||| FROM NECIA QUAST for LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS |||
The council approved support letters for projects seeking state or federal funding: the Pea Patch Campus and Eastsound Wastewater Facility Upgrade on Orcas, the Lopez Island Food Center, the Puget Sound Partnership, and an SJI sewer system replacement project at the Home Trust Sunrise site. In public comment a citizen requested the Council to delay the recruitment of a new county manager until after the elections this fall and to appoint a citizen commission to play a role in the process. The council held an executive session with the PA’s office on litigation or potential litigation from which council member Fuller recused herself.
The Council reviewed the first proposed budget amendments for 2024. The amendments will update the budget to reflect actual end-2023/beginning-2024 balances, leaving roughly $722k in available cash. Other amendments will remove canceled projects, add new revenue and spending not in the original 2024 budget. The council reviewed required items, unapproved 2024 budget requests and items cut from 2024-2025 budget and determined at this point there were only enough available funds for the required items which included Department of Community Development (DCD) needs left out of the original budget and Sheriff’s Guild back pay. They will review the amendments again on March 26 and set a public hearing for April 16.
The Council approved DCD plans to update the code for Eastsound lighting standards in line with similar standards adopted for Lopez Village. They approved adjusted solid waste disposal fees on Orcas. They extended two LTAC grants and one historical preservation grant. They appointed members to the Eastsound Planning Review Commission, the Civil Service Commission, and the Clean Water Advisory Board.
The SJI Visitor Bureau reported recent county tourism trends. San Juan County is the 11th most popular destination for state citizens, well behind the Pacific Coast, Leavenworth, and Lake Chelan. Numbers have not recovered to pre-covid levels. In 2023 visitor numbers began to drop off in June and fell sharply in August and the Fall due to concerns about the ferry reliability. The county has the highest level in the state of tax revenue from tourists at $290m in 2022 but it fell 1-5% in 2023. So far 2024 summer bookings are running behind 2023 and some whale watching is shifting to Anacortes and Port Townsend. The Visitor Bureau is working with WSF communications to improve the tone of San Juan ferry press releases.
The Council plans to invite 40th district legislators to a county council meeting and for a town hall on ferry issues. The county manager will start meeting once a month with the Friday Harbor town administrator. There were 38 applicants for county manager, and they will look at how to include a public role in the hiring process.
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization encourages informed participation in government. The Observer Corps attends and takes notes at government meetings to expand public understanding of public policy and decisions. The notes do not necessarily reflect the views of the League or its members.
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Necia Quast, your summary is much appreciated; I wonder why whale watching has fallen off ?
I wonder what the whales might feel about this? The same as many others do would be my guess. That is, that “moderation” is the key to a successful long-term tourism management strategy.
“The SJI Visitor Bureau reported recent county tourism trends. San Juan County is the 11th most popular destination for state citizens, well behind the Pacific Coast, Leavenworth, and Lake Chelan. Numbers have not recovered to pre-covid levels. In 2023 visitor numbers began to drop off in June and fell sharply in August and the Fall due to concerns about the ferry reliability. The county has the highest level in the state of tax revenue from tourists at $290m in 2022 but it fell 1-5% in 2023. So far 2024 summer bookings are running behind 2023 and some whale watching is shifting to Anacortes and Port Townsend. The Visitor Bureau is working with WSF communications to improve the tone of San Juan ferry press releases.”
Those that support over-promoting tourism in the San Juans always tend to measure “progress” based in comparison to the record-breaking numbers of the past, in this case, the pre-covid record breaking numbers of tourists coming to our shores annually. It’s ironic that this is the same crowd that have also always stated, “The ferries are our first line of defense when it comes to protecting us from over-tourism,” doing so merely as a means of appeasing those of us that are concerned about over-tourism, doing so in an effort to appease those of us who do not agree that “record numbers of tourists coming to the San Juans year after year” is a healthy management strategy for our island communities.
The drop in tourism cited in this article simply bears out your predictions, this is truth coming to light. Though we can all agree that there is nothing good about a dysfunctional ferry system, a resultant drop in tourism is not, in the eyes of many, a bad thing.
In contrast to past public surveys showing that most residents feel we’ve already reached that tipping point between tourism and over-tourism, and for those of us now feeling the effects of the Visitors Bureau having embarked on their new strategy of “disbursement,” that is, of concentrating more tourism promotion targeting our buffer seasons and our lesser known places, (our secret hideaways), why then, “SJC, and SJC Visitors Bureau” do you feel the continued need to increase tourism promotion and why do you feel the need to sugar coat the promotional tone related to (hiding the reality) of the SJC ferry press releases?
“The Visitor Bureau is working with WSF communications to improve the tone of San Juan ferry press releases.” In sugar-coating the tone of our San Juan County ferry releases we are now reminded of a few years ago when the Visitors Bureau’s promotional outreach to their readership promoted the idea of, “Get your ferry reservation to the San Juans early, and while getting your reservation be sure and get extra for your friends and relatives,” (their words not mine), and doing so because of the limited number of ferry reservations that were available… with this being the result of a tourism promotional strategy aimed at bringing record numbers of tourists to the San Juans year after year.
What’s wrong with this picture? There are many of us who feel that a moderation in the annual number of tourists that come to the San Juans is a good thing for the whales, residents, and the tourists alike. Looking at the future of our island communities in regards to policies that support over-growth and over-tourism will be a forefront issue for me when it comes to my vote in November.
I always like Michael Johnson’s comments, learn a lot and often agree.
Whales can’t vote
Point well taken.
But, like many things small, voting is a man made construct harboring a narrow vision with limited insight into our future, and whales are not that much different than people. For us here in the Salish Sea they represent the canary in the coal mine.
Tourism is predatory by nature, it is one of the most destructive and most pollutive industries in the world. When its regional application is guided by the capitalistic sense that there can never be too much, it becomes all consuming. Without limits, tourism takes on a life of its own. It becomes a too big to fail entity feeding a self-reinforcing negative feedback loop which will eventually consume itself.
Considering the stress our whales are already incurring as a result of the impacts relative to too many people, if they could vote, would they vote for more? Would they vote for more people, for more pollution, more noise, more stress… would they vote for the continued increased degradation of their habitat? Or, would they be mindful enough to vote for administrators that are willing to promote policies that would ensure a more suitable, predictable, long-term, stable environment in which everybody, people and whales alike, might thrive?
How would whales vote if they could? I think I know how our whales would vote if they could. In this capacity I think that they’re probably even more intelligent than people.
“There were 38 applicants for county manager, and they will look at how to include a public role in the hiring process.” I applaud that motion and hope that it results in a significant action toward public transparency in the selection the preferred candidate for the next County Manager. Equally important is the selection of the next Community Development Director. Along with our future council persons, that position will have the key role in our next County Comprehensive Plan, the county’s future development and the preservation of our Islands’ character. It is vitally important that the selected candidate have a demonstrated commitment to rural preservation and growth management. Tell your councilpersons and candidates that a transparent selection process which stresses these values is vital to our future.
Brian – Thank you for bringing up a key point. I agree that the CITIZENS of SJC, for whom the County Manager and Community Development Director will be working, should have some opportunities for direct input into the hiring process. Those UNELECTED positions have a great deal of power to push or inhibit agendas and it is very difficult to remove someone from a government job once they are hired. These new hires will likely be with us for many years and I don’t trust the current council to chose wisely. We need to be sure we are not hiring more ideologues.
“These new hires will likely be with us for many years and I don’t trust the current council to chose wisely. We need to be sure we are not hiring more ideologues.”
So Ken, what you have inferred above and the manner in which you have done so, if true, would be of tantamount importance to all of us. Assuming that you know something that the rest of us don’t know… can you give us a few explicit examples of what you’re referring to? Thank you.