By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager
Candidate filing week for the fall primary and general elections will run June 6 through June 10, 2011.
During that week, in addition to other local elected positions, voters will be selecting eighteen commissioners for the County’s first Charter Review Commission.
It was previously announced that three commissioners would be elected from each of the six Council Districts. Based on population data received from the 2010 Census, the allocation has been revised.
The Charter says that “the number of CRC members for each district shall be apportioned according to the population distribution in each Legislative Body district.”
Now that population data is available, the 18 seats have to be allocated by population. As a result, the largest district, which is Orcas West (Council District 4) will elect four commissioners; the smallest district, which is Friday Harbor (Council District 3) will elect two members. All other council districts will elect three members to the Charter Review Commission.
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I sincerely hope that this means Orcas West will be well represented; both the UGA and outlying areas. I think a compromise would be 2 people who actually LIVE in the UGA, and two others from anywhere else in Orcas West. After all, Friday Harbor gets two people just for their town. It seems like a gain for Orcas West but with half of the population of Orcas slated to live in the UGA, it’s really, in a way, a loss, if people from the UGA aren’t represented.