With an ongoing effort, I have been attempting to connect with my colleagues on improprieties of executive sessions.  In my opinion, there have been a number now that have been called and/or conducted illegally - so much for transparency.    

Back in May of this year I wrote a letter to our prosecutor seeking some group training on the appropriate reasons for calling executive sessions and for conduct during them (click here to see the letter).  As with all the departments, they work for the majority and apparently I, once again, had no support in the desire to see that we were doing these things correctly.

The prosecutor did offer training and only I accepted.  It was during this training that I learned it was my duty to inform my colleagues and then remove myself from a meeting which I felt was being conducted improperly.  So that was just what I did at the next executive session.

It should have been no surprise to anyone that I had a press release prepared for distribution the moment they refused to go public with the discussion (click here to see the press release).     

At this point, my only option left was to seek an opinion from Tim Ford, Assistant Attorney General for Government Accountability.  I did so.  He responded and I have followed up with a more detailed letter (click here to see the letter).

I anxiously await his next response and hope for some clarity on our conduct here in Island County.  Certainly doing things in private makes it easier on all the parities involved, but nobody ever said this was supposed to be easy.

(Click here for a story about another WA county commissioner leaving the room in protest.)  It's important we all remember it is YOU, the taxpayer, we are working for and not the bureaucracy.  

What an honor it was to receive a message telling me I was chosen to serve on the first ever Veterans and Military Service Committee for the National Association of County Officials (NACO).   

It's an ad-hoc committee for starters.  It is the desire of NACO's new president, Nebraska Commissioner Chris Rodgers, to see this become a standing committee.  I am excited about this new opportunity to better serve the constituents of our military-dependent county.

As the commissioner of the district which houses Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI), I look forward to advancing on the congressional relationships I've been establishing in this regard.  

My membership with the Navy League's Oak Harbor Council and the local chapter of the Association of Naval Aviators (ANA) are likely among the reasons I was graced with this duty and they will serve as useful tools.   

Today, the extraordinary advancements of our military field medical teams allow many more lives to be spared.  Thus, many servicemen and women are returning home with needs of rehabilitation.  Transitioning to civilian life can, in itself, be difficult.   

These evolutions bring us much joy.  Along with evolution come new challenges - the kind of challenges this new committee will be set up to assist.  This new responsibility will make the annual NACO conferences much more helpful and productive.    

Another board I serve on, the Northwest Clean Air Agency (NWCAA), is charged with local authority of implementing and enforcing regulations in order to comply with State and Federal Clean Air Acts.   You can probably guess that green house gas emissions are a dominate topic of this board, but it is not the only air issue we talk of.  

Recently we had a presentation on indoor air quality.  It seems that all the effort on weatherization to reduce emissions and waste, is causing serious degradation of indoor air quality.  This in turn causes an uptick in many health related issues such as allergies and asthma.

You would think that with this information, along with all the ongoing revelations that the science behind the "climate change" theories is proving false, some in local government would ease up on all this "sustainability" talk.  (click here for a recent story from the Toronto Sun about the godfather of the "global warming" theories backing away from the claims.)

Not the case in Island County.  My colleagues have doubled down with new efforts to chase down a quarter million dollar grant in order to hire a "sustainability manager."  That position is a recommendation of ICLEI (International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives {UN Agenda 21}).

The good news is, at the NWCAA board (which is where that grant money would be coming from), the conversation is changing.  We recently held a retreat where we nearly went the entire day without hearing the slogans "global warming," "climate change," or "green house gas."  

When I suggested we focus some attention on removing our region from the airshed we are currently established with (which encompasses both Snohomish and King counties), the executive director nearly exploded with enthusiasm.   

Being successful in this endeavor would provide a huge safeguard for our businesses against the effects of a presidential administration setting ozone attainment at levels suggested by the EPA.  It would be a hard-fought battle, but well worth it.