— from San Juan County Communications —
San Juan County Council did not take action on a proposed contract with Cascadia Consulting Group, Inc. in its regular session, Dec. 7.
Cascadia Consulting was chosen through the County’s formal request for proposal (RFP) process as the most responsive consultant to update the County’s Parks Trails and Natural Areas Plan (Plan).
The 2015 County budget includes funds to hire a consultant to facilitate a large scale public involvement effort to solicit public comments on suggested changes to the existing Plan. “Updating the Plan is important for the community and for ensuring we remain competitive for state grant funding for projects such as Oldin Park,” said Councilmember Jamie Stephens.
Although not part of the consultant selection process, the County Manager disclosed to the Council and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as required by RCW 42.23.040 a remote interest (1% or $500) in the contract due to inclusion of a family member as a sub-consultant.
The total contract amount is $43,000. The Council will schedule additional time to review the proposed update to the Parks Trails and Natural Areas Plan and to consider whether it will enter into a contract with Cascadia Consulting.
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I thought that the County manager’s spouse was to be paid $115 an hour to serve as an island “liaison” to the contractor, close to three times what liaisons on other islands were to be paid. This is clearly more than $500, and raises some serious questions.
A bigger question is why the plan will cost $60,000 to “update.” Citizen groups have devoted many hours to several existing plans for trails and parks and “updating” this should be a relatively simple process. We spend more time and money doing repetitive “planning” exercises than we ever seem to spend on actual work–like a trail or park improvement.
Oh Yes Peg! Being an Old Fashioned Community nowadays seems to not work in a County where apparently everyone seems “to have their hand in the cookie jar”!
Spirit Eagle