Where Was the Mason County Legal Notice?

DID ORCAA FAIL TO PROVIDE APPROPRIATE NOTICE TO
PEOPLE LIVING IN THE PROPOSED ADAGE PROJECT AREA?

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Katherine Price Mason County Progressive M

By ORCAA's own rules, they are required to publish notice of their public hearing, held January 31, 2011 in the Shelton Civic Center. Specifically, notice is to be provided by, "publication of a legal notice in a local newspaper of daily circulation" (6.1.3(c)).

ORCAA complied with this, their rule, by "publication of a legal notice" in the Olympian, in connection with the public hearing itself.

However, also by ORCAA's rules, they are required to publish the date of the close of the public comment period. This legal notice, found in a different part of their rules, requires publication to be in: "A newspaper of general circulation in the area of the proposed project" (6.1.3(c)(2)).

ORCAA chose to provide notice of both of these events in the Olympian.

ORCAA is speaking to two separate events in these rules, and therefore, one publication was correctly done. Notice of the hearing was by publication in a newspaper of "daily circulation", which the Journal clearly is not.

However, the "legal notice" of the close of the public comment period should have been published in the Journal. ORCAA did not comply with their own rules. They violated their own rules by publication of the legal notice of the "close of the public comment period", not in the Shelton-Mason County Journal, but in the Olympian.

I have the Journal right here, for February 10, 2011, and there are almost six full pages of public notices, in very small print, I might add. ORCAA had a duty to publish notice of the second event, the close of the public comment period, in the Journal. By their own rules, they had to publish in the Journal. And they ignored, or forgot, or just plain failed to comply with their own rules in regard to notice. ORCAA will never know how many more written comments they might have received prior to their deadline if they had taken the time to comply with their rules and publish notice in the Journal. ORCAA can find out though.

ORCAA should be required to comply with their own rules, and reopen public comment; and publish in both the Olympian (to meet the requirements of a "daily newspaper"), and in the Journal (to meet the requirements of a "newspaper of general circulation in the area of the proposed project"). John's Prairie is not in Olympia. Too bad, because if it were, there would be a moratorium against ADAGE in effect this minute!

I know that Senator/Commissioner Tim Shelton has legislation pending that would allow all agencies to only publish notice on their own website, but it is still only legislation. The current rules that governed this Mason County hearing are ORCAA’s rules, and ORCAA has violated 6.1.3(c)(2). ORCAA has failed to provide notice to the people who live “in the area of the proposed project" by only publishing notice in Thurston County.

The hearing should be rescheduled for a time when the full citizenry of Mason County has been provided notice, not the full citizenry of Thurston County.

This was brought to ORCAA's attention on January 31, in both the public hearing portion of the afternoon hearing, and later in written form at the evening hearing. I look forward to an explanation from ORCAA in the near future.

Keep it light...