Speaking of the candidates, we've been looking at some of the statements being made by the current crop of candidates, but before we look forward, lets take a short look back. Have a gander at one of the campaign statements put out by Richard Fralick the last time he ran.
How do you think he did?
Dear Voter,
This is an exciting and critical time for our community. Home rule gives us new tools that can be used to design, build and, in some instances, streamline our county government to fit the unique needs of our islands. The separation of powers defined by the Charter gives Council Members the time to set long range policies. I believe I have both the vision and the skills needed to act positively in this vital process.
Our County Council must: resolve the levels of Growth Management Act compliance appropriate for our community, ensure acceptable ferry service, fund our urban growth areas' infrastructure, improve our cell phone coverage and high speed communication capability, protect our environment and the economic vitality and diversity of our community, all the while maintaining essential services and staying within budget.
As a 27 year Orcas Island resident, I know the history of our growth management issues and appreciate the importance of maintaining our economically diverse population. I value nature and the habitat but also know that we have to prioritize our environmental concerns to those matters that are realistic to achieve at our local level. As a small business owner, I understand budgeting and am willing to ask the hard questions and pursue the best solutions using existing financial resources.
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xD ... Good thing for Fralick that he wasn't under oath when he said those things. Makes you wonder what he said in his deposition ... xD
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that teacher's name isn't really Shireene Hale, Erik Stockdale, or Paul Adamus? Oh heck, you're right, it could be dozens of people around here.
ReplyDelete"Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it... All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children."
ReplyDelete- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 2
Couldn't be Shireene: I can understand the letter.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't be Adamus: it didn't change position three times. Could be Stockdale, but wouldn't he have destroyed the evidence?
ReplyDeleteSo, apparently, we are all chidren and should exspect to to be be treated as of a particular kind. I feel much better now that I understand.
ReplyDeletehey fosj, get with it, the friends of ballona wetlands sold out to another non-profit for 50 large, to be a part of a dog pound. Get with it, a huge job creator. Come to the San Juans we got eco And save a dog tourism! When you leave, please take a dog and a resident with you, but not before leaving a donation. Thanks!
If only in the sense that misery loves company, Alex would perhaps enjoy reading the Whatcom County hearing examiner's decision in the Fenton Appeal, where the testimony of "wetland scientists" (read Eric Stockdale of the DOE et al) trumped that of a qualified hydrologist. See the recent post in the Whatcom Excavator for a link to the decision.
ReplyDeleteCould not find your e-mail address to send this to. But the schedule for the "Count Conversations", posted on Island Guardian. Which talks about the format, SCREAMS, Delphi, all over it. Could something be posted about Delphi, training and control of meetings, so those who attend might be able to circumvent those actions?? Thanks, and keep up the great work. It is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIn orcas issues.com today
ReplyDelete"Lisa Byers, executive director of the nonprofit OPAL Community Land Trust, wife and parent, and former member and chair of EPRC, promised to work to make the county diversified, vibrant and economically viable, sustaining mixed-income families and applying her past experiences to creatively solve county issues. (Orcas position)"
Help me out in interpreting this. How much will it cost and how much personal freedom will we lose when we are "diversified" and "vibrant-ed"?
Not getting the question. Wouldn't a diversified economy be a good thing?
ReplyDeleteIff you don't like the candidate just come out and say it, but if you want to talk issues then speak to an issue. I for one was pleasantly surprised with the answers that were given at the forum in question.
Rhetoric like that posted above is generally useless in getting to the heart of issues, which exactly what most of us deplore about our current system.
*****IMPORTANT*****
ReplyDeleteFolks, do some quick internet searches.
Military training in urban Houston (yesterday). Military training in urban Miami (last week). Military training over Los Angles (last month).
This is no joke. CAO and local politics are not going to matter one bit when the SHTF.
Still, please don't vote for Lovel.
The problem is that campaign rhetoric is nothing more than that. If you believe these folks are on the side of working men and women, Heaven help you.
ReplyDeleteI can talk like that. It's easy. I'm in favor of proactively nurturing cottage enterprise and small businesses that provide a living wage with sustainable broadband that makes our communities resilient.
What's so hard about that? Their language is loaded with sugar coated New Age treacle. Talk about incivil. For them to insult the intelligence of real islanders is beyond the pale. Offensive. Rude. As out of touch as Mitt Romney (remember him?)
Lisa Byers did not say she wants a diversified, vibrant economy. She wants a diversified, vibrant county that is economically viable. " Diversified" and " vibrant", as every social-justice zealot knows are code words for,"your county is too white and too rich", and needs to import a multicultural population so that the "energy" is identical to East Coast Urban Inner City Cores!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know who made the decisions about materials and contractors for the affordable housing on Lampard Road in Friday Harbor?
ReplyDeleteOne of the Browne bros. told me personally that their bid was $400 per house over a mainland outfit and they went w/the mainland people. And now a local sheetrocker said something similar. Seems at odds w/their so called supportive goals! Isn't that taking business away from the very people they're providing housing for!
Those homes are being done by Homes For Islanders.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand their process, they are supposed to be being completed through effort by the home buyers, although they do use outside contractors for some phases.
Past episodes with H4I show that they go with low bid every time without regard for identifying the local impact of those decisions. Very sad that their administration does not recoognize the impact that their nickel and dime decisions make on the process. Hard to rally your community around a cause when your cause chooses to ignore the community.
I remember when Bob Gamble was on the board of directors of OPAL back in they. That old boy sure bounces around doesn't he? Back when they were struggling.
ReplyDeleteI guess not any more. Lisa seems very proud that OPAL has accumulated, what, over $10,000,000 in real estate assets?
How does that work? By extracting market value, known as equity, off the backs of low income housing residents, normally referred to as "renters", but of course we'd never stoop so low to use capitalist language. Nope. OPAL is a thriving, vibrant, sustainable community that has now captured a substantial percentage of the young working families of Orcas and their children.
And because these families accumulate no equity (OPAL does instead) its really hard for them to get out and build stake independently.
Yeah, I know they are supposed to own the little houses they live in. They own the sticks. That's it.
It is just a fancy trailer park built with government money where the property management is a political propaganda chop shop.
The Lopez Community Land Trust operates like this. The San Juan Island Land Trust operates like this.
These organizations would not function at all were it not for the cruel market distortions wrought by over-reaching and irrational land use regulations that jack up real estate prices far beyond what they should be.
Has anyone ever read "Housing Prices and Land Use Regulations:
A Study of 250 Major US Cities" by Theo S. Eicher at University of Washington? Or, "THE IMPACT OF LAND USE LAWS ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING" By Professor Peter W. Salsich, Jr., St. Louis University, School of Law?
If you just peek under the hood you will see a viper pit of campaign contributor cutting across the special interests of these monopoly land trusts, astro-turf mean greenie advocacy groups pushing the largest expansion of local police power in the history of the islands, all stewed and simmered with a local party apparatus masquerading as Democrats.
But they are not. They are the Ubercrats and they want to stuff you into a little box. Its not about the environment, or housing. Its about control.
And it sure is heck ain't about jobs.
Any information about what the cost to taxpayers of each OPAL house was? Do they pay property taxes?
ReplyDelete