DID YOU NOTICE THE PUBLIC NOTICE?
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Claude
Ah yeah...ah well...something will be taking place in the near future and well...ah we are required by law to make a public notice...about it as it might ah...well will probably, actually negatively impact you as citizens and again we are required by law to allow you to comment about it...but we really don’t want to receive any comments... because...ah...it causes us to actually have to respond in some manner... again required ah ...stipulated by those pesky laws...and well frankly we’re going to do what we can get away with anyway...so...ah if anybody wants to make a comment send it to the following address ...where we will try our best to stonewall you into frustration and eventual apathy...which is the mental state we’d like all of you citizens to be in...in this Great State of Washington.
Thank you.
Pesky citizens; always wanting to interrupt the important business of permitting nice industrial polluters.
ReplyDeleteThe permitting agency, in this case Ecology, came up with a system for avoiding the objections of the pesky citizens altogether. This system includes:
(1) Allowing the polluting industry to provide zero information in the "public notice" upon which the citizen might comment, even to the point of not identifying who the publishing entity is (this part creates weeks of confusion in the pesky citizens AND in the permitting agency);
(2) Making sure the polluting industry does not provide the permitting agency with a heads-up that the notice is being published (this is particularly important in the polluter-permitting process as it prevents the citizen from getting an intelligent response when calling the permitting agency);
And,
(3) Providing an extremely limited time period for comment once the citizen receives his or her thousand page plus reply to his or her public disclosure request.
Permitting agency might as well say:
"Not here to help you, pesky citizen, and we are gonna ignore your freaking comments anyway -- even if they are received timely."
It's fun to mock the system, and to say it is broken, but it is deliberately broken - broken by design - so whatcha gonna do? The system is set up so you won't be able to comment timely IF you are able to get the underlying documents and you manage to review them within the modest time allowed.
But while I see it as broken, it actually works just fine for polluting industries and for permitting agencies.
If citizens do not stand up and loudly demand a change in the system, a change that will level the playing field between the polluting industries and the citizens; if the citizens do not stand up and loudly demand parity with the polluting industry, if the citizens do not demand change in the permitting agency's process.... Well, then -- get your gas masks here you pesky citizens...
Yes, as previously reported here, I am working on a line of designer gas masks: Pastels for the ladies, some masculine colors and awesome designs for the men, and for our children I have a whole Disney line I am working on...
I see this business as being the next really big boom in Shelton and Mason County, actually up and down the Olympic Peninsula... (and did you hear what is happening in Seattle?)
This market is going to be big, really big, and I intend to get in on the ground floor.
My designs for infant gas masks are truly inspired!
I am still looking for some seed money but the designs are TO DIE FOR!