Charter Reviewers Define County Administrator’s Role

From the San Juan County Charter Review Outreach Committee

The next meeting of the San Juan County Charter Review Commission (CRC) is on Saturday March 31st at the San Juan Grange from 8:30 am to 2pm (with a break for lunch). Public input is welcomed and there is time set aside at 9am and again at 12pm (after lunch). The CRC is charged with reviewing the Charter “to determine its adequacy and suitability to the needs of the County.”  Changes that they propose will be put on the ballot for the public to vote on in November.

The March 24th meeting of the CRC on Orcas was a working session in which  the CRC continued working on a plan for how changes to the charter would be implemented.  County Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord provided information on the laws governing such a transition and answered questions from the CRC.  The primary focus of the discussion was how to transition from district elections to countywide elections, including whether to propose a special election, whether to include a special primary, and how long the initial terms of those elected in a special election should be.  The issue was referred back to committee to be discussed at the next meeting.

The CRC also adopted, by majority vote, a series of motions on the role of the county administrator. The first motion was to propose that the Charter continue to require a County Administrator. The second motion was to propose including language, similar to that in the Clallam County Home Rule Charter, defining the role of the Administrator as directly responsible to the Council and making it clear that having an Administrator does not change the relationship of the Council members to their constituents or to other elected officials. The third motion was to propose including that the Administrator serves under an “at will” contract, which allows the Council to terminate that contract with or without giving cause.  All of these motions were adopted.

The CRC also considered, but did not adopt, a motion that would propose setting the County Council salaries at 110% of the median income for all of San Juan County and continue to have the Citizens’ Salary Commission set salaries for all other county elected officials. The CRC also considered, but did not adopt, a motion that would propose making the position of Auditor appointed and creating a new elected Elections Supervisor position.

The working model of the CRC includes a three-member full-time commission with legislative and administrative authority, a professional County Administrator directly responsible to the elected commission, countywide non-partisan elections and maintains the powers of initiative, referendum and mini-initiative. At upcoming meetings they will address how to transition in the change, setting the salaries of elected officials, whether to propose changes to the Hearing Examiner system, and clarification of budget authority and the budgeting process. Findings supporting the working-model are available at the CRC website:  www.sanjuanco.com/committees/charterreview.

The website also has other documents considered in the Charter review and the schedule of CRC meetings.  The April 7th meeting is in Lopez village from 8am to 3pm.  Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meetings and to contact any member of the Commission to voice their opinions (e-mails sent to crc@sanjuanco.com will be received by all of the CRC members).