County Commissioners Not Listening

Today I'm going to provide an example of how our county commissioners haven't listened to their citizens. If they don't listen to us on the small issues, the big issues are for sure a lost cause.

(See my blog posting "Level Playing Field for Tourism Dollars" and other "LTAC" label postings for more background.)

On Feb 23, 2010 I presented signed petitions from 102 citizens asking the BOCC to fund Harmony Hill's request for 2010 lodging tax dollars. I gave them some time to act on the petitions waiting till the May 4 BOCC meeting to I ask when they were going to approve the funding of Harmony Hill. At that time I was told that Ross, as chair, would call the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee to get their opinion on funding Harmony Hill. Then on May 10 at the commissioners' briefings I asked Ross when Harmony Hill would be funded. To this Ross said the LTAC had considered the request from Harmony Hill twice and had twice refused to fund it. His hands are tied, or so he says.

Mason County, 102 citizens petitioned the county commissioners and were ignored over the advice of the two executive directors of the Chambers of Commerce and four other representatives. I've made a clear case several times before the BOCC that the LTAC didn't consistently apply their stated criteria in their recommendations for which projects would receive funding. If this committee had applied the same criteria to all projects, Harmony Hill would have been funded just as all the other projects were. Harmony Hill was the only application for a grant from the Hotel Motel Tax not funded in 2010.

This blatant unfairness makes me angry and I'm having trouble letting this go. I recognize this is a small dollar issue but there are bigger decisions coming up.

Take for example the BOCC has formed a Storm Water Task Force to "craft financial options" to fund a storm water district in the county. This 30 member task force consists of five or six members who don't live in Mason County. When I raised concerns about members of the task force from Thurston and Lewis County making recommendations on Mason County tax policy, I was told that the BOCC is the ultimate decision authority and they will carefully consider what the task force recommends.

Based on what we've seen from the Harmony Hill LTAC recommendation, we can't count on this BOCC to overrule what the Stormwater Task Force recommends.

But the real point is this - they aren't listening to us. It's as if we don't count. Let's show our elected officials that we will be heard. Mason County, remember to register and vote in upcoming elections. Regardless of whether you and I agree on the issues, I encourage you to vote this year. Let our voices be heard through our ballots.