District 3 Island County Commissioner Kelly Emerson 

1 NE 7th Street  PO Box 5000  Coupeville, WA 98239   Ph. (360) 679-7354 

 e-mail:  k.emerson@co.island.wa.us 

Commissioner's Meetings - First 3 Mondays at 10am, Fourth Monday at 2pm

 Commissioner's Workshops - 1st & 3rd Wednesday at 9am,

2nd Wednesday at 10am

Click Here for Meeting Agenda Information

   A joy of Rural living, Livestock Shows.

Getting a first hand look at your freezer stock live is not the only benefit, you also have the opportunity to meet and ask questions of the youth Rancher.  The clubs provide more than just animal husbandry skills and fun for the students, they are also tasked with some essential business management duties.    

Displayed in each pen is a Return on Investment worksheet which sheds light on the true sense of risk in the Private Sector.  Colored Ribbons also decorate the walls above the livestock reminding you of why we encourage achievement. 

Every buyer in the auctioning audience gladly pays beyond market value for these Cornfed consumables, and everyone goes home with a great sense of pride and accomplishment.  So thank you Sarah Flake of North Camano for handling such a handsome Hog and I intend to honor your efforts with each bite of bacon.

Coming Soon to Camano, Pickleball! 

A locally founded sport, this court game seems to be gaining momentum with all age groups.  Okay I chuckled, when it was first brought to my attention, but after a little investigation I realized, this is serious fun.  See for yourself by following this link: PickleballUSA

The timing of the request, couldn't have been better.  The resurfacing of the Tennis Courts had been scheduled to come up, so I asked for pricing to add a couple more lines for Pickleball boundaries.  The add was less than it cost to send a single Commissioner to the National Conference of the Counties in Wenatchee and since I forwent that, I think we can afford it. 

Thank you Janet Woo for coming up with such an enjoyable task.  I'm honored to be able to accomodate and I look forward to your organizing a local league, just a thought.  See you on the Courts soon.

Liberal Agenda Dominates Committee Appointments
  

In an attempt to retain and increase a little conservative thought on the Water Resources Advisory Committee, I made two seperate motions for appointments to the Board. 

The first was a standing and long-time Committee member from North Whidbey, who is a Scientist and told me personally on a number of occasions he was willing to remain serving.  The second was a long-time Camano resident who served on the WRAC in the past, has been an officer of local Water Districts and a strong Resource Conservationist.

Both motions were shot down as the other two Commissioners "moved forward" with their agenda.  There were three positions to fill, one from each Geographical area and they let me have none.

These Committees are extremely important, as they provide the "Public Input."  Losing these two appointments means we may soon have a Water Resources Advisory Committee which lacks any diverse opinion.  This will certainly be a disadvantage for the County.

How About A Moretorum On Buying Up Private Land? 

The State Law does not require us to collect for a Conservations Futures fund, it only allows that we MAY.  It also does not require that you collect the maximum amount, only that we MAY.

It does require that we only spend 15% of the preceeding years collections on Maintainence and Operations.  It seems to me that you could quickly buy more than you could afford to maintain without tapping into the General Funds.  Maybe we are already there.

I remember hearing the past Board talk about the devasted economy and related foreclosures, giving the Government such purchasing power.  Each time the Government aquires land and strips it of it's development rights, it denies the Citizens that contributing revenue source.

It forces the burden of making up for that lose in the tax base on all the remaining properties.  At a time when numbers of foreclosures is astronomical, how about we take a little break from that compoundingly negative effect on the taxpayers.

In fact, I'm all for getting rid of the fund all together for some time.  It would be a quick and easy tax cut that wouldn't have any effect on current services.

The decision on what to do with those funds should be coming up this month.  Many of you made it clear to me, you do not want to spend the money on the Trillium Property.  Many of you said you would prefer to see it go to other Government Services.  While under current law that is not possible, a little lobbying effort might give us that ability.

An Open And Transparent Government

I seem to remember a few months back, some Private Citizen being chastized for "Ignoring County Law."  Yet this week it was brought to our attention that this Board, just as the last Board, has been ignoring County Law as it relates to Public Hearings. 

Island County Code requires us to schedule all Public Hearings for our 4th Monday of the month meeting and after 6pm.  What a novel concept, accomodate the working taxpayers. 

I haven't seen a Public Hearing scheduled for that time slot in the more than 2 years I have been attending these shows.  When I brought it up for discussion, it was met with some resistance.  It's no wonder the public is so angry with us.

It is certainly a "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" attitude here at the County Compound.  I hope you will join me in demanding that your County Commissioners lead by example and begin following current Law.  Ammending this Code would only provide a continued easy way around the Public's Interest.

City of Oak Harbor finds fault with Freeland Sub Area Plan     

Although the vote approving the adoption of the plan was a 2-1, (guess who the 1 was), at least now I am not the only "1" with a gut feeling something was wrong.

The City of Oak Harbor has filed a petition appealing the County Commissioner's majority rule to the Growth Management Hearings Board.  

WEAN vs. Island County 

An appeal of Critical Area Ordinances on Agricultural Lands brought by WEAN has been on hold for sometime due to legislation making it's way through the halls of Olympia.  The Ruckelshaus Bill, ESHB 1886, is now officially law and we have till January to decide what to do with it.