Letter to Editor | Justin demonstrates the epitome of what an Islander is

Islanders Registered to vote can vote for any Council Candidate County wide

||| FROM CLARK CUNDY |||

As islanders we all are attempting to put the pandemic behind us and take a look around our County. There is much public work to be done in and around our island homes. From ferries to affordable housing to potentially large solar farms, and a comprehensive plan review in 2025 to name a few. Each island is going to have its own specific wants and needs to deal with. We are going to need somebody young enough, with fresh ideas, the energy and mental bandwidth to take on multiple island specific sensitive large projects at a time. Justin Paulsen has the knowledge, experience, vision, and patience to actively hold this position. His eye for detail and listening skills create a fair and balanced environment for all to express their wants, needs and opinions that they all should be afforded. Justin Paulsen brings all those attributes to the table in his candidacy for SJC Council Position 2.

For all the other islands besides Orcas, I apologize in advance for the length of this, but I am pretty sure there is a need for you to get to know Justin a bit more. This hopefully can provide some background for his content of character in asking the voters of SJC to elect him to SJC Council District 2. Name recognition is really important here, so hopefully this part of the letter to you can be a help to inform you partially about who Justin is. We have a real opportunity to make some positive changes for SJC in the future.

First a few observations looking back at the primary election in August. Justin won the primary election contest on Orcas Island by 9.5%. That is a sizable percentage difference in any political race, and we need to take notice of that. If you look at precinct results, even the Eastsound Village core went to Justin. These precinct numbers are available on the SJC Election results webpage. These statistics are quite telling and for me are a tremendous local endorsement. It says to me that the local leaders that live and work here on Orcas, people who truly know
Justin, really respect his efforts in the community through his abilities to see an issue, find a solution, then get things done. Some of his resolutions, volunteering himself and his company, has saved various projects substantial amounts of money.

Justin’s content of character with community engagement is manifold and multi-level. I will list a couple here to give you the idea. There are many more.

The WSF Ferry Advisory Committee has been in existence since (I have read) 1982. It has in the past been a behind the scenes organization that most of the time we never heard much about. Currently that group is front and center in communications with WSF, our state representatives, and the Governor. Justin has been Chair since last January. I think we can all agree that WSF will need as much input from informed people as possible. Justin was appointed Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) Chair at the beginning of 2024 and working in conjunction with Jane Fuller (current SJC Council Chair), the FAC is now part of the goal-setting process for ferry action in the county and has also been asked to assist in prioritizing legislative asks from the current SJC Council to WSF and Washington State itself. Governor Inslee was just up in Friday Harbor (FH) not long ago and the SJC Council did an ask for Ferry and Barge services to compensate for when the interisland ferry service was going to be disrupted. Inslee that day turned down the ask, but yesterday has ordered 1.5 million in State Emergency Funds to go to Local Ferry & Barge services & Weekend Inter-Island service through the winter. I am thinking that Jane Fuller and the Community Water Taxi group representatives were in on that one with the Governor, and that has helped make his decision to allocate funds. The FAC helped achieve those results, through engagement, conversation, and connection. The FAC is required to have one SJC council representative on the committee at a time. Jane Fuller from Lopez is currently the council member on the FAC.

Affordable housing is another issue in the forefront of concern here in the San Juan Islands and we have a real problem with providing housing for people that want to build a life here. Justin has worked with OPAL affordable housing on Orcas on multiple large projects, including the Wild Rose Meadow neighborhood through the 2008 Mortgage Crisis, where his company Terra Firma NW was able to employ over fifty local trades-workers. That project was a key part of keeping many different companies afloat through very difficult times. Justin in 2015 was awarded the Fisher Award for Service in the cause of Fair Housing by OPAL. Justin’s efforts are well known here on Orcas and the voters being aware of this have shown their support by a majority vote for Justin in the primary in support of his efforts to become a SJC Council member.

Justin has a keen notion on how to help others in many ways. On Orcas there is going to be another round of OPAL housing projects and many of the SJC building codes and building permit processes really need modification. The process of getting a building permit is a key factor to be modified in the short term. Who better than Justin as a member of the SJC council to know where the points of pain are in that building and building permit process and fix it? Justin who has done the work and gone through those processes can provide expert insights to those policy and coding updates.

There are many other examples of Justins community engagement, volunteering, and participation. The list is long, starting with youth Athletics, Early childhood education, Foster Parenting, 4H, OPALCO Energy Audits, Recovery In Community, Orcas Island Park and Rec Commissioner (OIPRD) & work at Buck Park, Justin’s company Terra Firma has done much pro-bono work in many of these efforts, (saving SJC lots of money), Orcas Bakery Co-op, Community Water Taxi (CWT).

There simply is no comparison with the other candidate for SJC Council District 2, regarding current Community engagement, volunteerism, and ACTION. Justin is not a person of complacency and inaction but digs in to find solutions. I’m asked fairly often by mainland people what’s it like to be and islander, and generally speaking I tell them we are a tight knit community, we support one another, and have each other’s backs, plus work to keep our
islands a great place to live… Justin demonstrates the epitome of what an Islander is. Please Vote for Justin in the November election. IMHO Islanders will experience far better outcomes with Justin as our collective SJC council representative. He will listen.