys to the County Council to the President of the "Friends" and we can all go home.

Fourth. In a last day attempt to retain future increases in the Capron Funds for San Juan County, the County Council sent a letter to Governor Gregoire asking her to line-veto parts of a bill that is due to be signed by her. If the bill is signed as presented, the County is expected to loose as much as one to two million dollars a year in future revenue from the fund. Why didn't our County Council (then County Commissioners) use the money as was intended, for roads and road maintenance? They were warned by the Director of Public Works, Jon Shannon, that losing this money was a possibility if they continued to divert these funds.

Fifth. Why do we have a County Prosecutor waste his valuable time advising the County Council when time and again they ignore his counsel? It would seem to me that a trained and experienced attorney would have far more knowledge regarding legal matters than do our elected County Council members. Councilmen Ranker and Lichter both promised that they would keep us out of, or at least reduce the number of, lawsuits against the County. Ignoring your attorney is not how one should go about accomplishing this. Maybe an intern is all they need.

Just a simple taxpayer and voter wondering what the hell is going on,

Ray Bigler
San Juan Island