There are 18 elected officials representing San Juan County District #1 (San Juan Island, Stuart, Spiden), District #2 (Orcas Island, Waldron, Blakely), and District #3 (Lopez, Shaw, Decatur). The CRC elected a chair and vice chair, appointed staff support, met via Zoom, and utilized the San Juan County communication systems. The CRC compiled numerous items for its members’ review and evaluation. Sub-committees were appointed, and members joined the sub-committee where their passion and interest lay. During the many meetings in the first few weeks the CRC commissioners interviewed elected, nonelected and department heads that makeup San Juan County government. It was evident that there were no current or potential structural or procedural problems that were identified for the CRC to review, study, and recommend propositions to improve the way San Juan County officials and staff can better serve the inhabitants. We discovered minor tweaks that the sub-committees included in their review, and some were serious enough for an amendment recommendation and others were considered as just recommendations to the San Juan County Council because, were either more minor, or beyond the CRC’s authority to propose to the voters.
There are other serious issues and concerns that we, our neighbors, and friends wrestle with such as:
- wage income as one of the lowest in the state,
- affordable housing for our residents that work two or three jobs to survive,
- high rate of poverty within our young families with school age children, and
- transportation issues.
- mental health and other health concerns for our aging population
- budget authority
This charter review period could have been a great opportunity for us to “review” these issues, but we arrived at proposals unlikely to substantively improve the economic and living conditions of our neighbors, friends and inhabitants of San Juan County or the natural environment upon which they rely. During the June 1 and 2 townhall meetings, the CRC presented 11 charter amendment recommendations based upon erroneous assumptions of law and authority. Upon clarification, these became 6 propositions presented to the San Juan County Council on July 13, 2021. They were brought forward by a majority vote of the CRC. Four are problematic in concept and ineffectual in a small ‘all islands’ county such as ours.
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