If you attended the County Council meeting May 18, as I did, you heard Council Chairman Richard Fralick give a report from the Budget Subcommittee to the other council members that even when the economy turns around there is no way that the county can sustain the course they are on.

When asked if this also applied to the Capital Fund, he hesitantly shook his head “yes,” and went on to say that even maintenance of the infrastructure is being foregone. We also know that the county has borrowed from the Road Fund to pay their bills.

At the same meeting, we also heard the council decide that they could not find $2,700 to match the Town of Friday Harbor and state money that would be “found” by Sen. Ranker, so that a person could be hired to manage the summer ferry traffic through town. Now, we learn that the sheriff’s salary has been reduced by $10,000.

We also hear now that Public Works has recently hired yet another engineer. Where does it end? Perhaps you’ve seen lots of fancy yellow county dump trucks running through town unloading gravel from the barge at Jackson Beach. And, have you ever taken notice of how many county employees drive new cars? Do they use them for personal use too?

And what about the dump? I sat through two years of Solid Waste Advisory meetings and can confirm what Mike Macdonald said in his recent letter of resignation from the SWAC is correct: The past 10 years of solid waste management have been an exercise in futility where “serious errors in judgment” have been committed leading to an incredible waste of public funds.

Why do we need a Public Works Department in the first place? A majority of the services Public Works performs could be provided by local private contractors and by competitive bid. Why do we need to pay the entire Public Works overhead, that mostly attends redundant and ridiculous meetings with no results?

On May 25, the council decided to accept the Puget Sound Partnership’s Local Implementing Organization — even though doing so may usurp their local planning power under the home rule charter — because (guess why?) they need the money. That’s how the previous county commissioners apparently got us into this mess in the first place. They accepted money with strings attached to the GMA. Now, we stand the risk for a great loss to our community and property through the imposition of onerous regulations under the veil of cleaning up Puget Sound, even though the state Health Department’s 2010 list of “Threatened Shellfish Growing Areas” does not include San Juan County.

When you or your neighbor’s property is reassessed downward because of regulations, your and their taxes will go down, but others will increase to compensate for the loss in revenue.

You should be troubled about the financial state of our county and what is and is not being done about it.

Jane Cable
San Juan Island