Vote no on CRC changes | Letter

Published 11:25 am Tuesday, October 9, 2012

In the early 90s, I was appointed to several county committees. It was quickly apparent to me that well-meaning politicians rather than professional managers were ineptly running the county. I – with several citizens – went to Olympia to acquaint ourselves with the various forms of county governance. Most of the Washington counties had some form of professional management, either a manager reporting to several politically appointed commissioners or an executive that was hired or elected to manage a charter county with a bipartisan legislature.  Neither idea appealed to the then elected commissioners. But finally about five years ago the commissioners offered their constituents an opportunity  to see if a county charter would be embraced by their constituents. And so it was.

And as directed by the freeholders who wrote the charter, it was to be reviewed in five years. Reviewed – not destroyed – which seemed to be the aim of a committee that did not thoroughly understand the fundamental workings of the charter. We were warned by our mentor county, Whatcom, that it would be a rough go initially. It took a long time to vet the problems that had been created over many years with politicians at the helm. Many of those bumps are now behind us and the present structure is geared for better management and legislative activities in the future.

Now is not the time to go backward. I attended a  recent Charter Review Committee meeting and  was appalled at their insinuations that the county was too liberal, was not representative and that the council was involved in conspiracies that did not represent the public wishes. There are constructive changes that should be made. However, they were bypassed for reasons of ideology not fact. Vote no on the committee’s recommendations to change the charter.

Walt Corbin

Olga