By Brian McClerren
Candidate San Juan County Council #3, Lopez Island
Meeting islanders across the San Juan’s has been a deeply enriching experience for me. The benefit of sharing perspectives from different islands is valuable to our residents whom often hear little of life on other islands, as well as to our Officials, whom easily forget the concerns beyond their home shores.
If we don’t know about each others’ needs, how will they be met? If we refuse to hear from divergent perspectives, how will they be represented? If we do not understand the values of others, how will they be respected? We do a great disservice to ourselves if we choose to believe that our varied political, social, and economic views are irreconcilable.
I find the newly proposed Charter Amendments deeply offensive. Isolating five (or six) regions in the county with District elections and Council members unaccountable beyond their own community would be a move in the wrong direction. It will only serve to dilute any sense of Countywide community which we could try to foster. I cannot speak for the other candidates, but I entered this race with the intention of engaging the entire County and maintaining that posture as your Councilman.
I also think that it is highly inappropriate for sitting Council members to craft an Ordinance which relates to their own employment, election, and compensation. If allowed to stand, this Ordinance will create a time consuming and costly distraction at the worst possible time. Please stand with me in setting aside the matter of redistricting and let’s begin finding our common ground.
Where are the five districts?
This is a tough issue for sure. I appreciate Brian’s clarity and passion to deal with this head on. I imagine on the whole we’re on the same page. I believe Brian will make an excellent council person. However I respectfully need to disagree on a few points.
Council could only move a measure to ballot. It is up to the voters to decide. I don’t see the sitting Council in a potential financial/employment conflict over this any more or less than any candidate would be for similar reasons.
Secondly is the quite serious matter of equal representation in the original Charter which has been eliminated unjustly. It is understandable that Lopez precincts voted heavily in favor of the charter measures last fall, they stood to gain. However, voting outcomes on both Orcas and San Juan were different and send a different message.
While I support Brian, I ask him to contemplate fairness in the face of unequal voting districts that favor Lopez/Shaw precincts over the rest of the County he seeks to represent equally. The County is complex and diverse and unequal districts do not bridge divisions but rather further divide us.
Perhaps there is a middle ground. A top two primary within local voting districts can produce two candidates per district that go on to compete in the general election voted on county wide. Would that not achieve much of the goal?
Six council persons creates an unwieldy super-majority, a mistake from the original charter easily remedied by a simple majority of five. Even former Friday Harbor Council-member Rosenfeld I believe, at one time suggested the elimination of his own district.
The problem with returning to much of the old 3 member structure is what we now see erupting around us: Far too much money and political party influence corrupting the nonpartisan basis of our Home Rule Charter.
And that, I do find offensive.
The bulk of the electorate is not even aware that there is an election in April. They are not going to be able to absorb even more changes now. At least this proposal doesn’t require an immediate new election, again. I am interested to see what happens in April: who actually votes, who votes for three candidates, and how the Lopez factor affects the outcomes. Perhaps then we can talk about the future. People are simply overwhelmed.
I think “The Lopez Factor” was my favorite Mariachi band of all time but I don’t see what that has to do with the outcome of the election.
I’d like to reiterate one point of law: the Council cannot pass an ordinance affecting the Charter. Council, at any time, may propose a ballot proposition. So, in certain instances, can the people. There have been cries of attempted “coup” from some of our friends over in Lopez, but that is simply untrue and unfair. The Charter, even as changed by the CRC, allows a council member to propose, and Council to vote on, whether to place a proposition on the ballot. No attempted coup. Another ballot. Democracy. Also, as I read the draft, I did not see how the sitting Council would be setting their compensation or affecting their terms. Admittedly, I read through it very quickly, but it looked to me as if the two Council reps being added back to the mix would be elected in 2014.
I think that the five districts would be two on San Juan, two on Orcas and one on Lopez, reflecting population distribution. (Friday Harbor would no longer have a representative but would be represented by the two San Juan island council people. I have not analyzed to what extent it more accurately hews to the one person-one vote principle, but it would eliminate the mandatory assignment of 1/3 Council to Lopez residency.