ADAGE: KMAS Broadcast - More Questions Than Answers

I attended the live broadcast with about 200 other folks from the community. All Port Commissioners (Hupp, Miles, and Wallitner) were there as was County Commissioner Ross Gallagher. ADAGE leadership, management, public relations and paid consultants sat on a panel answering questions from the public. The KMAS team selected from the questions that we provided prior to start of the broadcast. We were allowed to provide additional questions as the meeting proceeded but none of my follow up questions were asked. My one major criticism of the process was that we could not ask follow-up questions. At times some of the more outspoken audience members would interject themselves to push for more complete answers but that was the exception.

A common theme that popped up over and over is the concern residents have about property values. After all this is the single largest investment that many of us hold. Just a 1% drop in property values in Mason County represents a $76 million loss to homeowners. We may not understand the engineers and the toxicologists but we sure have a handle on what it means to see our home values dropping in price because home buyers don't want to live near a facility that burns more than a ton of woody biomass every minute, 24/7.

I attended to get two major questions answered. First, I hoped they would explain how they came up with the $125 million during construction and $60 million annually once ADAGE is operational. I was disappointed. Who amongst us understands what "M Plan" modeling is? Not me and from my unscientific polling afterward - I wasn't alone. Tom Deponty's response didn't help me to understand whether there is really anything behind these numbers as advertised by ADAGE in the Shelton Mason Journal.

Secondly, I wanted to understand whether the slash needed to fuel the facility is really available in Mason County. I'm trying to narrow down whether Mason County is going to realize the increase in employment ADAGE has promised. Isn't that our ultimate goal to increase employment in this county?

Here's what I've discovered in my research. Green Diamond owns 64 percent of all the designated forest land in Mason County. All the other landowners have far fewer acres of forest land. Compare the 176,428 acres for Green Diamond to another large owner, Douglas Fir, with 4,342 acres followed by many more with even fewer acres.

My question was not addressed during the broadcast so I decided to ask one of the ADAGE representatives, Brian Anderson. He told me that in Belgium, for example, they were amazed at how much woody biomass they could get from small forest landholdings. With all the subsidies the federal and state governments are providing to sellers of woody biomass, I wouldn't be surprised at how many of the small designated forest landowners will be hopping on the gravy train to contract with ADAGE. Here's what I'm wondering today: will Green Diamond have enough slash from their 176,428 acres to support both ADAGE and the Simpson facilities?

But I wasn't the only one who didn't get my questions answered - neither did Paul Stamets, local businessman and owner of Funghi Perfecti. His very thoughtful questions were provided to KMAS prior to the broadcast. I know. I delivered Paul's questions myself.

Keep pushing for answers, Mason County. This is a big deal and well worth the effort it takes to understand what the costs and benefits are.

BOCC Meeting - April 6

With all the ADAGE coverage, I failed to recap last week's public board meeting. All three commissioners were there for the entire meeting.

• Belfair Waste Water Treatment Facility: The BOCC approved the contract with EnviroIssues to provide "Side Sewer Communications Coordination and Construction Outreach Support" at a cost of $221K. The cost per contract hour comes to $93.52. Not bad wages in a county with such high unemployment. The budget line continues to be "clear as mud", a phrase that you'll find used frequently as we discuss whatever is happening in the county commissioner chambers. Tom Moore couldn't answer what was remaining of the contingency funds set aside for a $40M dollar construction effort fraught with uncertainty and risks in every step of this project. Kudos to Tim for having read the contract and for sharing with the public what deliverables are included in this contract. But when are our commissioners going to get it? With more than a quarter of the year lapsed, we do not have a complete budget description of what one third of the county's 2010 budget is being spent on. Here is a fact - not even one full page of the 2010 budget document is devoted to the BWWTF while over 160 pages are spent on the balance of the revenue and expenditures. This does not make sense to me.

• Storm Water Management Advisory Task Force: The BOCC approved this 28 member task force that includes five members who do not live in this county but will provide such essential expertise that they must be voting members of the task force. This task force will help to "craft financial options to fund storm water improvement activities". First of all when was the last time 28 people were able to get anything done in a timely manner? Secondly since when is it okay for someone who lives in Thurston County to come to Mason County and help us figure out how we want to be taxed? I was not surprised that all three commissioners felt this was honky dory. Am I a minority voice on this? Mason County, I think we may all want to keep an eye on this before we see it appear on our property tax statements. Then it may be too late.

• Corrections and Support Staff Bargaining Unit (IAM&AW Local Lodge W38): The BOCC approved the agreement between the county and this bargaining unit. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Monty Cobb couldn't tell us what the budget impact was exactly but he could tell us that for this 42 member unit the increase is somewhere between 1% and 6.5% and that for every one percent increase it will cost the county an extra $15K in 2010. The way I figure it's somewhere between $15K and $97.5K. Clear as mud, right? One bargaining unit down and 11 more to go. The big one is the Deputies Guild. Be watching here for more on this.

• KMAS sent a letter to the county protesting the use of the Shelton Mason Journal as the official newspaper for county official notices. This agenda action was tabled for further review.

• BOCC approved changing the HR/Budget Director position back to HR duties only. They couldn't tell us what budget duties are being omitted but could tell us that they'll contract out this work. Nor could they tell us how much they are saving. Clear as mud, right?

• Public Works announced that the county's annual chip seal contract was awarded. The County Roads account saved $20K because the awarded contract was less than the engineer's estimate. Another reason why a levy shift from Roads to Current Expense/General Fund are in order for 2011. And this is as clear as fresh spring water.

Hope to hear from you soon.