WEEK OF 10/15/12 MEETINGS IN REVIEW

TOM'S TALES FOR THE WEEK

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis    Mason County Progressive

Monday, October 15, 2012  

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

A new applicant stepped up for membership to the Belfair Citizens Advisory Committee -- retired Lt. Commander and ROTC instructor at Shelton High School, Ed Kruk. At first blush, Mr. Kruk seems level-headed and pragmatic, making him an ideal candidate. Commissioners took well to Mr. Kruk’s impressive background, and his military humor (“…that’s been going on since Moby Dick was six inches long”).

Next up was the pot issue, or more precisely, renewing the moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries -- the current moratorium expires next month. This particular can has been kicked down the road so many times it’s become a piece of sociopolitical trash hanging round the Board’s neck. The moratorium will be extended, of course, and the time and energy spent pretending to explore a more enduring solution will be put on the shelf for the next crop of commissioners. 

Here’s a bit of fun news: 

Soon to be retired County Clerk, Pat Swartos, dropped by with a list of 655 cases in which some $4M in uncollected fines and court awarded restitution is owed, some going back as far as the late 1980’s. The collections contract was awarded to Dynamic Collectors Inc., out of Chehalis. So I guess it’s time to let the dogs out, and unemployment, incarceration or even death is no excuse not to render unto Caesar.
 
Enter the Chamber of Commerce:

Heidi McCutcheon, Executive Director, Shelton Mason County Chamber of Commerce, played three 30 second infomercials for commissioners aimed at promoting tourism in Mason County. The first piece showed the usual crop of miscreants flying through forest trails on dirt bikes or around the racetrack in expensive noise polluters. The second spoke to all the fine dining opportunities in Shelton, like “The Strip” steakhouse and the… and the… oh, I don’t know, burritos dished out of the side of a converted trailer? The third spot, my favorite, had to do with families just being together and enjoying the natural beauty of our County. It featured no shooting, no polluting and nobody tearing up the local flora and fauna. How dull is that?    

Tuesday, October 16, 2012 

9:00 AM: Regular session of Board of County Commissioners
 
Item 8.3: Approval of the resolution establishing the salaries of the Commissioners and Assessor, Auditor, Clerk, Coroner, Treasurer and Sheriff. This resolution would attach these salaries to the Superior Court Judge's salary that is set by Washington Citizens' Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials. The resolution also includes a 3% cap and reduces the salaries of Commissioner Districts No.1 and 2 to the 2008 level. The Commissioner District 3 salary cannot be amended until the new term begins, January 1, 2015.

Proposed commissioner salary for 2013 is $72,184. If no change is made, salaries will be $80,718.
 
And now for the show:

Commissioner Bloomfield gets credit for putting this piece of raw meat on the table, and it makes sense: Current commissioner salaries are unwarrantably high, and the mechanism by which they got there is out of whack with current conditions. 

Commissioner Sheldon, however, turned up his nose at the proposal and managed to put the vote off till next week, but that might not be a bad thing. The resolution needs to be broken down into two parts: one that adjusts commissioner salaries and one to put reasonable controls on future increases.

Of course, there’s no getting around the fact that this effort to bring some sanity to commissioner salaries should have happened years ago, and the deed is still far from done. As it now stands, Mr. Sheldon is all up in the “We have to see how much commissioners in comparable counties are making; reducing salaries isn’t fair to the new commissioners; we handle a $67M budget so we deserve more money; we can’t reduce salaries when it’s raining” (okay, I made that last part up).

Still, it’s hard to grab a moving snake by the tail.

11:00 AM: Joint Meeting with Port of Shelton Commission

County and Port Commissioners met to pow-wow about the future of the fairgrounds. Before I rip into the guts of this issue, a tip of the hat goes to Commissioner Bloomfield for arranging the sit-down.

Here’s what happened:

Bloomfield opened the door for keeping the fairgrounds on Port Property, but the Port says it’s not their decision; the FAA wants it gone. But when Sheldon pitched the possibility of the FAA backing off their position, the ball brushed right past the Port, because they have no intention of hosting the fairgrounds, FAA or no FAA. So the talk turned to building a new facility on 40 acres of County owned land adjacent to the Public Works compound at State Highways 101 and 102. I’d comment on that idea, but I’m not a big believer in life after death. 

Lots of other stuff happened this week: 

The Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) approved rezoning 248 acres of Green Diamond land on the north shore of Lake Nahwatzel from Long Term Commercial Forest usage to residential (RR-5), completely ignoring environmental and social impacts to the lake and surrounding community. The final decision now rests with commissioners. 

The first of two County budget workshops took place (more on that next week). 

The candidate forums (can’t go there, wouldn’t be prudent). 

And the Port held its regular meeting, which should have been a sleeper, but wasn’t: Responding to concerns about excessive noise from military night operations over and around Sanderson Field, Commissioner Wallitner said “There’s absolutely nothing the Port can do about it,” then added, “Those guys in the helicopters are really tough.” 

Well, Commissioner, until you come up against a pregnant woman with two toddlers and a bad night’s sleep you ain’t seen “tough".

Later…