The county council has identified three major priorities for 2010: finishing the upland portion of the Critical Areas Ordinance, achieving a balanced budget, and creating a solvent solid waste department.
County Council Members Richard Fralick, District 4, Orcas West, Gene Knapp, District 5, Orcas East, County Administrator Pete Rose, and County Auditor Milene Henley hosted a town hall meeting on March 11, bringing the Orcas community up to date on the county’s current issues.
Upland CAO
The county has hired Dr. Paul Adamus to study the San Juan Islands and draft the “best available science” for the pending update of the critical areas ordinance. Dr. Adamus conducted the research for Island County’s CAO update. The study is slated to be completed by Sept. 15 of this year.
“Without spending the money for this, we feel we cannot come up with a CAO plan that works,” Fralick said.
State law requires all counties and cities whose long-range planning efforts are dictated by the Growth Management Act to revise their regulations protecting critical areas, which includes wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat, steep or unstable slopes and conservation lands.
The county, which embarked on the CAO update in 2003, was supposed to have it completed by 2005. The council decided previously to finish the upland portion of the CAO update and revise the shoreline portions in conjunction with the update of the local shoreline master plan, which is due to the state by 2012.
Stephanie Buffum Field of the FRIENDS of the San Juans wondered why the department of ecology’s best available science wasn’t adequate.
“The department of ecology was in support of how island county handled the CAO,” Fralick said. “Our goal is to complete this process in 2010,” Fralick said. “Can we do it? Frankly, I don’t know. But we’re going to try.”
2010 budget
According to Fralick, much like 2009, the year 2010 will be the year of the budget. But the situation is not nearly as dire as last year’s $1 million shortfall.
The county began the year with its general fund, also known as Current Expense, behind by nearly $300,000. That fund pays the bulk of daily expenses of nearly two dozen separate county agencies.
Roughly half of the $300,000, according to Henley, is the amount needed to fulfill a County Council-approved policy of ending the year with a minimum of eight percent of the general-fund’s “operating cash” in reserve. Another $122,000 of reserve money, which the council used late last year in order to balance the 2010 general fund, would need to be recouped by the end of the year as well, Henley noted.
In 2010, the county general fund totals just over $13.4 million in revenue and in expenses. That includes a 12-cent property-tax hike that voters approved in November, which is earmarked exclusively for the support of 11 separate jobs or programs over the next six years.
Losses outweighed gains as the ledger closed on the 2009 general fund. About $75,000 was gained by lower health insurance costs and $30,000 more materialized in reserve “cash” than expected at the end of the year. Those gains were erased, however, by losses in unemployment and equipment payments, an employee “classification” study and restoration of an insurance reserve, which together totaled $137,000.
On the revenue side, the biggest blow to the general fund proved to be sales-tax receipts, which, historically, account for one-third of the fund’s revenue. Roughly $400,000 less was collected last year than in 2008.
But the county’s financial picture isn’t entirely without hope. The Community Development and Planning Department exceeded its budgeted revenue mark by 13 percent, generating just over $1 million in fees by year end, thanks to more robust demand than expected for land-use and building permits. Whether permits turn into projects and sales-tax receipts, however, remains to be seen.
Solid waste
Fralick said the solid waste department troubles can be summed up like this: the business model of bringing in revenue from tipping fees (money paid when you drop off garbage) is not consistent with the solid waste policy of “reduce, reuse, recycle.”
“Business as usual just isn’t going to work,” he said.
The Council recently endorsed a series of steps to help remedy the funding woes for solid waste, including an 87-percent increase on the price to dispose of a single can of garbage.
In a 5-1 decision, the council voted to raise the minimum disposal fee from $8 to $15. Two cans of garbage would cost $16. The pending increase must be approved by the council at public hearing before taking effect.
The council is also looking at a property tax and closing down the San Juan and Lopez transfer stations, making Orcas the only facility in the county.
“But nothing has been decided,” Fralick said. “All options are on the table.”
Scott Rasmussen contributed to this story.
