Central Casting

Here is a list of the people and organizations referred to in the main blog posts (it's a work in progress), according to the opinions and observations of the Trojan Heron:

• Stephen Adams - Planning Commissioner and retired high-school science teacher from Lopez with no apparent aptitude for science. Known for appeasing "greedy property rights activists" by reducing the proposed maximum size of wetland buffers from 260 feet to 230 feet (still higher than the current maximum of 150 ft), with no thought of science one way or the other. For that, he is known as being the "reasonable" communitarian on the Planning Commission. Although he's a retired teacher, he doesn't know the difference between the words "fiscally" and "physically."
• Paul Adamus - What can't we say about Dr. Adamus? Goodness. He's the $100,000 consultant hired by the County as the primary point man for Best Available Science (BAS). Billed as a professor from Oregon State University, it turns out he is a "courtesy appointment," which means that he has no professorial responsibilities and has never been paid by the university for being a professor. Frequently, he has contradicted himself and evaded answering questions, even during public testimony. He admitted to not reading all the documents he compiled for BAS. He developed a buffer sizing plan that CDPD threw out, whereupon Shireene Hale subsequently developed her own plan and had Dr. Adamus finish it up so it appeared to be his product instead of hers. The County is depending on Adamus for the credibility of its CAO approach, but both BAS and Dr. Adamus' credibility appear to be full of gaping holes.
• Janet Alderton - Friends Board member and one of its most outspoken. Janet was a biochemisty lab worker at UC Berkeley until retiring to Orcas Island. Her prolific and expansive commentary covers all scientific subjects in the San Juan Islands, whether she understands the subject or not.
• Stephanie Buffum - current Executive Director of the Friends, former wife of Kieran Suckling, Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity which is where she worked until coming to the Friends in 2001.
• David Dehlendorf - husband of Planning Commissioner Susan Dehlendorf. Retired from Wells Fargo Mortgage. Dehlendorf has been very involved in the Trails Committee. When not doing trails work, Dehlendorf can be found writing angry emails to the County Council about the Trojan Heron, Planning Commissioner Mike Carlson, Ed Kilduff, or anyone else worthy of eco-vitriol ... or buttonholing bewildered citizens at the County Fair. Despite having worked for a mortgage company, Dehlendorf doesn't believe the legal appellation "non-conforming" will have any effect on homeowners.
• Friends of the San Juans - San Juan County's premier trouble-making environmental group.  Founded in 1979, and frequently referred to as simply "the Friends," as in "Yak, Yak ... don't run, we are your Friends." Probably best known for the “guesthouse” controversy, in which the Friends “settled” their longstanding lawsuit against guesthouses (a beloved island tradition, and an important element of rural character) by negotiating with their “friends” in County government -- result: the elimination of an island way of life since it is now almost impossible to build a guesthouse in San Juan County due to oppressive restrictions. This hasn't stopped many of the Friends Board members and staff from having a guesthouse, however. Also known for intervening in their neighbors’ applications for shoreline use and new or refurbished docks. (Like guesthouses, it seems only people connected to the Friends can have big houses and big docks.) And known for ratting out neighbors. And known for the failed Delphi meeting on Orcas Island following the Charles Dalton debacle, where invitees were forced to sit in a circle around rocks and candles and listen to the Friends all-too-hypocritical version of events, including a scolding soliloquy of blame from Vivien Burnett.
• Bob Gamble - Board member of Kwiaht, long-time Planning Commissioner from Orcas, and based on observations of his behavior, an apparently committed communitarian ideologue, and a grumpy one at that. Gamble seems to have been on numerous Boards, Committees, and Commissions without having any apparently suitable qualifications, except for being in the right clique at the right time and having a willingness to be a faithful communitarian operative.
• islandguardian.com - while not the most popular (it should be), it is the fairest and most journalistic of the news media outlets in the San Juan Islands.
• Kwiaht - a San Juan County environmental organization with an ecosystem focus whose non-scientific studies are often referred to as science and used as justification for increased regulation.
• sanjuanisander.com - the most popular online newspaper in the San Juans. Seeks out and publishes press releases from the Friends, Ecology, NOAA, etc., without any or much vetting of the facts. Thinks our County staff across the board is “professional” and that we need to accept, without criticism, their authority in everything we do. Known by some islanders as the unofficial newsletter of the CDPD and/or Pravda. The Trojan Heron has received many recent complaints that sanjuanislander.com generally declines to post citizen letters that run against the party line. And it does not entertain comments.
• Erik Stockdale - wetlands specialist and unit supervisor at the Department of Ecology. Stockdale has been caught lying (aka "officially mis-speaking") on more than one occasion. He often has advised our Council about science despite having no degrees in science. Much of Stockdale's advice to our Council, especially the advice he passes along from Dr. Tom Hruby about risk, is severely confused. Stockdale is nonetheless an effective mandarin, using flattery or threats in measured combination to mesmerize local officials into passing CAOs more to his bureaucratic liking than to the local community's.
• Barbara Thomas - as close to a Planning Commissioner for Life as we have in the County. She's been on the Planning Commission since the end of the last century, and when she completes her fourth term in December 2015, she will have been on the Commission for 16 years, a reign longer than 28 of Britain's 52 monarchs. Time will tell if she will be reappointed yet again. Regarding the CAOs, she is quoted as having said, "We'll all feel better when this is all over," much as one might feel after an intrusive medical examination. The trouble is that passage of the CAOs represents the start of the examination, not the end. It will never be "over."