WEEK OF 7/16/12 MEETINGS IN REVIEW

TOM'S TALES FOR THE WEEK

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive

First, some left over news from last week:

Thursday, July 12, 2012

8:30 AM: City of Shelton Retreat:

This is “old” news, but worth mentioning. The City held a retreat at the Olympic College Campus, in Shelton. The objective was to reaffirm long term goals, and address some chronic problems.

The agenda was as follows:

1) 2012 Strategic planning
2) Right of way permits
3) Frontage improvement standards
4) Street maintenance plan

City Administrator, Dave O’Leary, presided over the Lazarus experiment; response to the opening question, “Why does the City exist?” was glacial.

No innovation, no imagination, not even a faint pulse of conviction was brought to the issues, and I found the entire four hour effort as painful to watch as a three legged horse race.

Being the only “public” in attendance, my roll was as the proverbial fly on the wall; effectively invisible. Unfortunately, no one asks a fly for input or ideas.

In the end, nothing was decided, no problems were solved, no realistic solutions were offered, and nothing was accomplished. Everyone went back to their assigned tasks, bringing the same old mindsets to the same old problems.

All in all, a good day to kill the messenger.

Same day

6:00–9:00 PM: KMAS Candidates Forum

If you want to hear candidate responses to questions from the audience, go to KMAS.com and listen to the recordings. My two cents is best reserved till after the primary.

And now for this weeks report:

Monday, July 16, 2012

9:00 AM: Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) Briefing

The Auditor’s Dept. presented a recap of the following fund balances, as of 6/30/2012: .09 (Sales and Use Tax) $516,73; REET 1 (Real Estate Excise Tax, Capital Improvements) $453,581; REET 2 (Parks and Trails) $1,304,617.

(But before anyone goes on another shopping spree, a better understanding of our obligations is needed.)

Facilities and Parks: There was some discussion about whether proceeds from the sale of some surplus properties actually covered the costs to sell them. (Can I have an AMEN!?)

Public Works/Utilities and Waste Management: Newly appointed, Deputy Director, Tom Moore, wants a raise. (I’ll get into that a bit later on.)

Public Defense Administrator: Susan Sergojan, needs help. In an effort to do it all, Ms. Sergojan discovered she can’t, and is requesting a temp to take over data entry so she can get on with what she does best, lawyering. (Susan is one of the "good guys".)

Human Resources: Director, Karen Jackson continues to try and replace herself. But Ms. Jackson’s imminent departure, on July 25th, will leave some big shoes to fill. The interim director will likely be, Personnel Analyst, Bonnie Cap. If things go as usual, lots of people will waste a lot of time, effort and money pretending to look at other candidates, and then Ms. Cap will be declared the new Director of HR.

Okay, that’s enough of that; let’s get onto something interesting.

3:30 PM: Superior Court, Grays Harbor: Montesano

Taking legal action to negate a no bid, ten year, solid waste long haul contract between the county and RDC/Allied Waste, a group calling itself Advocates for Responsible Government petitioned for Declaratory/Injunctive Relief. Simply put, they want the courts to declare the contract null and void, and any new contract go through the competitive bidding process.

Commissioner Sheldon has declared, on radio, in the newspaper and in public, that the lawsuit is without merit, calling it “frivolous.” But, alas, a superior court judge disagrees with Sheldon’s jerking knee. And though a very slick Seattle lawyer, representing RDC/Allied Waste, did his best to convince the court that the new contract was merely an extension of the old one, the judge didn’t buy it.

There may be some issues about the plaintiff’s right to bring suit (standing), and the case may, in fact, fail on those points. But it took the judge only five minutes to cut the guts out of the respondent’s core argument, and, by extension, Mr. Sheldon’s grasp of a reality outside Mason County. The case was continued to August.

(FYI: Sadly, there is no Martini Bar in Montesano.)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

9:00 AM: Regular session of Board of County Commissioners (BOCC)

It was clear that something was a-foot, when a group of people from Lake Nahwatzel showed up 30 minutes before show-time, and when the public comment period came up, it was a Mr. Bob Dicks who stepped up to tell us all why.

It seems that Green Diamond Resource Co. has been quietly going through the process of rezoning several hundred acres of forest timberland along the southwest shore of Lake Nahwatzel to Rural Residential 5 (RR-5). The story was first spilled by a local survey team, and confirmed by Barbara Atkins, Director of Community Development.

The residents showed up to express their outrage at being completely left out of the process; they begged - and I’m not exaggerating, here – literally “begged” County Commissioners to give them 90 days for public input; one woman started to cry.

It appeared our Commissioners knew about the rezone (how could they not?); Tim said legal restraints kept them from commenting, but promised to make sure the process was strictly followed. And with a warm dismissive smile the group was sent into the still night to fend for themselves. LOL

(What a load of crap! Once again, citizens are thrown from the special interest train; told that everything will be okay, and then tied to the tracks. When will our community realize it has been hijacked by special interests living in the pockets of our Commissioners, or vice versa?)

And the show goes on:

Item 8.3 Approval of the resolution reallocating the salary range for the job classification Deputy Director Public Works/Utilities and Waste Management from Range 34 to Range 40 on the Non-Union salary alignment table, effective May 16, 2012.

Here’s the real story:

This pay raise proposal for Tom Moore, Deputy Director. Public Works/Utilities Waste Management, was originally presented back on June 4, at the BOCC briefing, the day before the long haul solid waste contract was approved, which Mr. Moore negotiated. So, why did it take six weeks for this item to be put on the action agenda? Was it to allow enough time between the two events so as not to invite questions? In response to my query, Sheldon said that I have a “great imagination”. True dat. But what he’s hearing is not so much a product of imagination as a complete lack of trust.

On a lighter note: Our neighbor’s cat died. He was big, mean and would spray up against our front door. Services will be held at Shoebox Funerals.com.

Later…

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

Link to KMAS News Voters Guide:
http://masoncountydailynews.com/news/voter-guide-2012

Link to Progressive Voters Guide: 2012 Primary Edition, Mason County
http://progressivevotersguide.com/2012/washington/primary/county/mason/