Marian O'Brien Responds to Orcas Issues Questions for Recreation and Park District Position #1

Marian O'Brien

Orcas Issues asked candidates for elective races to respond to questions. Marian O’Brien and Vicki Vandermay’s  answers are featured today.

All other candidates for the proposed Orcas Recreation and Park District are unopposed.

Candidates for the Orcas Fire District Position  #2 (Duff Andrews and Clyde Duke)will respond to questions tomorrow.

For further information on each candidate, contained in the Official Voters Guide, go to the official San Juan County website:

https://wei.secstate.wa.gov/sanjuan/Pages/OnlineVotersGuide_20091103.aspx

Readers will be able to refer back to the candidates’ answers on previous days by typing their name in the “Search” window at the top of the website.

1.  What in your experience and vision brings you to put yourself forth as a candidate for the five-member Orcas Island Recreation and Park District?

When our girls were young, Keith and I were fortunate to find lots of innovative and rich recreation and arts programming for children and youth. I became involved on the ground level as a co-producer in many theatre productions, and was the go-to parent for costume and prop design, procurement and stage management for productions with up to 70 children, that ranged from simple productions like The Mousetrap, to elaborate ones like Oliver! and The Sound of Music. My commitment to positive, creative, esteem- and growth-building programming for young people was forged during this time. Every project I have become involved in since then is informed by those experiences.

2.  What challenges and opportunities do you foresee in the proposed transition in oversight and management, if Orcas Rec moves from a county agency to a junior taxing district?

It has been difficult to ascertain in an unofficial capacity exactly what the county’s plans are, so we will want to spend time right away understanding the relationship between Orcas Rec and the county, in order to plan the next steps. The opportunities ultimately are going to be allowances for appropriate local administration and programming with an eye on Orcas Island’s budget. With a Park and Recreation district we would be able to address relevant issues that affect Orcas Island, on into the future.

3.  The current Orcas Rec program has been built up over 16 years. What elements of the program need the most support and what elements need introduction if the voters approve the establishment of a park and recreation district for Orcas Island?

I’m very optimistic about these possibilities. As a district, we will have the ability to negotiate the use of space, for example, which is the largest outlay of capital now for Orcas Rec, after salaries. I expect that program coordination will be a most important aspect of Orcas Rec to facilitate and support. New elements will provide opportunities to collaborate with existing programs such as the Funhouse and the Senior Center that will allow us to minimize expenses while maximizing program potential.

4.  What are the challenges and opportunities of creating a new board and what in your past experience prepares you for the task of working with four other individuals to direct the Orcas Island Park and Recreation District?

I think it will be somewhat of a challenge that the new commissioners will want to spend time getting to know each other as public servants, at the same time that we will want to begin to be effective. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to create this new relationship among some really capable people who have a singular mission.

As a member of the foundation advisory group in my older daughter’s independent elementary school that was managed by a teacher collective, I learned what long-standing collaboration and consensus was and what the challenges were of maintaining relevance in education with a changing community culture. I was a member of the founding committee of a middle school that was formed for students from several independent schools that focused on arts in education and social justice. I helped facilitate the establishment of an association of parents and teachers in a new performing arts high school with a  diverse parent body, in a political hotbed in the inner city. In our printing business, I was the facilitator between publishers, artists, authors, granting organizations and nonprofits to create innovative and successful publishing projects. I have over time, consulted and served with the boards of numerous nonprofits.

5.  What will be your guiding principles and considerations in formulating a budget for Orcas Park and Rec District? What sources of funding do you see supplementing the taxing potential of the district?

I would want to develop the formulation of the budget with an open-minded approach to research, that used common sense and best practice for data collection; collaborative analysis of the information we gather, careful checks and balances of our assessments and finally fairness in the application of the budget. State code will allow us as a district to look at funding possibilities that include federal, state and private foundation funds, program fees, private donations and voter-approved levy.

6.  Please cite whatever models you will consider in service to a Park and Recreation District for Orcas Island.

As a group we have preliminarily discussed contracting on a program-by-program basis. Another model, potentially in conjunction with that, could be for the district to have a director who would carry on the management of Orcas Rec, coordinating all child/youth programs in a very hands-on way, while the commissioners coordinate all other programming. What I personally don’t want is to spend precious funds on administration that should go directly to programming. The model will be Orcas-relevant and will evolve over time, as a result of commissioner and community discussion.