Links ... and ... Another Day, Another Allegation of Fraud in the County

A complaint of medicaid fraud has been filed with the state Attorney General's Office against San Juan Island Emergency Medical Services. The AG's office is investigating medicaid reimbursement claims for air ambulance services. Not much is available about this story yet, but there was a brief announcement in the San Juan Islander.

Regarding the mysterious lawsuit referred to in the previous post, some readers have been asking to see the actual court filings. Here is a link to the complaint. Here is a link to the first set of exhibits. Here is a link to the second set of exhibits. Here is a link to the third set of exhibits. Fascinating reading.

The county has said that it's all a big misunderstanding. Read and judge for yourself.

San Enumclaw County

The long awaited departure of Sam Gibboney from the Department of Community Development (DCD) finally occurred today when our County Manager reassigned Gibboney to Public Works, from whence she came in November 2013. To get Gibboney back into Public Works, our County created a new position for her as Deputy Director ... so since departing Public Works two years ago, and then doing such a bang-up job in Planning, Gibboney heads back to Public Works in a higher position than she left (she was previously Solid Waste Program Manager).

To backfill Gibboney's position at DCD, the County hired Erika Shook from Enumclaw. Mike Thomas, our County Manager, came from Enumclaw. Our new Hearing Examiner is also the Hearing Examiner from Enumclaw. Bear in mind that our County's mysterious unofficial wetland scientist, "JT", also originates from Enumclaw.

Before Enumclaw, Shook worked for Triad Associates, and before that she worked for Snohomish County. She graduated in 1992 from the University of Washington with a BA in Urban Planning, so it makes perfect sense that another urban planner would end up in a rural county of only 16,000 people (not). According to the Draft 2016 San Juan County budget, we have 18 full-time people planning our future in DCD.

Apparently, Shook was hired without any public announcement of an open position nor using any competitive hiring process that we are aware of. While we do not know who our County might hire next, odds are they're currently working for Enumclaw. Enumclaw now serves as the minor league farm system for San Juan County government employees.

Anyone want to take bets on how long before Triad Associates gets a contract with Public Works too?

Mysterious Lawsuit

I know ... I know ... the TH disappeared again, but we'll be back in the saddle again soon. Life happens.

A lot has been happening. No shortage of things to inform you of ... just a shortage of time to do it. Here's a smattering of what's been going on:

• There have been more departures of key staff from the county. 
• The OPMA lawsuit ruling came down from the State Supreme Court, and the County won ... and the decision drives a truck through the daylighting requirements of the OPMA. If there was ever a case that illustrates our County's (and now our Supreme Court's) commitment to secret government, this is it.
• CSA and the Friends have both petitioned the Washington State Supreme Court to hear the CAO case. The Washington Appeals Court upheld the County position that the County CAO ordinance is legal. CSA believes our CAO results in unreasonable takings ... a Constitutional violation. CSA is now being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). You can find PLF blog posts about the case here and here.
• The County Council gave up on passing greenhouse regulations. Now, they are focusing on the Shoreline Master Plan (SMP) update. The SMP update is a mess. We haven't focused on it much, but we will try to get some info to you as it progresses.
• And of course, we are in election season. There are important elections for the hospital on San Juan, Port Districts, and School Boards. Too many to cover in a short post, but feel free to comment in the comments section.

However, while we wanted to quickly update you on all the goings on in the County, the main reason for this post is to let you know about a mysterious lawsuit that has been filed in Skagit County ... yes, Skagit County ... against San Juan County. We heard about this from an announcement on King5 News ... or that is to say, that we would have heard about it from King5 News if it weren't for the fact that King5 News is currently blacked out on our Dish Network because of an ongoing dispute. Instead, a TH reader sent us a video clip of the King5 News broadcast. It sounds like the lawsuit might be about Portland Fair, but we don't know enough to be sure.

We will be watching as this story develops

They Should All Take A Sick Day

At this morning's citizen access time, there was an appearance by Shireene Hale, former head planner in charge of our CAOs, and David Dehlendorf, current head of the San Juan County Democratic Party and persistent supporter of Shireene Hale. You can watch their appearances on video at this link.

Now, before we talk about the Hale/Dehlendorf appearances of today, let's walk down memory lane for a moment. When heading up the CAO effort, Hale frequently claimed that the public intimidated her. She referred to some of our CAO public participation meetings as "awful". She even asked sheriff's deputies to show up at public meetings. When a former Planning Commissioner jokingly suggested that she might want to take a "sick day" as a means of avoiding one potentially contentious meeting, Hale accused him of (wait for it) ... intimidation. She also accused a former County Commissioner of intimidation, because of comments he made during a CAO meeting.

The County didn't abandon the "intimidation" angle after Hale left. It was adopted by Gibboney and Mike Thomas in their recent efforts to dump former Building Head John Geniuch. When contractors and other islanders supported Geniuch, the County claimed an angry mob was being organized (yes, Gibboney really did use the words "angry mob" in an administrative law hearing ... but the judge was not persuaded). Gibboney and Thomas took the "intimidation" melodrama so far as to send out an email instructing employees to call the sheriff if John Geniuch was seen on County property.

Okay ... now for the events of today. Hale shows up at citizen access time this morning and says that Pamela Morais (our local County Catbert) and Mike Thomas intimidated her prior to yesterday's public access time. Hale said they pressured her into withholding comments about Portland Fair. Dehlendorf then followed Hale's comments by calling for Mike Thomas to be reprimanded ... even resign, for intimidating a private citizen into silence.

Ever seen that picture of a snake eating itself? Shreene Hale, the woman who invented intimidation as public-participation kryptonite used it in her public comments to accuse her former employer of intimidation tactics that she used when she worked there ... which aforementioned tactics said employer still uses against employees and the public (e.g., Shireene presently).

The ever-composed Mike Thomas, who is accustomed to helping people invent intimidation stories rather than be on the receiving end, found himself out-maneuvered ... caught off-guard. After Dehlendorf finished, Thomas asked to make some comments himself. It stings to be out-smarted by Hale, and it showed in Thomas' comportment. Thomas said he was offended by the public access comments (although he didn't say they were untrue).

In upcoming posts, we'll explore the codependent relationship that has developed between the Council and Mike Thomas. It seems wherever Mike Thomas goes, allegations of misconduct follow. Mike Thomas has now been accused publicly of intimidating private citizens. The Prosecuting Attorney found that he violated County policies and procedures. This, along with other allegations, would appear to violate the County's employment contract with Thomas.

But, we have reached the point in San Juan County where Mike Thomas doesn't just run San Juan County government, he IS San Juan County government. Whatever Mike Thomas says, goes. The job of this Council is simply to back up Mike Thomas. They have given him raises, cleared him of wrongdoing. Mike Thomas is bulletproof. As the Prosecuting Attorney declared when clearing Mike Thomas of Improper Government Action (IGA) in the Portland Fair situation:

Manager has the duty to "comply with all lawful governing body directives, state and federal law, Employer policies, rules and ordinances. ..." See County Manager Employment Agreement and San Juan County Charter Section 4.40 and 4.41. The IGA Report mentions similar obligations of employees in the Personnel Rules Section 15, but the Personnel Rules (which have not been updated since the adoption of the Charter in 2005 or Charter Amendments in 2012) were not written to apply to management level employees and do not apply to the County Manager. See Section 1.010 and Chapter 4 of the 1992 Personnel Rules.

No rules apply to him. This is why Mike Thomas can approve (or disapprove) any wetland study ... or anything else for that matter. He can do whatever he wants, and the Council (and the PA too) have backed him. The dynamic that has emerged within the employment ranks of San Juan County is that if you are loyal to Mike Thomas, your job is safe. If you aren't, you will be eliminated.

Looks like Gibboney is safe.

That Hole Is Getting Deeper!

On Friday, the Council came out with a memo regarding their investigation of the Portland Fair wetland affair. You can find the memo here.

Anyone who has been through the wetland process would think the memo is a late April Fools joke. No one ... and I mean, no one ... outside of the authors and their most blindly ardent supporters would fall for it. But that's not the worst part.

It was written and signed by the Council -- Jamie Stephens and Rick Hughes, with Jarman recusing himself -- without any apparent input from the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. In fact, it is addressed to the Prosecuting Attorney, so the Council owns this one in its entirety. Given that the Prosecuting Attorney already found that Mike Thomas acted contrary to County ordinances and written policies, this Council memo suggests a significant rift between the Council and the Prosecuting Attorney over this matter. But that's not the worst part.

In the memo, the Council defends their man, Mike Thomas, to the hilt. We "learn" several surprising facts. We discover that Jennifer Thomas had no role in this wetland situation, despite documentary evidence in the form of emails from Sam Gibboney saying otherwise, and despite the fact that "JT"'s involvement was documented in the permit database.  Now we learn that "JT" never existed as far as this project goes ... a figment of everyone's imagination. But that's not the worst part.

The memo from the Council alleges that the determination of a non-wetland was made by Gibboney based on a review from Mike Thomas himself (is Mike Thomas a qualified wetland scientist?). Perhaps the most amusing lines in the whole memo are:

Although in this instance, the County was providing the wetlands review at no cost to citizens and paying for it from funds set aside in the CAO implementation plan, Mr. Thomas saved the County an unnecessary expense by his review, and Ms. Gibboney by her determination.

Saving money? They actually claim that Mike Thomas is saving taxpayers money, and the Council gives him a pat on the back as a result. But that's not the worst part.

The Council says there was no wrongdoing ... but there sure seems to have been a coverup. I guess we are supposed to believe that Annie Matsumoto-Grah wasn't ordered to rewrite her report? Chris Laws wasn't ordered to rewrite his report? Ecology wasn't prevented from providing a report, even after Ecology employee Doug Gresham went on the record about wetlands on the subject parcel? More shockingly, the official County enforcement file was redacted to remove all mention of Mike Thomas and Bob Jarman ... with all redactions ironically placed in a folder titled "Chris Laws Personal Information" -- ironic because Chris Laws refused to redact the file himself, and ironic because personal information is not subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act, and ironic because they are hiding Thomas' and Jarman's involvement among the whistleblower's own "personal" information. But that's not the worst part.

The County Charter requires the Council to take action only by Resolution or Ordinance. Nowhere is the power of "investigation" given to the Council. The word "investigation" doesn't even appear in the Charter. Moreover, the County is currently being sued all the way to the Washington State Supreme Court regarding violations of the Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA). The OPMA requires that all government actions be deliberated in public. Action is defined in the OPMA as (emphasis added):

"Action" means the transaction of the official business of a public agency by a governing body including but not limited to receipt of public testimony, deliberations, discussions, considerations, reviews, evaluations, and final actions. "Final action" means a collective positive or negative decision, or an actual vote by a majority of the members of a governing body when sitting as a body or entity, upon a motion, proposal, resolution, order, or ordinance.

The Friday memo is neither a Resolution nor an Ordinance, but it is clearly an action taken by the Council. It was not deliberated in public. It is a conspicuous violation of the Charter and the OPMA. The signature line says that Bob Jarman "recused" himself. Recused himself from what? It is obvious that the Council worked on this memo out of public view and came to conclusions and then signed their name to their final decision. On its face, this memo alone would appear to present enough evidence of procedural misconduct to justify its own separate whistleblower complaint ... which, if it were to occur, would be the fifth this year. But that's not the worst part.

The worst part is the situation in toto. It is inconceivable how badly our County government has deteriorated, and it is time to publicly call for investigations. We, at the Trojan Heron, feel it is time for the State, or even the Federal government, to investigate corruption here in San Juan County government. As a friend of the Heron says, it is time to take the keys away.

Most Official County Response?

As a brief interlude ...

As some of you may know, Stan Matthews recently retired, so he's no longer the County public spokesperson.

A reader sent me the video below purporting to show the new County spokesperson providing the official County response to the ongoing controversy over the Portland Fair situation. I also was sent a related video purporting to show Mike Thomas and his wife being interviewed about their involvement in that controversy.

Enjoy!

Who's in Charge Anyway?

As County watchers may know, Sam Gibboney has the title of Director of Community Development & Planning (CD&P). She took over when Rene Beliveau retired. Gibboney, in turn, hired Linda Kuller to serve as Director of Long Range Planning. Kuller replaced Shireene Hale, who was shown the door after she spearheaded passage of the litigious CAOs.

Among other things, Hale was ignominious for feigning fear of ordinary public meetings. In one email to our County Council prior to a public meeting, Hale accused both a former Planning Commissioner and a former County Commissioner of "intimidation" and of "stirring up fear, hatred, and hostility," and she added, "the possibility of violence should not be dismissed." Distraught with imaginary fear, Hale subsequently insisted that the now-defunct-sheriff Rob Nou stand guard over a public meeting involving her and the Council, without providing any prior notice to the Council itself.

But back to Kuller ... Kuller came to us from Snohomish County. Before that, she was with Skagit County. Before that, she worked as a planner in Georgia. Note that we have other imported planners from Georgia also -- Colin Maycock came from there. We've gotten planners from Idaho too (Hale). Colorado (Biletnikoff). San Juan County must be heaven for planners because we attract them from all over. When in Snohomish County, Kuller "Wrote official code interpretations, rules, policies procedures, and press releases. Informed or managed special planning and policy projects such as comprehensive plan updates and seven year review, the NMFS/FEMA biological opinion, flood hazard area conditional letter of map revision, Endangered Species Act biological assessment, and planning grants."

Grants ... of course ... grants had to be in there somewhere. Don't forget that Kuller used to be Linda Lyshall's housemate (Linda Lyshall of Conservation District fame). Lyshall was recently in the news because, barely had the thawing of relations with Cuba been announced, than Lyshall and the Conservation District were inviting Cuban communists to our islands to talk about Foundations for a Sustainable Future. Remember that our County Council voted to support the Conservation District with our tax dollars, so those aren't just any Cuban communists advising us on how to live, those are tax-sponsored Cuban communists advising us on how to live.

On to Gibboney ... she (yes, "Sam" is a "she") transferred over from San Juan County Public Works, but before that, she lived and worked in Jefferson County. Gibboney has a degree in engineering, but she is not state licensed. In addition, she has no background or work experience in planning that would suggest qualifications to head Community Development & Planning. However, she is politically connected. While in Jefferson County, Gibboney was campaign manager for Steve Tharinger. Steve Tharinger is a Democratic member of the Washington State House of Representatives.

A photo of Sam Gibboney in an email message to Teamsters,
thanking them for their incredible support of Steve Tharinger

Press reports and records from Jefferson County describe Gibboney as an "environmental activist" who received "$500,000 in grant funding to the Watershed Stewardship and Research Center." The WSRC conducted "comprehensive site and ecosystem evaluations." In addition to doing work for the WSRC, Gibboney was the "Greater Seattle - Olympic Peninsula Conservation Director at Cascade Land Conservancy and President/Owner of ISE Consultants (environmental services). Gibboney's firm, ISE Consultants, was "hired by the State Department of Ecology to assist with the public process for adopting an instream flow and water management rule for the Dungeness Basin" in Jefferson County.

Sam Gibboney -- Ecology Consultant

That's right. We have a politically-connected environmental activist and former Ecology consultant as our CD&P Director. But wait ... there's more. While in Jefferson County, Gibboney also was President of the Port Townsend Food Coop when a dispute arose regarding a possible boycott of products from Israel. Gibboney came under fire from Coop membership for holding secret meetings to resolve the dispute.

Dena Shunra, one of the member-owners, said, “I’m troubled that board members of our own food co-op would hold closed meetings on a subject that has aroused so much interest within our community. We need to shed more light on this issue rather than open our co-op up to allegations of back-room deals.”

So ... correction ... we have a politically-connected environmental activist and former Ecology consultant as our CD&P Director who has a history of alleged secret meetings. Moreover, it doesn't look like Gibboney made a clean break with her private consulting work before joining San Juan County either. Based on at least one email, it looks like Gibboney used her San Juan County public email to finish up closeout work for WSRC and her company, ISE.

So ... correction ... we have a politically connected environmental activist and former Ecology consultant with a history of alleged secret meetings who used her public email for private business. But wait ... there's more. In 2014, Sam Gibboney issued a $5,000 contract to former County Councilwoman Lovel Pratt, ostensibly related to oil spill preparedness -- never mind that Pratt has no serious background in such matters. Gibboney was forced to cancel the contract after its existence came to light. The contract came about because Gibboney spends a considerable amount of her time devoted to marine resources activities, not planning activities as you might expect. In addition to CD&P, Gibboney is simultaneously head of the Executive Committee of the Marine Resources Committee. It was via this connection that Gibboney slipped Pratt her contract, misusing her spending authority as CD&P Director to quietly award it on a no-bid basis. Aside from bogus contracts, what do we get from Gibboney in her MRC role? The minutes of Council meetings tell us:

Ms. Gibboney presented the Natural Resources Department Update, explaining the interrelation among the MRC (Marine Resources Committee), LIO (Local Integrating Organization) and LEAG (Lead Entity Advisory Group) and answered Council’s questions.

She liaises, coordinates, and interrelates with the usual alphabet soup of time-wasting, grant-sucking bureaucrats.

Nothing is different in CD&P, and arguably, they've gotten worse under this Council and County Manager, Mike Thomas. A few months ago, our Public Works Director, Frank Mulcahy, departed for greener shores. Mulcahy reportedly despised Mike Thomas. Mulcahy was a 20-year Navy veteran who had served in Iraq. He'd seen some pretty bad situations, but San Juan County was too much for him. Mulcahy even contemplated taking a job in Guantanamo Bay to get away from here.

When planners and Cuban communists are coming to San Juan County, and 20-year military vets are thinking about going the other way ... you know things are worse than ever in San Juan County.

But just wait ... there will be more ...

Potentially Actionable?!?

So now OPALCO is threatening to sue Bob Jarman?

We were going to move on from the OPALCO story, but the following letter just came to light. It seems that after Bob Jarman wrote a letter to the online news outlets raising questions about OPALCO, he received the letter below from OPALCO's legal counsel. We presume the current OPALCO Board authorized the letter ... but if they didn't, that's even worse.

It's a head scratcher. What is it about this place that causes everyone in an official position to view dissent as a crime?

For full disclosure, the Trojan Heron would like nothing better than to have high-speed broadband access for everyone in the islands. We feel it is a necessity for any participant in the modern economy, but holy smokes ... can we get some outfit to provide broadband service who doesn't behave like either OPALCO or Centurynolink?

County Flush With Cash

No, not an April Fool's joke, just an elementary deduction based on the raises the County Council is handing out.

When the Charter Amendments were being contemplated, one of the questions asked was, "Should a small rural county pay its County Administrator more than the Governor gets paid?" With the passage of the Charter Amendments and the hiring of Mike Thomas, that problem was fixed ... we only paid our new County Manager about as much as the Washington State Treasurer instead of the Governor. But apparently that's not enough because three weeks ago our Council gave Mike Thomas a 7% raise, about half of it retroactive to the beginning of the year (see image at the bottom of this post). That now makes our County Manager more highly paid than anyone in State government except for the Attorney General and the Governor.

And speaking of fiscal responsibility, wouldn't it be nice if someone ... anyone ... involved in the financial chaos of our county public institutions finally spoke up and admitted the faults that are so plain to outsiders?

Meet Bill Evans of Lopez who has been serving as the Lopez/Decatur Superintendent of Schools. Last year, the Lopez School District tried to get voter approval for a $15.5 million bond measure to renovate the Lopez school campus. The bond measure got crushed at the polls, and during the election campaign, the school board received howls of criticism for being financially irresponsible. At the next election, a slate of financial reform candidates ran for office ... but paradoxically, they lost. The "bond board" stayed in office.

In the past few days, the Lopez School Board announced the resignation of Bill Evans. Below is the text of Bill Evans' resignation letter. It's a doozy, but I hope it inspires other public servants to be honest with the public. 

Thanks, Bill, for doing the right thing.

The District has suffered some unfortunate shortcomings of late in our human resources and financial oversight functions, involving potentially significant negative impact upon financial, management, and other resources. IRS reports and required fund deposits were not made in a timely manner, employee records have not been kept accurate, and payroll and benefits calculations have not been consistently accurate. The late IRS reports and deposits have resulted in potentially serious fines and penalties. The inaccuracy of personnel records has resulted in significant inconvenience and financial impact to individual employees. We have incurred significant consultant costs in attending to the problems we have discovered.

We have diligently and conscientiously attended to each negative issue as immediately as possible upon discovery. I am very impressed with the efforts of our current District Office staff and consultants in these efforts. We are moving forward with appropriate interventions and strategies to mitigate the negative effects of all of this, including aggressively appealing to the IRS for possible abatement of the fines and penalties.

Throughout my career as an educational leader I have tried to lead with integrity and an allegiance to an ethic of service. A cornerstone of that ethic of service is the conviction that I am ultimately responsible to the organization for its sustainability and continued growth. The buck does, indeed, stop with me. I am deeply sorry that these shortcomings have happened to the District on my watch and I accept responsibilities for them.

It is clear that the part-time model for the District Office that we have tried hard to implement, is not working as effectively as we have needed. We need to look at other options. We are currently aggressively exploring the idea of outsourcing appropriate elements of our financial requirements to experienced personnel and resources at one of the several ESD’s that have such technical services to provide. We are also looking at a different model of District leadership. In the face of ever-increasing demands of bureaucratic accountability and state and federal mandates, some serious decisions will need to be made about how to efficiently provide the management support this organization absolutely needs, while also striving to maximize resources to focus upon the academic side of the equation. It is clear that we must find the right service model for our District Office, to avoid future issues such as this.

To support full consideration of multiple options for a new model of leadership, and to provide flexibility to implement appropriate options, I have adjusted my long-term retirement plans and I am recommending to the Board that you accept my resignation from the District, as soon into SY 2014-15 as it takes to successfully hire and transition to a new Superintendent. It is the right thing to do for the District. By my stepping aside, the District will have an opportunity to seek new leadership, with a different skill set than I have to offer. We need a Superintendent whose skills include a high degree of financial savvy, to complement the outsourcing of financial services and provide the necessary oversight of that outsourcing. I pledge my full energies, for as many months as it takes into SY 2014-15, toward assisting in the transition and the restructuring and rebuilding of the District Office. It is my strong recommendation that we initiate posting for a new Superintendent/Finance Director position as soon as possible within the next few weeks.

I take responsibility for the current shortcomings and very much regret their happening on my watch. I believe my recommendations represent a positive action plan toward a preferred future. I recommend serious consideration of these recommendations and I hold great optimism for the opportunities afforded the District by these recommendations.

Thank you.
…....BILL

A Buried Report

The Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) ruled on our proposed CAOs on September 6, 2013. In October, the Department of Ecology came out with a new Best Available Science (BAS) document titled, Update on Wetland Buffers: The State of the Science, Final Report. It was authored by none other than Tom Hruby, the go-to wetlands science guru at the Department of Ecology.

This 2013 document updates Ecology's 2005 guidance on wetland buffers in some substantial ways. Over the next few postings, we will delve into the new document, but for now, suffice to say that while the new document still has some significant problems, it makes some surprising admissions too. In answer to the question of how large buffers should be, the new 47-page document essentially says, "It depends."

Yes ... it depends on a myriad of site-specific factors ... so it is impossible to prescribe fixed buffer widths ahead of time. Wow!

County staff have known about this report since it was issued. This fact came to light during CAO public comment last week. CD&P knew about it. County Manager Mike Thomas knew about it. Nevertheless, all during the effort to "fix" the latest version of the CAOs after the GMHB ruling, those who have been "in the know" did not inform the Planning Commission about the new document. Those "in the know" did not inform the Council about it either. Interestingly, even Ecology's official correspondence with the County doesn't mention their own new science document.

Among other things, the 2013 Final Report talks about the Meyer paper, and it talks about the Zhang paper. When deliberating about potential revisions to the CAOs back in November, Planning Commissioner Brian Erhmantraut tried to get the Planning Commission to consider buffers based on the Zhang paper, but the other Commissioners shot down the idea because (they thought) the Zhang paper wasn't supported by Ecology BAS. So, the Planning Commission and CD&P pressed forward in making revisions to the CAO based on 2005 BAS, not 2013 BAS. That's where we are at the moment. We have CAO revisions based on outdated BAS.

The 2013 BAS document is very inconvenient to anyone who just wants to get 'er done because it raises serious questions about the basic validity of Ecology's historical approach to buffers ... and our County's approach as well. The new BAS document is not perfect by any means, but at least it is nudging closer to the truth. Considering it was issued by the Kremlin of buffer science, it makes some astonishing admissions.

But "they" buried it so no one would be the wiser.

New BAS report issued after the San Juan County GMHB ruling and at about the same time as the SCOTUS Koontz decision.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Tomorrow morning (February 11, 2014) at 9:15, the County Council will take public comment on the latest draft of the CAOs. This Council has decided to go forward by going backwards ... in all senses of that word. This Council has decided to proceed with yet another new CAO despite still-pending litigation on the last version.

This Council's CAO work has been so unoriginal that they haven't even mustered the creativity to make their own mistakes. They are recycling a CAO framework first thought up, and then rejected, by Shireene Hale and the previous Council years ago. It's not simpler. It's not better. It's not newer.

The new old version is currently planned for enactment by the end of March.

In Trouble In The San Juans

There was a time when an average private citizen could get in trouble with the law, or receive widespread "community" condemnation, only for doing really unspeakable things. Those were the days.

Here in the San Juans, we citizens can get in frightening confrontations with the police for going on Christmas hayrides ... or for going 28 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Here in the San Juans, we citizens can be criminally prosecuted for land use violations.

Here in the San Juans, we citizens are subject to community outrage if we rent to the wrong tenant.

Here in the San Juans, we citizens are subject to County and State investigations ... and community outrage ... for cutting too much brush along the shoreline.

Here in the San Juans, we have proposed laws that may make it illegal for anyone to cut grass or trim bushes near anything critical ... and nearly everything will be critical.

And despite all that ... here in the San Juans, we can buy and sell drugs with impunity ... reportedly right on Jackson Beach. 

We worry about this place and fear that our ecosystem is endangered ... but it also seems to me as if all our efforts to protect the San Juans ... have already ruined it.

This county needs to take a real hard look at itself in 2014.

Happy New Year! 

Security State

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed their smart and heartfelt comments to the last post. Since security and harassment issues are on everyone's minds, we should talk briefly about two forums offered by the Common Sense Alliance (CSA) earlier this month. The purpose of the forums was to explain the status of the CAO debacle from CSA's perspective. One of the presentations concerned "What the Friends Really Want," given by Tim Blanchard. Based on everything Blanchard has observed in recent years, he put together a summary slide that bluntly summarizes his interpretation of the Friends' goals. It's not the kind of thing you will find in the Friends mission statement or website, but you will see it in action if you pay attention to the way they operate.

There is more to come on the CAOs and SMP, so pay attention to those who have made harassment one of their core competencies.

In The Dark - Epilogue

The crisis is over, and by now, it's all been written ... it's all been said. There are many articles and commentary in the local news about how poorly this situation was handled. There is no doubt that many people worked very hard to rectify this situation as quickly as possible, BUT ... there is no escaping the fact that we have a vulnerable custom-built communications link with no way to reliably get word out when it goes haywire.

Some are calling for greater planning and coordination for next time, and that's hard to argue with. However, I am not sure greater planning, at least by government, is the answer. I am not sure greater reliance on government during a crisis is the answer either. Our government just isn't that reliable, and I doubt it ever will be. After all, our local government has trouble managing its own day-to-day affairs, so we shouldn't have unrealistic expectations about its capabilities when we actually need help.

We got what we can expect. To prepare for next time, we should encourage the things that worked for us in this situation ... personal initiative by local businesses and individuals. We should allow more flexibility in communications choices (i.e., competition) so we are not beholden to one provider. Most importantly, however, any further emergency planning should recognize that during our next crisis, government is likely to fail us too.

In The Dark - Day 8 (Almost)

This morning, the County issued a press release saying that no cable fault had been found yet, but various percentages of service were continuing to be restored.

About two hours ago, the Facebook page of the sanjuanislander.com announced that CenturyLink had found the location of the severed cable, suspended along a rock face south of where it was originally placed. The article speculated that the cable might have moved because of an earthquake that occurred a few minutes before the service disruption.

Upon reading this, the Trojan Heron once again checked the USGS website for all recent earthquakes in Washington. You can check for yourself at this link. The only earthquake in the vicinity was a 2.3 magnitude earthquake occurring at 9:40 PM on Monday, November 4th ... which was several hours before the disruption. The earthquake story still doesn't make sense to us.

The Facebook article also has a lot of self-congratulatory language by CenturyLink about CenturyLink.

"Typically a response effort of this magnitude takes over a month to develop; the fact that we were able to mobilize within the first 36 hours is amazing. Restoring service is a top priority for CenturyLink, and we have pulled resources in from across the country to get these facilities up and running," said Tim Grigar, vice president and general manager of CenturyLink’s western Washington market.

If we take them at their word, CenturyLink began mobilizing a massive effort almost immediately because they knew this was a catastrophic event with a long response timeframe ... and yet, we heard practically nothing. We heard bupkis for days.

Also, there is a letter printed by the sanjuanislander.com that expresses the sentiments of some TH commenters, so we think it bears an airing here as well.

I just read a quote from Brendan Cowan, Director of the County Department of Emergency Management, in the Seattle Times. He states about the communications outage: "It's not like Armageddon. We're just disconnected - which for some people could be a great thing." 

Great sense of humor for someone whose paycheck isn't affected by the outage. 

But what about those people whose paycheck is affected. Like the employees of Wells Fargo Bank which closed. Or the people who couldn't get prescriptions filled. Or those who live here, telecommute and couldn't work. Or those of us who work off island and couldn't check on our families. 

Maybe we need someone in that job who understands the seriousness of what happened and is working hard to make sure it is fixed quickly and never happens again. And doesn't have an ambition to be a comedian. 

Alan M. Davis San Juan Island

Councilman Hughes made similar statements last Friday to KING 5. DEM issued an apology of sorts on their Facebook page today.

In The Dark - Day 7

Even if telecommunications are not flowing freely quite yet, information about our telecommunications situation is improving. A State of Emergency still exists. The situation is much improved but still far from normal.

The County issued a press release yesterday, which can be found online in several places. It says that landline service has been restored to normal. Let us know if that's true. Also, there are several reports about a barge being used to locate the failure point in the cable. There is no word that CenturyLink has precisely located the failure yet, so there is no official news on a possible cause either (or the exact fix needed). The fix is believed to require the laying of between 6,000 and 14,000 feet (worst case) of new cable. Final repairs are still several days away, which I suppose is obvious since we are a week into the disruption and they haven't even identified the failure location yet.

DEM has some Facebook posts about coverage by the Seattle Times and about cell phone service. Also, as color background to recent events, the Facebook page of the Lopez Island History Museum has an interesting post and photo of the early days of telephone service in the islands.

Early days of telephone service (switchboard on left) on Lopez, courtesy of Lopez History Museum, click to go to the Museum's Facebook page.

In The Dark - Day 5

Things are far from normal, but here we are at the end of Day 5, and partial service has been restored ... thanks largely to OPALCO.  OPALCO issued a press release, which says in part:

OPALCO’s data communications system is now carrying the phone and data traffic for San Juan Island, and providing 911 and phone solutions for the rest of San Juan County until CenturyLink can repair or replace their failed submarine cable.

The sanjuanislander.com has re-posted articles from a decade ago regarding OPALCO's decision to install fiber optic cable in excess of their immediate needs. Interesting reading.

The Island Guardian is reporting that a barge with divers was scheduled to begin replacing the damaged CenturyLink cable today. No word on when that might be completed.

There has been no further press release from CenturyLink that we know of. The County DEM is announcing on Facebook:

Orcas Islanders - Sprint is sending their Emergency Response "COLT" to the Orcas Library Sunday morning. This is a communications vehicle which provides wifi coverage and they'll have 100 phones for people to make calls. It should be there about 10 AM. 

Just off the phone with Verizon, their towers in Friday Harbor and Roche are now operational. Voice, data, and 911 are all working for Verizon wireless.

AT&T has three mobile sites up in town on three main islands, and some of their regular network may be coming online during day today.

We still don't know what caused the failure, but there have been a couple of interesting (if implausible) rumors. One rumor says that an earthquake, centered on San Juan Island, struck at the same time as the cable failure. We have checked with the USGS, and about 6 hours before the cable failure there was a very small magnitude 2.3 earthquake with a focus 12 km deep and an epicenter 8 km northwest of Friday Harbor (see USGS screen shot below). It seems very unlikely that this would have contributed to the failure.

Another rumor says that the optical cable was already near the end of its projected operational life, and it just wore out, aggravated perhaps by a seafloor ridge acting like a knife to gradually cut through the cable as it swayed back and forth in the bottom currents. We are not experts in optical communications, but this also seems implausible.

But something happened ... we just don't yet know what.

Commenters have been providing some great information and viewpoints. Thanks to all of you for sharing what you know, and keep the comments (and even the rumors) coming.

Click to enlarge - Earthquake on November 4, 2013

In The Dark - Day 4.75

Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel. DEM is reporting the following:

CenturyLink is reporting a restoration of limited land line long distance service as of 7:45pm on 11/8. This restoration is result of a temporary fix, and bandwidth is limited. Many calls may still have a hard time going through. Be patient, and try again if you are unable to connect.

Now would probably be a good time to hold off on any non-essential calls until initial rush passes.

We would fully expect there to be occasional set backs and technical complications in days to come. Hopefully overall trend is towards improved capability.

Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard on repair efforts, and most of all: thanks to all for community's patience and cooperative spirit. As always, a pleasure to witness, despite the struggles.

We've tried it, and it works (for now). We'd appreciate hearing if it is working elsewhere.  Can you call the mainland? Do you have internet?

In The Dark - Day 4.5

The County finally declared a State of Emergency and put out a press release.

Meeting in special session today, the San Juan County Council unanimously voted to declare “A State of Emergency within San Juan County, Washington.”

The declaration came on the fourth day since the failure of an underwater communications cable disrupted cell and landline telephone connections with the mainland. It is hoped that the declaration will enable public agencies to recover extraordinary costs incurred due to the outage and qualify local businesses for assistance.

The outage initially knocked out telephone communications between islands and to the mainland, including 911 emergency response lines and, though 911 service was restored Thursday, communications with the mainland remains limited.

The outage has interrupted other vital services that depend on Internet, cell or telephone service, including the Lifeline service used primarily by seniors and disabled persons.

The Sheriff and other emergency responders have also expressed concern that even citizens who have cell phone service, cannot reach local phone numbers, including emergency agencies, because all cell phone calls are currently processed on the mainland. Arrangements are now being made for emergency dispatch calls to be routed through Island County, but in the meantime cell phone users are being urged to try to use a landline phone to report emergencies.

“People have been coping with the inconveniences, but it is affecting essential services,” said Council Member Rick Hughes, who chaired the emergency meeting.

Some banks have had to close or restrict transactions because their data lines cannot connect to the mainland. Local lodging places, in areas that have no internet services as well as phone outages, have no way to accept reservations. Medical personnel on the mainland can’t call or fax prescriptions to local pharmacies and there is a concern that residents with families on the mainland can’t check on their well-being.

Fire departments and volunteers have gone door to door in many sections of the County to check on older or disabled neighbors.

“The community has really pulled together and found ways to deal with this”, Hughes said. “But as time goes on, the cost of coping has increased for our business community as well as the government, and our concerns about our ability to ensure the well-being of our residents are growing.”

The Council noted that CenturyLink, the company responsible for the services which have been interrupted, is putting its full resources and personnel to work to restore the services, however there is currently no firm estimate of when full services will be restored.

The latest statement from CenturyLink indicates that limited service to the mainland may be available within the next 48 hours. Full restoration of service will likely take several more days.

And as reported on the sanjuanislander.com, a barge with divers and robotics is investigating the cable and will release information about 5:30 pm today.

In the Dark - Day 4

We will put up a daily post about the status of the optical line break, even if there is nothing to say, in an effort to keep readers informed. Information on the outage is spread over several websites and Facebook, but there is no central clearinghouse for information. We'll do our best to summarize and give links to the latest information.  If you do have connectivity, even for only a few minutes, you can check here for the latest without having to search hither and yon.

If you have anything to add, please do. Here is the latest --

• DEM (the County Department of Emergency Management) is reporting on their Facebook page that 911 service is restored on all islands. DEM also reports that Verizon is working on a temporary link to get their Friday Harbor tower working. They also add that Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are all mobilizing to improve connectivity.

• OPALCO also is reporting that 911 service is restored.

• No new information on repairs. No information from CenturyLink. No other information from the County.

• The story is beginning to show up in the larger media. Below is an article from KING 5.

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. -- Frustration was spreading on the San Juan Islands, where residents entered their third day of a major phone and data disruption. 

A main fiber optic line broke Tuesday morning and the problems go far beyond losing 911 services. 

Laura Flaum, owner of Spring Street Deli in Friday Harbor says the outage has severely impacted her business. She can't run any credit cards, so customers have to pay with cash. 

She went from making 50 to 60 sandwiches a day, to making three.

It's devastating to businesses when you can't do credit transactions," Flaum said.

CenturyLink still doesn't know how an underwater fiber optic line was broken or how long it will take to fix it. Technicians are still trying to find a solution.

Internet and data transmissions are spotty at best. Some banks are closed. ATMs are down.

Sheriff Rob Nou says when 911 service went down, emergency personnel had to scramble to alert the public. 

"Reaching out to the community, getting fliers out, getting sandwich boards out, knocking on doors," said Nou.

Century Link had to redirect 911 calls to other working numbers on most of the islands.  On Thursday, San Juan County Department of Emergency Management tweeted CenturyLink reported 911 and island-to-island calling was working on Orcas Island as of 4 p.m. Thursday, and 911 was working on San Juan, Orcas, Shaw and Lopez islands. 

At the Friday Harbor Pharmacy, they finally got their internet back on Thursday. But staff can only call and receive calls from doctors and clinics on the island. 

"We were unable to receive any transfers, or prescriptions from the mainland," said pharmacy technician Cheyenne Mauldin.

Residents say the situation has moved beyond frustrating. 

"I can only call on the island by phone," said Ann Jarrell. "My cell phone is non-functioning. I have no internet, no email."

"I can't tell the weather," said resident Barbara Wollman. "I can't make an airline reservation. There's so much I can't do."

The bookkeeper at a gas station says she had to install a satellite dish just to order fuel. Island residents are thick-skinned, but island fever is spreading quickly.

Although tourists can't call to confirm hotel reservations, county council member Rick Hughes hotels want you to come anyway.

"If you want a rustic getaway, when you can feel sealed off from the mainland, this is the weekend to do it."