Briefings - Feb 22

Here's a quick summary of the county commissioner briefings. All three commissioners were there for all the briefings. Impressive. Will this make up for not being able to hold a public meeting on March 9 because Lynda and Tim are otherwise engaged or out of town?

1. Central Operations:

"Duties absorbed from eliminated positions", the subject of a handout was discussed. When the commissioners eliminated or fired the Budget Director (Ione Siegler), Human Resources Director (TJ Martin), and the Central Operations Director (Betty Wing) positions, it apparently didn't occur to them that at least some of the duties still needed to be performed. First on Feb 2 Bonnie Capp (HR Assistant) asked to be paid for work above the duties her salary is based on. Later the commissioners agreed that she should be compensated for this work. Now Diane Zoren is asking to be paid as a lead worker. Tim said he disagreed with Bonnie's request and while he appreciates what Diane does, he doesn't know where the money will come from to pay her. Lynda said that she will look for the money in the budgets and that if they cannot pay Diane for doing lead work then she should stop doing this work.

Having watched how the county works now for more than a year, what I'd like to see is the commissioners take a step back and figure out what needs to be done to run Central Operations and Human Resources. What duties must be done? And then I'd like them to come up with a plan on what the county can afford. What level of duties or services can the county afford? Isn't that what you and I are forced to do with our after tax dollars?


Effective Feb 19 Mike Carnavole resigned from the LTAC. Ross mentioned that Kitsap County will be changing their process and did Tim and Lynda want to make similar changes. To this Lynda said just because Kitsap is making changes that doesn't necessarily mean that Mason County needs to make changes. Kitsap's change will not allow representatives who receive grant funding to sit on the LTAC as it decides how to divvy the dollars up. It appears that some of the problems we are seeing in Mason County regarding LTAC is common throughout the state. We also have a "tight knit group of people often looking out for their own financial interest with very little or no public oversight."

2. Public Works:

Representatives from Washington State Department of Transportation were there to listen to the commissioners as they start to prepare the Johns Prairie/State Route 3 Intersection Proviso. This document apparently will be provided to the legislative members and committees for planning purposes and of course funding. DOT is looking to wrap this up by June 30, 2010.

A scary thing happened in this meeting Tim and Lynda were agreeing with each other. For posterity I noted during the meeting this quote from Lynda, "Tim and I are on the same page." The "same page" is that they both want the Proviso from DOT to cover more than just the intersection. They want to have a connector between Highway 101 and State Route 3.

Tim suggested that DOT should see Manke so that there can be a land swap and that DOT should work with him. Also Tim says that ADAGE has told him they are willing to help pay for the infrastructure needed to accommodate their intended facility. Tim said ADAGE expects to generate up to 200 trucks per day of traffic at this facility. Appearing then to be wearing his Senate hat, Tim urged them to make sure the plan was affordable.

Expect to hear soon of a DOT lead meeting with all stakeholders to include local businesses, PUD 3, port, city, and tribes to discuss the John's Prairie/SR 3 intersection which morphed into the SR3/Hwy 101 Connector.

On Mar 1 DOT will be back to discuss the Belfair Bypass. Tim made a point during the meeting to mention Lynch Road/Hwy 101 dangerous intersection. Nary a word was mentioned by Ross Gallagher who has this intersection in his district. My takeaway on Ross Gallagher is that he is not looking out for the people of District 3. He confirmed this yesterday when he hardly spoke a word during the DOT meeting.

3. Finance Committee:

Property tax statements are at the printers and will be mailed to us soon. On March 1 the Treasurer will begin accepting payments. Discussion ensued on where the county stands so far as the status of cash on hand. All county staffs and electeds have been asked to curtail nonessential spending to get through the next few months because cash is so low. As of January monthend cash on hand was $2M. Recall the Treasurer estimates on average that she needs around $3M each month to keep the county liquid. Another quote for posterity - Lynda said this about the cash on hand, "It's low but it's a pattern." How true since they spent all of the reserve in years past with their "eyes wide open". Some of us still have a memory unlike some of our electeds.

We appear to be closer to replacing the ancient county-wide financial software. They have about $100K for a down payment on the new software but will need to borrow the balance which is estimated at $270K. Contracting process should begin in two to three weeks. The replacement of the old Computech system is long overdue.

Interfund loan policy was also discussed. The county has six interfund loans outstanding all with varying interest rates. The Treasurer asked for standardization of the rates and that there needs to be a resolution in place to either establish or amend the rates if the decision is to revise them. Lynda wants a list of all the interfund loans and the current interest rates. There was agreement that interfund loans would not exceed three years and that they will standardize the interest rates to the State Pool Rate plus 2% which today would be around 2.28%.

4. Utilities:

Puget Sound Partnership will be filming in our area March 2 and March 4.

Belfair Waste Water Treatment Facility construction is moving along. I believe I understood this correctly that for change orders in work being done by the contractors Emmett Dobey and Tom Moore will come to the BOCC for approval when a change exceeds $150K but I didn't hear what the time frame was that they had in mind. Another quote for posterity from Emmett Dobey, the project is "on time and on budget".