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Letter from Sheriff Eric Peter about Controlled Substance Homicide Sentencing

My fellow community members,

As a San Juan County resident, as an advocate for public safety, and as your Sheriff, it is with a heavy heart and genuine frustration with our judicial system that I am addressing everyone with an update on the sentencing that took place on November 21, 2023 in a Controlled Substance Homicide case. The process has been ongoing for the past 15 months and involves the tragic death of a youth in our community.

Kathy Swartz: Destination Mgmt plan assumes growth in tourism is inevitable.

Here is the letter I sent today to our County Council members regarding the Draft Destination Management Plan.  

Today we paid our property taxes. Today is also the deadline for commentary on the Draft Destination Management Plan. The 112% increase in our taxes in the seven years we have lived here was a dandy incentive to read through the 89 page Plan.

Guard: Destination Management Plan: Misaligned Priorities

I read with great interest the new San Juan Islands Destination Management Plan. There were elements in the plan that I believe are wise investments for the future of our community. However, like much of politics, this hodgepodge spending package is laced with the good, bad, and the ugly. While perhaps well-intentioned, the Management Plan fails to be aligned with priorities that the community needs. Here’s why. 

deGavre: Drafted a letter about ferries he'd like San Juan County Council to send to the governor

Dear Editor, 

We are facing a bleak future for years to come on our ferry service. This is not understood by many. Thus I recommend our County Council debate the letter below and consider appropriate action:

Robert de Gavre's draft letter he wants the council to consider is posted below. 

I would appreciate your posting on your website the attached letter.


Dear Governor Inslee

The service provided by Washington State Ferries is existential to our community.  

You have served as Governor of our State for ten years since 2013. During your tenure in office, Washington State Ferries has experienced increasing unreliability in its operations, has eliminated some ferry runs indefinitely and has reduced service on other routes. During the most recent summer, 397 scheduled ferries - one out of twenty -  were cancelled on the San Juan/Anacortes routes, causing not only havoc for those directly affected, but also cascading disruptions and delays on the entire ferry system for the San Juan Islands. 

The unreliability of the ferries undermines the economy of our islands, jeopardizes the healthcare for our elderly community, increases the cost of living for all our citizens in a myriad of different ways, weakens our school programs, hollows out our middle class. It challenges the very existence of our community as a functional entity.

We hold you responsible as the Governor of our State. Your Administration failed to anticipate – or more probably ignored - the wave in retirement of WSF personnel that has now engulfed the system. And your Administration failed to build new ferries necessary to maintain WSF’s fleet. These failures are the reason - the sole reason - for the decline in service. They are also the reason why in the years to come our County will experience with almost absolute certainty further declines and possibly sharp declines in ferry reliability.

This is the legacy you will leave to our County and your successors in the Governor’s office. 

To be more specific:

During your tenure in office, WSF eliminated reimbursement for crew training and licensing at a time when it was known that the system was facing a tidal wave of retirements of senior and trained personnel. Recently steps have been taken to reverse these policies. But the long term damage was done.  It will be several if not many years before WSF has adequately trained personnel to staff not only its existing boats but also the greater number of boats required to restore routes and ensure operating reliability.  

During your tenure in office, the number of boats in WSF’s fleet declined from 23 to 21 as old – if not antique – boats were retired but with no boats built to offset the retirements. According to WSF, the system needs 26 boats to operate on a reliable basis. With only 21 boats WSF cannot properly maintain its fleet to achieve operational reliability. The twelve-month withdrawal of boats for electric conversion will only add further stress to an already overstressed fleet. 

In July 2020 MV Elwha was prematurely taken out of service and ultimately retired reducing fleet size from 21 to 20. Olympia expressed concerns about costs for overhauling the Elwha but did not consider – or again probably ignored – the incalculable costs of maintaining the same tempo of operations. The retirement of the Elwha arguably was the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

It has been over three years since the Elwha was withdrawn from service and well over one year since discussions with Seattle’s Vigor Shipyard, the primary builder of WSF’s ferries for the last two decades, were terminated. Yet there are still no contracts to build new boats, no bids, no RFP documents sent to shipyards soliciting bids. The RFP documents for new ferries have not yet even been prepared for distribution to shipyards across the nation. They are not scheduled to be distributed until well into next year at the very best. 

It will be a Herculean task to rebuild the fleet to 23 boats and also to replace the 8 boats scheduled to be retired by 2030 at the end of their 60-year life. A total of 10 new boats should enter service by 2030. Given your Administration’s actions to date, building 10 new boats in the next 6 years is clearly improbable. 

Thus for the indefinite future, ferry reliability will almost certainly decline as an already aged fleet operates roughly 15-20 hours per day, seven days per week without adequate time in the yards for maintenance. WSF’s 2040 Long Range Plan explicitly warned that the risk to service reliability will grow each year.

Thus, with great regret and sadness and with respect to you as Governor of our State, our County Council has unanimously adopted the following two [three] resolutions:

  1. San Juan County Council will request its Treasurer to sequester and place in escrow all State taxes and fees collected by the County on behalf of the State until it is beyond doubt that the State has irrevocably contracted and funded new ferries for delivery by 2030 sufficient in number (i) to replace most of the 8 boats scheduled to be retired prior to 2030 in WSF’s Long Range Plan and (ii) to re-build the fleet to a minimum of 23 boats. 
  2. San Juan County Council will contact all ferry served communities inviting them to join with us in withholding funds from the State.

[3. San Juan County will distribute this letter to the media.] 

Sincerely

San Juan County Council

Rita Weisbrod: Destination Mgmt Plan - let's back up and look for alternatives to tourism

I just received a postcard in the mail (Oct, 20), asking me to call the County Council to stop the SJI Destination Management Plan.  First, I thought it must be one of those anti-government conspiracy-laced bots from Russia or China.  Then I saw that it was sent by “Concerned Citizens” from the same street address as Post San Juan.  So, maybe it was sent by seasonal residents who were not on the Island when the three listening sessions for the Plan were held. 

Guest Column by Richard Grout: San Juan Fire Dist should delay hiring decision until new commissioner is elected

Editor:

Several months ago, the Port of Friday Harbor and the San Juan Island Fire District 3 each faced a vacant Commissioner's seat and each needed to make a temporary appointment. The Port made the intelligent and responsible decision not to appoint anyone who had filed to run for their seat because doing so would confer an unfair advantage. And the Port also agreed to postpone until after the November election any major non-emergency decisions.

Guest Column by Leslie Brennan: Questions the value of WSF's demographic sutvey

I have no idea what difference it makes to Washington State Ferry, anything about the diversity of our communities are or why it matters at all about the demographics.

Maybe I’m being way to simplistic in thought, but there are many people who live on the islands for a variety of different reasons. There are those who have moved here recently, to those who were born here. Why does it matter? How will it show any connection with the horrible way in which the ferries have been performing?

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