Town Hall Covers Budget, Dump and Critical Areas $80K Study

Orcas County Council members Richard Fralick and Gene Knapp held the first Town Hall meeting of 2010 last Thursday, March 11. Accompanying them were County Auditor Milene Henley and County Administrator Pete Rose, to give a complete view of the challenges facing the Council this year, and their priorities..

Henley estimated that in total, the County faces about an $87,000 General Fund deficit. In addition, she said, the County’s newly-established Reserve Policy requires 8% or $144,000 in its Reserve Fund, which “leaves us with a $231,000 problem – but that looks manageable compared to 1 million last year.”

Henley said that there is less cash county-wide, due to declines in retail tax collections. “The County budget’s crisis is seen in the Roads funds, which are down $300,000, and the Cash Expenditure fund,” she added.

The Capital Expenditure and the Roads Fund may both soon be going into debt to other county funds, which require payback with interest, although Henley says that interest rate is now quite low. In addition, planned deficit spending for the next phase of the Courthouse remodel — required for security reasons — and for the newly-contracted Critical Areas Ordinance study add to the deficit.

Even though the county recouped some funds through savings on automation revenue and health insurance, the losses have been bad enough that the county was forced to sell some of its investments at a below-maturity rate to obtain cash. Still, with sales tax collection, lodging taxes, property taxes and planning and permitting fees looking stronger than last year, the county is in a better position than at this time last year, Henley said. The 2010 budget will be revisited at the Council meeting on March 16.

Fralick pointed out that the $960,000 property tax increase that voters approved last November will go to the programs identified in that proposition, and will not be affected by this round of budget cuts. However, he noted that additional expenditure cuts will be required: “exactly what that is going to entail, we do not know.” A policy of voluntary furloughs was instituted last week, and Fralick indicated that mandatory furloughs may not be far behind.

He added that the County Reserve Fund policy initiated last year is “important to future sustainability.” a point emphasized when Art Lange from the audience determined that the cash reserve fund will prevent premature selling of unrealized investments in the future.

Solid Waste Program

Fralick spoke to the solid waste program, saying the council has “to make a determination as to how to get the business model in synch with the management plan” to make the solid waste transfer system solvent.

“When we funded solid waste, the only criterion was to pay through tipping fees — bringing trash in generates revenue,” he said. However this goes against the County mandate to “reduce, re-use, and re-cycle.”

To complicate the solution, the current facilities on San Juan Island at the Sutton Road transfer station are non-compliant with regulations regarding industrial stormwater runoff and capital funds must be spent to come into compliance.

“The downturn in the economy compounds the problem,” Fralick said, plus the historic habit of lower waste production (and thus tipping fees) in times of economic depression.

With the solid waste system “operating at $700,000 deficit,” the Council has “spent a huge amount of time grappling with that issue since December,” Fralick said.

After closing the solid waste transfer stations on Fridays, as of Feb. 17, furth viable options are being explored but are limited, Fralick said. Two such options are:

• instituting a minimum fee of $15 to encourage less traffic,
• generating more sustainable revenue source, taxes and parcel fees

Another option involves looking at level of service– San Juan County’s three transfer stations generate between 100 and 1000 times less the volume of trash than mainland counties. When asked what consolidating county dumps will mean, Fralick said that it is “most likely” the transfer station on Orcas would remain in operation, while the ones on Lopez and San Juan Islands would be shut down.

Pete Rose reiterated Fralick’s statement that everything was “on the table as we try to bring solvency to solid waste,” and said “The single station position is the doomsday [option] if we can’t put together a public vote or some other system to make this work.”

At any rate, the County will be required to renegotiate its contract with long-haul garbage trucks in 2012, and Fralick commented, “It looks like we have a sweetheart deal and will never get those rates again.”

Critical Areas Ordinance

The Uplands portion of the Critical Areas Ordinance was discussed as the Council Members announced that the Council had decided in February to spend $80,000 to contract with independent scientist Dr. Paul Adamus, in order to facilitate the use of “best available science” in the ordinance update.

Fralick identified “Hot button issues”:

1) Non-conforming uses– if the requirements change the set of rules for dealing with building that doesn’t conform to the new standards, what is allowed in the case of future rebuilding or expansion?

2) Buffers – if new standards interfere with reasonable use, property owners must be compensated

3) Reduced buffers in Urban Growth Areas, particularly in the Eastsound UGA

The Council’s goal is to complete the uplands code revision in 2010; and it hopes to have the “entire process in place in the next 4 to 6 weeks, Fralick said.

In response to questions from the audience regarding the validity of the proposed CAO study, Fralick said, “It makes no sense to bring forth a plan unless you intend to implement and enforce it.”

When asked how the council goes about finding an expert who is not biased, Fralick conceded that the question raises a valid point and said, “All we can do is look at the individual’s body of work.”He said that Dr. Adamus had had two interviews, and “has about the best set of credentials we could hope for.”

John Evans, director of the San Juan Builders Association and former County Commissioner said, “You as the Council must make sure the science is fully vetted and peer-reviewed and relevant to county circumstance.

“If you do those two things, you probably won’t have an argument; that should be underscored in your “marching orders” to Adamus.”

Rose said that Adamus will “ put together a science synthesis, and review what’s relevant for San Juan County.” He added that the local call for science will be very soon, probably within 30 days for a 30 day period, if you want to put something in the record, be ready to see the call for that on the [county] website (www.sanjuanco.com)