Guest Opinion: The County Charter “Ain’t Broke”

from Ed Sutton

“It Ain’t Broke”

We have all read many letters about the proposals of the CRC to amend the County Charter. I was a member of the Charter Review Committee, and, in retrospect, I have concluded that there is no compelling reason to change the structure of the current Charter. The Orcas Council representative, Patty Miller, asked the most pertinent question, “Did you define the problem?” NO, we did not!

Comments and testimony from many citizens, including former and current Council members did not build a convincing case suggesting that we revert to the old Council structure of three full-time commissioners. I would suggest that the comments were somewhat evenly divided between former commissioners who preferred the “old way”, and the recent council members who testified in favor of the current Charter format of six part-time members. I voted against submitting the ballot proposals because I concluded that the testimony did not support unwinding the effort of the Freeholders to create a Better Government that would result in Improved Governance.

Frankly, I think that the CRC missed an opportunity to build on the efforts of the earlier Charter group. There was a pre-determined, orchestrated drive to unwind the changes that were approved by the County voters in 2005 by a margin of about 60%. Too, the CRC did not consider the costs or consequences of the process of reconverting our government to a three member Council.

I think that the most peculiar aspect of the arguments to revert to a three member Council that would be elected county-wide was the complete disregard for the work of the Redistricting Committee. The U.S. Constitution requires a Census every ten years and a redistricting of representation to assure the “One person, one vote” provision of the Constitution. The Constitution does not say “except” when you live on an island or on two different sides of a river.

The County was directed to balance the representation by council voting district to meet that requirement. I would imagine that Doug Pearson and his two colleagues must be frustrated that their volunteer efforts on behalf of the community were totally disregarded by the CRC. The challenge of legal counsel for the CRC that this matter has been settled in the U.S. Supreme Court is disingenuous. We all know that that august body is capable of some very strange decisions (evidence the decision that corporations are “people”).

So, I must conclude that the current Charter is not dysfunctional, “It ain’t broke”, and doesn’t need to be fixed.
I will vote NO on ballot Proposition #1 to amend the County Charter and ask that you do likewise!