Bob Gamble Serves to Make County Government Work

Bob Gamble, Charter Review Commissioner

CRC meets Saturday, March 3 from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Orcas Hotel

Orcas Village and Waldron Island resident Bob Gamble urges all islanders to make their choices known to the County Charter Review Commission, especially on the matter of  “3 vs. 6  county legislators (or ‘commissioners’ or’ council members’)” which the CRC will vote upon this coming Saturday, March 3, when it meets at the Orcas Hotel.

Gamble  works part-time loading ferry traffic for Russel’s  at Orcas Landing (the agent for the Washington State Ferries); he also  serves on the County Planning Commission. He  wanted to work with the Charter Review Commission (CRC) because he felt strongly the Charter, instituted in 2006, “needed some tweaking, mainly with regard to county-wide voting for the legislators.”  (He uses this term to refer to the three Commissioners, prior to the Charter government, or the six Council members now serving in the legislative positions.)

Gamble is concerned with the “balkanization” of the  county, especially the three main islands. So he was somewhat surprised that at the first meetings of the CRC, the group shared major concerns regarding county-wide voting; the number of legislators; a “firewall” between the responsibilities of a county administrator and the input of the legislators; elected vs. appointed county officials, including administrator; and formulation of the ultimate CRC  “product” — a ballot measure to go before voters in this November’s election.

The CRC has met weekly since early January, alternating on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands.  Gamble says he was rather surprised by the commitment to the weekly meetings, admitting to being a night owl who usually rises late in the mornings.  But he agrees with the rationale for the heavy schedule, saying energy is dissipated and commission members retain their previous work better with the weekly meetings.

So far, the CRC has made the preliminary recommendations to go back to three, rather than the current six, legislators; and for county-wide voting for county positions, including the legislators.

At first he was “somewhat ambivalent” about going back to three legislators, but as the sessions have progressed, and arguments have been heard in support of both numbers, Gamble has decided that a return to three legislative members is the best course of action for San Juan County.  “It’s an important issue. I feel stronger than before.”

He urges people who want to speak to that issue before the CRC votes to attend the meeting at the Orcas Hotel during the public access times, at the beginning of the meeting at 7:30 a.m., and when it re-convenes at noon, after lunch.

The question of the separation of the responsibilities of county administration and county legislators has been taken up in discussion at each meeting.  Gamble says that currently there is “a mild firewall” in the charter separating the appointed administrator and the legislators. That firewall is modeled on the legislators hiring the administrator and defining his or her duties and responsibilities.

Gamble points out that no matter what is written in the charter regarding that firewall, in practice the definition becomes blurred. “Everything is fluid, everything is personality-based.”  He points to the example of Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula, saying it makes sense for smaller counties to “let the legislators define those separation of powers, and to tweak the definitions as needs arise. ”

A motion made at the Jan. 18 meeting by Lopez Islander Madrona Murphy  to “Remove all reference to a separate executive branch from the Charter and return executive and administrative responsibilities to elected commissioners/council members, thus empowering them to delegate duties to subordinate officers or county employees, without relieving them of their executive and administrative accountability,”  has been repeatedly discussed.

In explaining her motion at the Jan. 18 meeting, Murphy said the idea is not to remove the administrator, but to put the authority for him (or her) back on the elected officials.

That discussion has led to whether a county administrator should be elected or appointed. Gamble says that, unlike an elected official who can rise through local government and become known to voters, a county administrator is a specialized job and San Juan County has “too small a labor pool” to reasonably expect the level of expertise required of a county administrator. “It can be a huge problem to get a good elected administrator when that person has to be known and popular. That person can be extraordinarily electable but still unqualified,” Gamble says.

The reality of work on the CRC is that it takes time, Gamble says. Each elected Charter Review Commissioner “brings his or her personal logic to the discussion, but there may be 15 other people in the room that don’t feel that way. It’s very seldom that everyone is on a parallel track; that the discussion is simple and easy and clear.”

“I hope I’m reasonable; I bring many years’ interest in governance. I like to look at why things work or don’t work, and how they can work,” Gamble says.

On Waldron Island in the 1980s he chaired most of  the 99 meetings held every Friday night over two years to update the Limited Development District (LDD) into the Waldron Subarea Plan. That plan met with 80 percent voter approval.

He is motivated toward equal success with the CRC’s proposals on the November ballot.  The timeline before the CRC now is to define the broader issues, put language to the group’s recommendations and describe how and when recommended changes will take place, if approved by county voters.

The CRC has to decide whether the vote put before voters in November will be a list or “menu” of recommendations which can be singly approved or rejected; or an up-or-down vote on one comprehensive measure.

Gamble is adamant that the county government should serve to connect, rather than separate the islands. “Do not separate us more than we’re already separated. Balkanization is terrible, and it’s a recipe for long term failure.

“In a few years there will be 10 million people in the I-5 corridor on the mainland, and we 20,000 islanders can’t hold our own if we’re disunited.”

Gamble says, “All of us on the Charter Review Commission would like to hear from the public at our weekly meetings — and otherwise.”