Hubris, Waste, And Public Trust

Hubris, Waste, And Public Trust
By Mike Macdonald

The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer. -Edward R. Murrow

San Juan County is currently investigating placing a trash and garbage-handling facility on three sites that the 2003 county board of commissioners found presented “unavoidable adverse impacts to air traffic safety.”

On Monday, July 16, 2007, Councilman Alan Lichter and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee toured sites explicitly rejected in 2003.

Development continues on another property implicitly disqualified as a transfer station site four years ago.

Time and money continue to be wasted. The county has purchased two pieces of property for use prohibited by the county’s own findings and regulations.

The unavoidable question is, don’t county officials, past and present, read their own documents before spending our money?

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A Concept Whose Time Has Arrived

by Charlie Bodenstab

In a prior essay I presented what I believe to be a compelling case for never committing our ground forces to an enemy who “values neither his own life nor the lives of his own people”. The adversary’s ability to commingle with the civilian population negates our technical and general military superiority. This argument leads directly to the conclusion that we should withdraw from Iraq and be careful not to commit our ground forces in a similar situation in the future.

The dilemma we face is even more perverse however than simply battling terrorist forces in a few specific countries such as Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan. We could “win the war” in Iraq with virtually zero impact on the radical mentality distributed throughout the world.

What is becoming brutally clear is that we are dealing with a clearly enunciated declaration of war by the pathological radical elements of Islam. Their disciples are from all walks of life and in an endless array of countries, including our own United States.

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Suffering “The Worst of Both Worlds”

( The following was first published July 3, 2007, and is repeated here as the companion piece to "A Concept Whose Time Has Arrived", printed above. -Ed)

by Charlie Bodenstab

Back in the days of the Viet Nam conflict I began to develop a belief that has become stronger with time and has solidified with the current war in Iraq. Specifically: “A modern nation, no matter how technologically advanced or superior in weaponry cannot force its will on a nation, or other population, who do not value their own lives or the lives of their own people.”

When the enemy co-mingles with the civilian population with total disregard for consequences, they totally negate the technological advantage of the other party. In the current case, our troops are fighting in a nightmarish environment where the odds are stacked against them despite our facade of superiority.
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Knapp, Myhr, Ranker & Lichter

Tuesday, July 10 2007, a very sad day for the citizens and voters of San Juan County. On this day the County Council voted to file a law suit against Alex Gavora who is the petitioner of the first Referendum in San Juan County.

The motion was made by Gene Knapp and seconded by Kevin Ranker with Mhyr and Lichter voting yes and Peterson and Rosenfeld voting no. The motion carried and now Ms. Gavora must defend herself (and all the voters that signed the petition to put the referendum on the ballot) in a court of law.
This Council is going to use your money, my money and Ms. Gavora’s money to drag her through court and force here to spend additional money to defend herself and the rest of the voters of San Juan County. Welcome to the American Way, San Juan County style, “Sue Thy Neighbor”.

It really does not matter how you spin this or what legal mumbo jumbo one uses to justify this action. The bottom line is if you decide to use the Referendum or Initiative process allowed in our Home Rule Charter you better have a war chest of money set aside because you can be open for legal action by our County Council and Prosecutor.

Oh, did I mention that the language for the Referendum was drawn up by the Prosecutors office, and also that it was the Prosecutors office that recommended the County file this law suit after the fact.

Oh, and did you know that Gene Knapp was one on the Freeholders that drafted the Home Rule Charter, which he just cut the leg off of? Our County Council could have avoided all of this by simply revoking the ordinance that created this new storm water tax and reopened the discussion on how to fund storm water.

Instead they opted to file suit against the first citizen/voter that filed a Referendum. The issue here is not the Storm Water Ordinance, but the method of funding, and whether the voters should have a say in the process.

I am sure that the new Spin Doctor (communications coordinator) will be able to twist this into something that resembles a good thing for the voters of San Juan County. Imagine what he could have done with the 73% vote on guest houses that the then three commissioners ignored (on this issue they ignored the advice of the Prosecutor).

Spin it any way you like, it is a classic case of the County Council (except two) ignoring the will of the voters. Oh, the campaign promises that have been forgotten! What happened to a more open and transparent government, and listening to the will of the voters? I don’t recall anything about suing the citizens/voters in any of these promises.



(Ray Bigler lives on San Juan Island and was a County Commissioner Candidate for District One)
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