Town Hall comes to Orcas today

A Town Hall meeting for Orcas Island residents will be held today, Wednesday, Feb. 25 at the Eastsound Fire Hall, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Orcas Island’s two County Council representatives, Gene Knapp for Orcas East (from North Beach Road eastward) and Richard Fralick (from North Beach Road west and including Orcas Village) will make presentations and answer questions from the audience, as will County Administrator Pete Rose.

Since the charter government was instituted in 2006, the county’s day-to-day government and budget formulation are overseen by the Administrator, while the council formulates policies and ordinances, with the assistance of the County Prosecutor’s office.

Knapp has been heavily involved in revising county ordinances, a lengthy process which Rose expected to see completed this year, according to his statement at the November, 2007 town meeting.

At the November 2007 Town Hall, Rose said the three main issues that concerned him were:

1) Land use – “The code is vague and difficult to interpret.” Rose stated that long-range planning for water quality and stormwater capacity is needed for the whole island, “not just a small area”  Rose called out the permitting system, saying it involved “four different department agencies that have a lot to say about permitting. We can move them further to coordinate their work.”

2) Budget – Rose held that the “current approach [isn’t] sustainable, where we’re divided into a lot of departments…. and yet we don’t adequately fund some services

3) Affordable housing – “The ability to have affordable housing in the next five years is part of what kind of workforce [the County] will have.”

“Changing the [county government] organization is going to be like turning a battleship — a long slow curve,” Rose cautioned.

He also struck a warning note about the County budget, saying it was in a “controlled descent” with the one percent property tax limitation, and the descent of the sales tax revenues. “We have the highest per capita sales tax in the state, that produces about as much money as the general property tax but I see some factors that indicate we’re descending,” Rose said.

Fralick, new to the Council this year, has said that the budget is his chief concern, and in a candidates’ forum last summer, emphasized the policy role of the Council, and suggested an Ombudsman be put on County staff to handle citizens’ concerns.