Updated Sept. 12 at 11:30 a.m.
Dear County Council,
The Council’s recent vote, to make recycling activities at Consignment Treasures non-conforming was avoidable. … You should have taken longer, or required County Staff to find solutions for our community recycling needs. What happened to the Staff’s promise to rezone our property to Rural Industrial or Rural Commercial, at the County’s expense? What is the talk I am hearing about doing a formal “Essential Public Facility” designation on our property? No one in the County has asked me about this, or what I would think about it.
I feel this Council has failed to grasp:
1) This is not about the “Penwells”, nor was it about a profit for someone. Consignment Treasures is a nonprofit, and “Mr. Penwell” is not on the paid staff. Words like, “Mr. Penwell’s private business,” “His business,” “A private business”…. show a lack of understanding, and a choice to make things personal.
2) Closing Consignment Treasures will not be a financial drain on the Penwells, but it will be a hardship to the community, and that choice was eventually the Council’s.
3) The choice to work with Lopez residents to have their facility, and to work with the Orcas residents to have their facility, and then the choice to leave San Juan Island residents with no viable options, was inappropriate. Isn’t it astounding that a nonprofit business helping the community with its recycling issues can’t get support from the County–either the Planning Department or the County Council? Government needs private and nonprofit enterprises to pay taxes, employ people, and pay wages.
4) The Council chose a goal, pass the 18.30 Amendments, rather than choosing to find a solution to a problem. The choice to simply kick the can down the road, has regrettable future consequences.
5) Solutions were suggested. Council’s choice to just accept Staff’s wishes, are very short sighted. Why is it that the Council feels so inferior to Staff? They work for you. You should be directing them, rather than taking orders and directions from them. It is a very bad habit, and it is why the PWD kept going in the hole for over two years. It is not your job to accept excuses and rationalizations from Staff. It is your job to tell them what to do. If they are not willing to do it, or can’t do it, then fire them and get people who can do the job. That would go a long way in helping the County get control of their budgets and get relief on many of the crazy conflicts generated by the County Staff.
If the Council and the community want what Consignment Treasures has offered, for the past 8 years, they have to show a desire for it, put their shoulders to the wheel, and help to make it possible. How silly is it to have regulations that make Consignment Treasures a law breaker for letting someone drop something off while they are already at the place of business? “Take it home Joe. The County law says we have to come to your house to pick it up.” During your whole Amendment process, no one from the County Staff formally briefed, discussed, or replied to comments Consignment Treasures’ made. Council should force Staff to appropriately serve our community by figuring out a way that Consignment Treasures could help our community in a hands up manner, rather than a hand out or enabling manner. At the very least, a conversation with me and the stakeholders should have taken place. Why place regulations on the Consignment Treasures business that make no sense, or would be costly? I am left feeling Staff and Council never really read our comments and suggestions.
Regretfully,
Frank M Penwell, President
Consignment Treasures
