WEEK of 8/13/12 MEETINGS IN REVIEW

TOM'S TALES FOR THE WEEK

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive

Monday, August 13, 2012

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

Nothing at the briefing is worthy of reporting here, but that doesn’t mean there’s no news:

Most notable is a dearth of supporting documentation on the County website. If a citizen wants to be informed on the underpinnings of an agenda item, they have to thumb through the hardcopy at Central Operations.

This type of withholding of public information began last week, when a request to rezone 2.05 acres from RR-5 to Commercial 2 lacked supporting documentation. The Public Notice failed to provide a parcel number, a legal description, or an address. After some research, I unearthed the little rascal on the County Assessor’s site, but that information was all wrong: wrong address, wrong parcel, wrong owner, even the property boundaries were wrong.

I asked the Commissioners to consider continuing the hearing till correct information was made available. And for a moment it looked as if my request was being digested. But what I interpreted to be a thoughtful pause in the proceedings turned out to be just a bubble of official gas passing through the collective system, and the rezone was unanimously approved.

By itself, this instance may not raise many eyebrows, but this week, again, no supporting documentation was provided for any of the Public Hearings scheduled, and there were a bunch:

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

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

9.1 Public Hearing to consider the following budget transfers and supplemental appropriations:

Current Expense Fund #001:

9.1.1 $ 5,550 - Budget transfer to Civil Service department for hiring and testing of new Sheriff department employees.

9.1.2 $ 21,000 - Supplemental appropriation to the Clerk's department due to increased collection revenues to fund additional Court Clerk.

9.1.3 $105,000 - Supplemental appropriation for the Department of Community Development for a WA Department of Fish & Wildlife Grant contract.

9.1.4 $ 4,000 - Budget transfer to Probation/Juvenile department for increased costs in Healthcare Delivery Systems.

9.1.5 $ 40,000 - Supplemental appropriation for the Sheriff's office for a new Timberlakes contract.

9.1.6 $ 4,500 - Budget transfer from budgeted ending fund balance to transfers out to Public Health Fund.

Public Health Fund #150:

9.1.7 $ 4,500 - Supplemental appropriation for negotiated health care for Nurses union contract.

With over $180,000 in supplemental appropriations at stake, not a single piece of background or other supporting documentation was provided. Is it any wonder why the public feels disenfranchised from local government? In this desert of information, mine was the only public voice to even ask a question before the Commissioner’s approved all of the above, unanimously.

The only other item worthy of reporting had to do with the jail and money (funny how those two things seem always to go together):

8.12 Approval of the modification to the Mason County Jail by adding three portable cells at an estimated cost of $111,335; increasing the jail capacity to 114; and adding three corrections officers to the staff to properly; and safely monitor the additional inmate population. The annual cost for three additional staff, including benefits, is $226,200.

The fact is, incarcerating people is expensive and counterproductive to an evolved society, but it is also a fact that the Mason County Jail is operating far beyond its designed capacity. In this case, throwing money at the problem seemed a practical solution, albeit short term.

So I asked the Jail Administrator, Tom Haugen for his vision of a long term solution. As expected, he and Undersheriff Jim Barrett jumped at the chance to voice a common dream that apparently dances in the heads of those engaged in arrest and incarceration operations -- an $80M “Judicial Campus”: a one stop shop for all your law enforcement needs in one glorious location.

Now, if that doesn’t lift your spirits for a better tomorrow, I don’t know what will.

Public Comment Period Note: This sacred visage of our tattered democracy usually comes at the beginning of my railings. But in an attempt to avoid having the other items appear anticlimactic, it is presented here, with a little background:

As readers of this blog know, a group calling itself “Advocates for Responsible Government” filed a lawsuit against our fair County, asserting the solid waste hauling contract awarded to Regional Disposal Company/Allied Waste had not gone through the competitive bidding process, as per statutory requirement RCW 36.58.090 (“Tom’s Tales for the Week”, 7/16/12).

The case was decided in Grays Harbor Superior Court, and it was a doozey. Judge Gordon L. Godfrey (who has replaced Judge Wapner as my all-time favorite jurist) put the mallet to the County’s arguments, saying, “I’m going to bring some pragmatism to this issue.” When the legal dust settled, the waste hauling contract was void, and the County was given six months to “make amends” by back-peddling through the competitive bidding process.

Don’t miss the next episodes of “Waste Not, Want Not”, coming to a blog near you.

Public Comments:

I rose to extoll the unnecessary exhaustion of funds and resources, and to remind the Board it had been forewarned that an unfavorable outcome was likely. Moreover, when the County loses in court, it is the citizens who suffer the consequences. Judging from Commissioner Sheldon’s response to those comments, that fact had not yet taken root; confronted with the decision, Sheldon assigned blame to anyone but himself.

The only question that remains is, if Mr. Sheldon were made to bear the cost consequence of his actions, would he still be so cavalier about fanning grievances into lawsuits?

I doubt it.

Finally, I realize that some of these comments are hard to take, and may even make some folks angry; it is human nature to avoid unpleasant situations. It is easy to jump on the "happy train" and extoll the virtues of our community -- of which there are many -- but that ground seems to have been adequately tilled, and we have some chronic problems that need to be addressed.

Toward that end, I see my place as unique. I have the time to attend most of the meetings and the motivation to report on the experience. But rocks come with the farm, and I cannot be someone else. So, if you don’t like what I have to say, there’s always Shelton Life.

But for me the path is clear (to heed the words of my dear old dad, just before they sprung the trap): “The good in life will take care of itself; it’s the problems that need attention”.

And with that, I must put up fencing for some sheep I’m pretending to raise. If that works out, I’ll pretend to buy a cow or two, maybe some pigs. I toyed with the idea of real animals, but with all the meetings I sit through, I’ll be damned if I spend my weekends having to deal with any more manure.

Later…

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

Link to previous related post:
http://masoncountyprogressive.blogspot.com/2012/07/week-of-71612-meetings-in-review.html