The Charter Review Commission’s platform is simple. We the people should control our local government instead of being controlled by it. We should take steps to improve the Charter, downsize, and get our financial house in order. To do this we need to put all voters in control of all council positions and make the council in charge of administration. We need to take control of our government.  I urge you to vote for the charter revisions.

In our current charter, citizens are two steps away from keeping their county administrator accountable to the people. The people have no direct control over this very powerful position. This needs to be changed. Your charter review commissioners are recommending in Proposition 2 to require a county manager whose duties are delegated by the council whose members are all accountable to all the voters. We will hold them accountable for their actions or failure to act.

County spending is out of control. Your Charter Review Commissioners looked at the council’s own predictions of enormous growth in budgets which will result in deficits, debt, and increased taxes. Salaries are going up and services are going down. As the county government accelerates in size and complexity our current council appears helpless to fix it. We the people need to fix it now by voting for sensible changes in our charter that will bring control back to the people.

Ralph Gutschmidt

Orcas Island

Charter Commission Member