At last week’s County Council meeting, several county employees told us how they were wooed by the county to come here for work. Some of them have been here only nine months. And now they are laid off, close to homeless.

Many of these people work in jobs that help the county grow and conduct its business responsibly and efficiently. For example, permit review, planners, public health. How can we violate the contracts (real or implied) of these good people?

At that same County Council session, a much-needed update to the noxious weed control program (about $5/per property owner!) was turned down.

We, as a community, are responsible for all this. If we have spent unwisely, our new employees should not have to pay the price in job loss. It should not result in programs of environmental safeguard going backwards.

Most importantly, this is not a trade-off. One of the council members made a remark that I find offensive. I can’t quote it, but it ran something like, “If we have to choose between weeds and people, I’ll take people.” We should work responsibly: caring for people, as well as taking care of environmental obligations.

(I invite you to learn about noxious weeds. There is more at stake than weeds in the garden. One of our “weeds” is Hemlock. Yes, the one that killed Socrates. Another common one is Tansy Ragwort, a poison, eaten by livestock.)

You who agree with me, let’s make some noise. I am ashamed of what our community is doing to people who came here in good faith. I am ashamed of a community that has stalled on meeting some of our basic environmental requirements of the Growth Management Act (that’s cost us a lot of grant funds).

Let’s do two things. Let’s make sure that our local government is efficiently using its resources. The council is going to look into how Public Works administrates the noxious weed program. I think they will find lots of room for improvement. And – brace yourself – maybe we should pay a little more in property taxes. I am living on a skimpy retirement income, but I would give up a few things to know that I am not hurting other people in our community or the natural system that our community sits on.

Mike Kaill
Friday Harbor