||| FROM LISA DES JARDINS |||
I have known and been friends with Stephanie O’Day since she moved to the island 33 years ago. She has been immersed in living, working, and volunteering on San Juan Island the entire time and, in my estimation, is a true Islander. As an Islander and an attorney, she has become acutely aware of the challenges we face as a community; affordable housing, daycare, economic development, tourism and lodging, and transportation.
Through her work, as a land use attorney, she has dealt with almost every department in San Juan County. I, having worked at the County, first as Public Hearings Specialist for the County Council from 2007-2009, then Office Manager of the Department of Community Development from 2010-2021, also know Stephanie on a professional level. She has become a master at navigating San Juan County’s cumbersome land use development regulations and is aware of the impact it has on the construction trades and individuals trying to develop their land.
The environmental protection regulations currently in the San Juan County Code are extensive, and sometimes overlapping and contradictory, which is taxing on staff to interpret, maintain, and regulate, and taxing on the people trying to develop their land in that they need the help of an attorney or land use professional to navigate the process. I can also state, for the record, that Stephanie is not anti-environmental or anti-Land Bank, she seeks the appropriate balance for quality of life for our human population and our precious environment.
Stephanie has assisted land use clients with building permitting for many, many years and has personally built five tiny homes to help address the housing crisis issue on the island.
Tourism depends on a beautiful environment, as well as providing lodging, goods and services, and travel. Those businesses providing these amenities need to employ people to deliver them, and those employees require housing, which in turn requires development; and, as Stephanie has promoted, carefully planned development within the comprehensive plan.
he reason my vote is for Stephanie is because she has a thorough understanding of local government and the legislative process and in my professional opinion, is the only candidate qualified for this position. In this arena, our county is broken and is in great need of help, and I
believe Stephanie is the only candidate that will successfully navigate the nuances of the position of County Council and be the strong voice of reason we desperately need here and in Olympia.
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It sounds like Stephanie’s best use of her skills since she wants to come out of retirement would be to be hired as a consultant to advise the Building Department and Community Development on more efficient ways to allow development while, I presume and hope, meeting environmental standards. As she has explained regarding the budget: “it’s the role of the County Manager”; therefore, presumably improving land use laws in the County would not be her responsibility, but rather the respective Department Heads. Other than as a consultant, I don’t see how all her lawyering experience helps our county. Has she lobbied in Olympia for our county or for anything? What legislative processes has she been involved in that are claimed? Has she been involved in our serious ferries fiasco? When has she set priorities for large organizations? Has she even reviewed large organizational budgets? And please be specific of when and where she has strived for fairness and not just a legal win…no matter who’s back the win falls on. Reader, search out the history of the Honeywells complete disregard for our environmental regulations with Stephanie defending their illegal activities over many years. I can see how Stephanie’s years of lawsuits against the county might comfort some that she will get the problems with the Community Development under control but my experience having watched her for 33 years is that she will gut the department if she does anything and environmental quality will suffer. And this nonsense of her not being anti-Land Bank during her years here is laughable. A “just wow” convenient rewrite of history.
Our county is broken…the one thing I agree with Lisa de Jardins on, but what we need to heal our county process are people who actually have related experience to the tasks the County Council is responsible for. We have serious budget issue to address, very poor moral across several departments, and much to correct since the last County Manager who had a personal agenda he considered more important than our community vision. We need a council populated with tested leadership skills not skills at fighting environmental laws on behalf of the wealthy.
Vote for Kari McVeigh if you care about our county and want a representative who does too. Compare Kari’s broad organizational and administrative experience with that of a local attorney that mostly dealt in protecting land use violations. We are lucky Kari McVeigh, a dedicated and experienced person with skills needed on council, has stepped up: https://www.kari4council.com/
Thanks for reading,
Amanda,
The only reason Stephanie is retiring now is to run for this office. For 33 years she has done what you suggest, having regularly advised the Department of Community Development on the conflicting and ambiguous codes they have written and presented for adoption and codification by the County Council and Prosecuting Attorney’s office. While conforming to environmental standards, Stephanie has represented clients on land use applications and provided legal representation to some who have had issues that have resulted in actions brought against them by the County and/or State. What she would provide as a Council Member in this arena is the knowledge through her experience to direct ambiguous and imprecise ordinances that come before the Council for adoption back to the Department for consistency and enforceability. After experiencing this for the long-term on the outside, it is obvious that a top-down methodology, i.e. a County Council position, is required to correct the code, rather than continually litigating and installing patches with legal decisions and interpretations. Land use regulations come before the Council from the Departments through the County Manager and it is ultimately the job of the Council, through the legislative process, to adopt resolutions and ordinances; of which most are codified under the County Code.
Amanda, your statement, “I can see how Stephanie’s years of lawsuits against the county might comfort some that she will get the problems with the Community Development under control …,” is a completely unwarranted and unsupported ad homonym attack on Stephanie. When attempting to illicitly discredit someone, citing the acts of others as if they were those of the person attacked may be an old technique, but it is essentially defamatory. In fact, what Stephanie has done is represent clients who have had actions brought against them by the County. The suit she personally filed against the county resulted in a ruling that corrected the code under the UDC, which resulted in having a constitutional rights violation stricken from the code. If you are going to launch an attack, at least be sure of your facts. And as far as ‘watching’ Stephanie for 33 years, leading you to say she will ‘gut’ the Department of Community Development, causing the environmental quality to suffer; that was done by the current County Council, who terminated all current land use planner positions, probably as you were crafting your retort to my letter, including that unsupported accusation.
Regarding the Honeywells, they hired a contractor to remove some of the trees and through a misunderstanding, while they were not present, the contractor cleared the vegetation. They have a right to defense just like everyone else. In the course of this defense it was revealed that there was injustice on the part of DOE when establishing the fine. DOE was seeking to charge a fine for each branch on each tree when their own regulation allowed only a fine for each tree trunk.
Regarding your “just wow” comment, where is your proof? I don’t believe it is a rewrite of history, as I have not heard a single statement made by Stephanie saying that she was against the Land Bank, only additional purchases of land when the REET would be put to better use towards stewardship and maintenance, and developing farming opportunities on the land they already have.
I worked as the Secretary and Assistant to the Superintendent of the San Juan Island School District for five years. Having become very familiar with this environment, as well as my experience as public hearings specialist for the San Juan County Council for three years, followed by 11 years at DCD as the Office Manager, I can say that the skillset required to administer a school district and the skillset required to be an effective legislator in a county council environment are dramatically different. A school administrator spends the majority of his/her time issuing orders and enforcing policies that have largely already been set by the Board. A County Council, however, is the legislative “Board” and functions in a legislative environment, in which discussion, give and take, compromise, and constant reference to the desires of the community are the required elements for success.
Throughout her entire career here – and as most lawyers do, Stephanie has strived for balance and fairness, and has provided legal interpretations to the hearings examiner and the court that have become final rulings and basis of future decisions. With this in-depth experience and knowledge of the codes, Stephanie is the only hope we have to right the ship with code amendments that will be more useful, clear, and enforceable.