What a day, Mason County! I attended three interesting meetings that I'd like to share with you. This may be a lengthy post. I'll say sorry up front.
- A young mother spoke of how she has two small boys that she wants to protect from toxins. She reminded us of the toxic waste disposed of by ITT Rayonier.
- A former submariner who now works for the hospital spoke out on what it's like to watch patients with respiratory disease suffer.
- A marine biologist spoke on her expertise and commitment to cleaning up Hood Canal. She very bravely told the commissioners that some voters within the county are exploring efforts to recall the commissioners.
- A long time citizen of the county who is usually quiet spoke with the best questions. She asked for a public hearing on ADAGE. To which the commissioners gave their pat answers: too soon because no application for permit has been received from ADAGE, any questions you want answered Lynda Ring Erickson will forward to ADAGE, go talk to the Port of Shelton, keep on seeking out answers from ADAGE etc etc. "Pass the buck" responses from our elected officials aren't working for me.
- Tim Sheldon did not deny the recent quote in the Mason County Daily News that he was "an unabashed 100% supporter of ADAGE". Nor could he tell us why he is now behind the construction of an incinerator in Mason County. He was reminded by this blogger that he is a leader and that we expect him to hold public sessions for the citizens to have their questions answered prior to any decisions being made.
- Lynda Ring Erickson either lied today, has a very poor memory or has been slighted as county commissioner. She claims to only recently have become aware of what ADAGE is about. On Jan 29 I know she was present at the joint city, county, PUD3, port meeting with ADAGE and their slick power point slides. (I worked at the Pentagon - home of slick power point slides. I know slick power point slides.) At this meeting ADAGE (Lee Torrence) offered to brief individually these twelve commissioners. I can only presume the reason for the individual briefings was being done to avoid the Open Meetings Act. (I understand that following the meeting she hired an attorney to represent her in this process. Real life in Mason County sometimes is better than fiction.)
- Tim Sheldon says there have been "no under the table meetings". Everything has been upfront. But we did learn that ADAGE had spoken at a Rotary meeting per Tim. Interesting. Hadn't heard that before.
2. League of Women Voters Mason County Meeting: Following the county commissioners' meeting State Auditor Brian Sonntag spoke on his role in government and what conflicts of interest are all about. One of the questions we had for him today was when are public hearings required? Here's what I got from his answer. While there may not be a legal requirement for public hearings, why wouldn't an elected official want to hear from the public? Challenge the elected officials sensibility and, if necessary, shaming an elected official is an effective short term solution. The long term solution is to let your vote be the final word. He went on to say that public trust is very fragile and that public officials create public trust through open public meetings and open public records. This was a timely topic for Mason County, don't you agree?
3. Port of Shelton Commissioners Meeting: Here's what I learned at this meeting.
- The Port hired Paul Roberts, a consultant, to help them with planning and they offered his services to Mason County as they work the SEPA for ADAGE.
- The Port looks for businesses that they consider are a "good fit". There are no criteria that they use to make this determination. It's a "subjective decision" per Jay Hupp. Talk about bureaucratic mumbo jumbo.
- ADAGE may give funds to this area to help pay for roads, sewer, and water line per Jay. Operative word here is "may".
- The Port engaged in a feasibility study agreement with ADAGE some time back. Started off at 120 days and then they added 90 days two more times. If I got this right, the Port and ADAGE have been doing this feasibility study now for nearly one year.
- John Dobson, said that working with ADAGE reminds him of when he used to sell cars.
- The ball fields are in fact about 1400 feet from where the Port thinks ADAGE will build.
- ADAGE won't be using John's Prairie/SR3 intersection because nothing would be coming from the north eastern part of the county. Expectation now is that they will use rail primarily.
- Commissioner Wallitner is excited and impressed with ADAGE. Wholeheartedly stated that he's "in favor".
- Commissioner Miles wants to hear from the public and needs more information.
If today had been a ball game and I was the scorekeeper, the citizens would be ahead of the elected officials. Mason County, keep the pressure on. Shaming is our best strategy at this time.
If anyone is interested, there's a good article about the biomass process at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/20/EDH319P8M6.DTL
It's by Greg Morris who is the head of the Green Power Institute. It explains the process. Let's face it, nothing is going to be perfect. There is also info at usabiomass.org
We need to be careful that we give fair consideration to ADAGE as well. Our county can use the jobs if the process is not detrimental.
I think you make a good point. To make this process appear open and fair we need to have our public officials discussing this proposal in an open environment. People have had their trust diminished. The closure of the fairgrounds comes to my mind. And the construction of the new PUD3 facility is another. That our county commissioners have frittered away our cash reserve is a special bone of contention for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've said all along is let's hear the pros and cons before making a decision one way or another.
ReplyDeleteBrenda, I really do appreciate the good questions you have raised & it is a little bit of a mystery to me as to why our elected officials have not gotten out ahead of this & answered the questions. However I think a teaching attitude does not seem to be prevalent among our politicians of all levels & maybe general business gets in the way (?).
ReplyDeleteBut on some things - for instance, truck traffic - any number of companies might have the same issue. Lately we seem to have had a lot of heavy truck traffic on Skokomish Valley Rd.
What I am seeing in the letters to the Journal -seem to be a lot of fear-based reasons for not having ADAGE here.
In this day of EPA, the Clean Air Act, lots of red tape and bureaucracy for any company - it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't be monitored extremely closely and have to know ahead of time what their emissions would be, etc. & whether or not they could meet the regulations.
In our highly charged environment today - just saying the word "pollution" when speaking about the company & process, is enough to put the company in a negative light - whether or not true. And that is kind of a sad situation. I am glad for people like you that want to look at both sides before making a decision.
Channel 7 Mews carried comments and a Tim-on-the-run interview on Sunday, May 2. They pushed the recall issue and raised the question about why protest new industry when we need the jobs? Tim reiterated his support for ADAGE. No comment on the recall.
ReplyDelete