TOM'S TALES FOR THE WEEK
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive
Several months ago, while leaving an evening meeting of County Commissioners that went on far too long, a woman stepped out of the shadows, and with a boney finger poking my chest demanded to know why I did not attend the Monday morning briefings of the BOCC. After regaining my composure, I answered, “Why should I, all the important decisions are made at the Public Hearings, right?” The look she gave me seemed to say, “How did you get to be so old and still be so stupid?”
How, indeed.
As it turns out, Monday morning BOCC briefings are infinitely more interesting than the regular Tuesday meetings because the briefings are where so many of our most important public policy decisions are made. Not the official decisions, of course, that require the dogs and ponies be given an opportunity to perform, but the results themselves are a foregone conclusion.
Such is not always the case, but happens often enough to be disconcerting when those decisions involve hot-button issues like the economy, special interests, the environment or decency standards. It appears some decisions are founded in political ideology or personal conviction. Call me old fashioned, but it would seem that if your job is to make public policy then you should wait till the public is heard from before adopting that policy.
And now onto our regularly scheduled program on Tuesday.
April 24, 2012
6:00 PM: Regular session of Board of County Commissioners (BOCC)
This was the third time in 2012 Commissioner Sheldon was not in attendance, and so is now deserving of the honorary title, “Part-Time-Tim”.
Fortunately, no public hearings were scheduled, and there were only two action items on the agenda worth the price of gas:
Item 8.2
Approval to appoint the following people to the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Advisory Committee: Kimberly Klint, Executive Director, Mason Matters; Tom Davis, Citizen; Miles Nowlin, Homeless Liaison, Shelton School District; Gordon Craig, Citizen; Samuel Byrd, Citizen, Allyn; Gale Burke, Citizen; Raymond Lee “Randy” Olson, Citizen, VFW – Shelton Post; George Radovich, Citizen – Veterans’ adviser; Patti Kleist, Ex. Dir. Faith in Action, Belfair; Douglas Sayan, Citizen; Sue LaMont, Sergeant, Mason County Jail.
The new citizen committee was formed to advise County Commissioners what programs are worthy of funding collected from the 1/10th of 1% sales tax increase for mental health, substance abuse and therapeutic court programs. The entire community is being represented, with a broad cross-section of citizens offering a variety of differing viewpoints. But mixing it up, as it were, has always been part and parcel of the creative process, and I am expecting no shortage of passion being brought to the table of this committee.
Item 8.8
Approval to set a public hearing on May 8, 2012 at 9:30 a.m. to consider adoption of amendments to Title 17 of the Mason County Code pertaining to the zoning of Collective Gardens (medical cannabis) or extend the current Moratorium for six months to expire on November 16, 2012.
Wow, a real cliff-hanger. Will the county permit growers of medical marijuana to locate “collective gardens” in a particular zone, even though such gardens are illegal under Federal Law, or will salmon decide to migrate to Iowa this fall. The odds are roughly even.
There was no Port meeting scheduled, but I did attend a forum sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce held at the Colonial house. I arrived late, due to the BOCC meeting, and opened the door on a diverse group of people sitting in a circle. Admittedly, my first reaction to such a formation is to slowly back away. But a quick look around made me feel this was not some sort of ritual involving human sacrifice, so I pulled up a chair.
The gathering was led by two people representing the Pomegranate Center, there to advise the community on how to bring itself together under a common cause, and for the common good. I had arrived just in time for the part where each person was being given the opportunity to share their vision for our community.
What I took away from this was the notion that if the community needed to dig a hole, for whatever reason, we could argue about the details or we could find common ground and just start digging. (The whole hole analogy is mine.)
To further torture that analogy, when a hole in the ground is, indeed, the objective, I have found it expedient to just grab a shovel and start digging till such time as a more qualified digger of holes comes along to tell me that I’m doing it all wrong, and at which time I hand that person the shovel and take an almost imperceptible step backward. If no one comes along then I dig the hole myself. In either scenario the hole gets dug.
In the end, we all agreed to talk a bit more about what we had learned, and for each of us to bring eight friends along (like I have eight friends) at the next meeting, which is May 15 @ 6:00 PM, at the old County Fairgrounds, Building #13. So if you feel an overwhelming need to contribute to the future of our community but don’t know how, or if you just want to see how many people it takes to dig a hole, I’ll see you there. Just don’t forget to say that you’re a friend of mine.
It ain’t much, but that’s all I got.
Later…
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