Our next meeting of the San Juan County Democrats is Saturday, November 13 at 10am via Zoom. The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84299470361. Please contact me if you need phone access.

We’ll be talking about local candidates for next year.

From Dave Zeretzke:

Milene Henley is retiring in 2 yrs. Her position as SJC Auditor is a critical one. Time for the local Demos to consider who would be a capable person to run and who can work with folks of all stripes to accurately account for the dollars and to communicate with the public and elected officials.

Historically, the Prosc. Attorney and Auditor are more important by far than any one Council Member. So the same goes for the job Gaylord does. Nick Power will probably run again, but time to identify a capable attorney who can refrain from trying to control political issues regularly – it will always happen but a good PA works will try to let the process work.

So now is the time for capable candidates to know they can have help and support since early campaigning is the most powerful. That to me is the critical thing for a local Demo party to do: find good candidates who can take the heat and still smile and support them. There’s nothing like help to get started meeting people on all the islands and listening to their concerns-that’s what early campaigning is about.

Re Auditor: #1 – CPA preferable and demonstrated skill with public entity accounting. (Private CPA’s usually grossly underestimate the complexity of county bookkeeping, software and reporting requirements. Some have even suggested Quickbooks as the chosen software–impossibly naive and unseasoned by true experience with complex clients who suffer state audits annually, public audits. #2 – Political sensibility and good commo skills re the press, the public and the other elected officials and key appointed officials. Lots of stakeholders. SJC has 11 elected officials, all of whom want influence with the Auditor and control over their own expenses. Then there’s the County Mgr and critical Dept Hds. #3 – Strength of character and integrity. The Auditor has to take the heat for many honest evaluations/opinions/trends/problems. As the overseer of Elections and supervisor or the Elections Clerk, it is critical that role can make sound and legal decisions but still face constant criticism for them, think of Tim White and Tom and think of the many Republican and Demo election folks who did not buckle a bit under the Trump big lie attacks.

We’ll also address our Endorsements process and what might be limited information available on state employment history.

We’re also looking for a new Secretary!

See you Saturday,

David Turnoy
davidgeri@rockisland.com

Our meeting started out with Rep. Debra Lekanoff speaking to us about all the reasons that the maps by the two Democratic members of the Redistricting Commission, Brady Walkinshaw and April Sims, need to be revised so that instead of moving San Juan County into the 10th LD with Island County, we instead should remain in the 40th LD, where we currently are. According to Debra, our testimony at the recent hearing and all the comments being sent in are having an impact. It is important to continue to send in comments. If you haven’t sent one yet, please do so. If you have already sent one, please send another. Debra recommended that we not only use the redistricting website, but also contact legislators Walkinshaw and Sims at their legislative offices. She also recommended that we send comments to state party chair Tina Podlodowski and to the respective heads of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses. I have also been requested to contact the school superintendents in the county. I will provide all the contact information as well as Debra’s talking points at the end of this summary.

Debra also spent time responding to concerns about the ferries. She will actually have a meeting with the governor about this Monday morning, and she has asked that we provide personal stories that she can use in her conversation. If you have a personal story about how poor ferry service or lack of staffing has impacted you in recent times, please send me your story by Sunday night so I can provide it to Debra before her meeting Monday morning. Send to me at davidgeri@rockisland.com.

We have a new secretary. Jane Fuller was in attendance at our meeting today, and she generously volunteered to be our secretary. Thanks so much, Jane!

Stephen Shubert, PCO from San Juan Island and also the head of Mullis Center, told us about an attempt by some very rightwing folks to take over the Mullis Center. This politicization could prove to be very harmful. If you live on San Juan Island and you are at least age 60 or disabled, you will have an opportunity to vote for district committee members. You can vote by downloading a ballot, showing up in person, or mailing a ballot. Voting days are Monday through Thursday, Nov. 11-14. Mail-in ballots must be received by Nov. 14. For further information, go to mulliscenter.org/howtovote. For more information about the conflict and the challenge to current district committee members, go to https://www.mulliscenter.org/faqs.

We had seven members of the Charter Review Commission present at our meeting, and additionally I had received a note from another commissioner asking if we would consider endorsing the amendments proposed by the commission. While these are nonpartisan issues, we felt that providing input on them would be helpful to the public. We chose to go ahead with examining each of the six amendments individually, and on each one we almost unanimously agreed that it would be a positive change for the county. Kevin Ranker has written an article briefly summarizing the six amendments at https://salish-current.org/2021/08/12/community-voices-san-juan-county-to-vote-on-climate-environment-equity-justice-amendments-to-county-charter/. In addition, the commission will be putting out an article shortly that I will send to you.

Of course, you can find the amendments in your Voter’s Guide. Three members of the commission (Jane Fuller, Dick Grout and Kevin Ranker) wrote an article that was in the Journal and the Sounder this past week at https://www.islandssounder.com/opinion/vote-for-climate-action-justice-equity-and-responsive-government-guest-column/ and https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/opinion/vote-for-climate-action-justice-equity-and-responsive-government-guest-column/. Also, here is the link to a Voter Information Session organized by some of the San Juan County Charter Review Commissioners that took place this past Thursday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c_GY608Yww Again, we think each of these is a positive step, and we support all six amendments.

Thank you for reading this far. Here is the redistricting information I promised. I will start with the email addresses of relevant decision-makers: Tina Podlodowski – tina@wa-democrats.org Laurie Jinkins (head of House Democrats) – https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/memberEmail/27/1
(Because we are not in her district, you have to click an instruction that says to send the email anyway.)

Joe Fitzgibbon (head of WA House Democratic Campaign Committee) – https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/memberEmail/34/2 (Click to send anyway.)

April Sims – to be provided.

Brady Walkinshaw – to be provided.

To send comments to the Redistricting Commission website: https://www.redistricting.wa.gov/submit-public-testimony

Points to make:

Make smaller changes; don’t overhaul the 40th.

Leave east Whatcom in the 42nd and keep San Juan County and Anacortes in the 40th. Make changes to the edges as needed to balance the districts.

Don’t put the people of the 40th at a disadvantage with all new legislators in Olympia. That’s unfair to us and to the important issues we value.

Ferries are a critical piece of our transportation system in our state and we need six legislators working for them, not just three. Putting San Juan together with Whidbey puts San Juan County at a disadvantage. Small businesses and the people who live on the San Juan islands need ferries.

Keep our Hispanic communities together – the proposed maps split Hispanic neighborhoods in Mount Vernon in half, splitting some agricultural and residential areas between districts.

The Democratic maps split the Nooksack Tribe, a clear community of interest. It also moves the Tribe to a new district with all new legislators. Please keep Nooksack together and in the 42nd.

The Lake Whatcom watershed is a community of interest; keep them together in the 40th.

My testimony last Tuesday night:

My name is David Turnoy, and I am the chair of the SJC Democrats. I live on Orcas Island in SJC.

The values supposedly guiding the Democrats in the redistricting process are

– To protect fair and effective representation

– To maintain and create communities of interest

– To respect Tribal sovereignty and the government-to-government relationship with Tribal partners

– To center and engage communities that have been historically underrepresented

As I said, I am the chair of the SJC Democrats. My colleagues and I have worked hard to elect strong progressive legislators. The proposed map removing our county from the 40th LD will require all three of those legislators to run against incumbent Democrats. We in the San Juans could end up with three brand new legislators who don’t know us at all. This is gerrymandering against ourselves. It looks bad when the other party does it to us, but this is the state Democrats writing our district out of existence. It also reduces the number of legislators with their eyes on effective ferry service from 6 to 3. This hardly protects fair and effective representation.

Combining our county with Whidbey in the 10th pits those fighting Growler noise in the San Juans against those on Whidbey for whom the Growlers provide their living. This is hardly creating a community of interest.

The proposed map splits the Nooksack tribe. Our tribes on the mainland have fishing, hunting, and gathering rights in the San Juans. How does this respect tribal sovereignty?

The proposed map also splits Hispanic communities. Is this what is meant by centering and engaging underrepresented communities?

We understand that population changes require some movement, but let’s keep it to a minimum of tinkering around the edges of the district, not creating total upheaval.

Thank you

To see Nels Magelssen’s longer and much more eloquent statement, please see my Oct. 5 email that I sent you.

David Turnoy

Chair, San Juan County Democrats

Our next meeting of the San Juan County Democrats is Saturday, October 9 at 10am via Zoom. The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82414629461. Please contact me if you need phone access.

Our Washington state representative Debra Lekanoff will be joining us to discuss redistricting.

We will also discuss upcoming openings in local elected office, including the need to replace the retiring Milene Henley as San Juan County Auditor.

On a related note, we’ll be discussing our endorsement policy and how we can work with the state party to increase voter engagement.

We’re also looking for a new Secretary!

See you Saturday,

David Turnoy
davidgeri@rockisland.com

The Sept. 11 meeting of the county Democrats covered a lot of ground, including four guest speakers.  Here is a summary: 

The first item we had to deal with was an emergency resolution dealing with racial equity.  You might remember that we learned earlier this year that I-200 from 1998 was mistakenly interpreted as ending affirmative action in Washington state.  Both the state supreme court and the state attorney general have recognized that this interpretation was erroneous, and the Washington Equity Now Alliance (WENA) has been trying to remedy this by convincing the governor to sign an executive order overturning the mistaken directive issued 23 years ago.  We had passed such a resolution three months ago in our county group, and WENA thought they had everything in order to have the resolution considered at the state party meeting later this month.  However, due to a logistical oversight by the state party discovered at the last minute, it was necessary for us to re-pass the ordinance to clear the procedural hurdles for the resolution to be considered at the Resolutions Committee meeting that was taking place at the same time as our meeting.  But all went well, we re-passed it unanimously, and it was unanimously passed at the Resolutions meeting, so it goes on to the state party. 

The next meeting of the 40^th LD will be Sunday, Sept. 19, from 2:00 until 5:00.  Some of the candidates on the mainland in the 40^th will be heard from, but more important for us, there is an opening for state committeeman that one of you might want to consider filling.  This official attends the state party meetings.  The current committeeman resigned due to a conflict, so we need someone who is male or non-binary to fill this role.  Our local Democrat Larua Jo Severson is the female committee person, and it would be great to have another islander representing the 40^th.  There is also an opening for a new treasurer; the current treasurer is looking to retire after holding the position for many years.  If you are interested in either of these positions, please contact Geri or me at davidgeri@rockisland.com.  The link for the meeting next Sunday is 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84861585590#success.

Many of you are probably familiar with donating money to Democratic candidates and progressive organizations through ActBlue.  It is now possible to donate to the San Juan County Democrats on ActBlue’s site.  I tried it out, and it is about as simple as it could possibly be.  Part of our funding normally comes from donations from those who attend our meetings in person, but we haven’t had this opportunity for a year and a half.  As we try to build up our coffers for next year’s very important elections, please consider helping us with a donation of any size.  Go to https://secure.actblue.com/donate/sjcountydems?refcode=directory.  If you have donated through ActBlue before, it will take you 30 seconds or less.  Thanks! 

Emily Morrow is the new state party organizer for NW Washington state; her email address is emily@wa-democrats.org.  She appeared at our meeting today to tell us about voter engagement projects.  We are looking for people who are interested in working on one of the following: 

1. Contacting and finding out more about voters for whom we have little data. We need to know more about some of these voters so that we can target them appropriately next year, for persuasion and GOTV. By contacting them and having a conversation, we can begin building a deeper relationship between them and the Democratic party, and find out how best to communicate with them through the rest of the cycle and beyond. 

2. Reaching out to likely Dems who didn’t vote in 2020 and finding out why. Unfortunately, too many likely Democratic voters still aren’t getting their ballots in, and we want to find out why. By building relationships with these voters and listening to their issues and concerns, we can get them ready to vote this year and next! 

3. Re-registering likely Democratic voters who’ve been purged from the voter rolls by the Secretary of State’s office. Thousands of Democratic voters are purged from the voter rolls every year by the Secretary of State’s office, and we know many of them are people who are still alive, still living at the same address, and still should be eligible to vote. We can identify these people, let them know they were purged, and get them re-registered to vote.  

4. Registering non-registered voters. There are still so many likely Democrats who fall through the cracks of our automatic voter registration system – we need the face-to-face touch to reach them and get them registered. 

This may look familiar, as I sent it out a couple months ago.  Unfortunately, I received only one response.  Now that summer is over, I am hoping there may be some more interest.  Please let me know if you would be interested in being involved with one or more of these items. 

County Councilor Cindy Wolf attended our meeting, and I put her on the spot to ask if she had anything she would like to tell us.  She warned us about the sickout being participated in by many ferry workers, that now is probably not a good time to ride the ferry.  She encouraged the wearing of masks to protect against the Delta Variant.  Cindy mentioned that the council is working on caps for vacation rentals, that the Planning Commission meeting this coming Friday would again deal with that.  She said that participating on citizen advisory boards is important, that this council listens closely to them.  She particularly needs two people to fill the openings on the Eastsound Planning Review Commission.  She said that if you care about the environment, this is a good place to have some influence, while another spot to have environmental influence will be the new environmental commission that will include citizen representatives. 

Victoria Compton addressed us today.  You may know her as the head of the Economic Development Commission, but she spoke to us in a new role today—candidate.  Victoria is running for Port Commissioner for Friday Harbor.  She brings lots of fresh ideas, including using the Port Commission as a way to foster more affordable housing as well as environmental sustainability.  We think Victoria would be an excellent Port Commissioner, and we voted unanimously to offer her our endorsement.  You can find out more at comptonforport.com.   

Amy Vira and David Dehlendorf have been working on improving our Facebook page.  It will be kept much more up to date and will have more content.  You can find it at https://www.facebook.com/San-Juan-County-WA-Democrats-710973952268643/. 

If you have content you would like to have put on the page, please send it to me.  Thanks to Amy and David D for bringing us into the 21^st century. 

Bob O’Connell gave us an update on the work of the Charter Review Commission.  There will be six proposals put forward by the commission for voters to consider this fall, so be sure to look for those when you receive your ballot next month.  Also, the fact that the commission was looking to establish a new position for a person to deal with climate has led the County Council to create such a position.  Stay tuned for further developments. 

Another of our guests was Joseph Bogaard, Executive Director of Save Our Wild Salmon.  There is an effort to breach the four lower Snake River dams to help save our salmon and our orcas.  A resolution has been passed by all the northwest tribes and is being considered by Democratic locals across the state in order to influence the political powers in the northwest.  The resolution thanks Congressman Simpson of Idaho who got this conversation going, it calls for breaching the dams along with investments to take care of stakeholders and communities affected by this, and it calls on the Biden Administration to drop the Trump salmon plan and instead work with the tribes, states, stakeholders and elected officials to meet the U.S. Government’s legal and treaty obligations.  We have a little language that we want to add to the resolution, and once that is complete, we will vote on the resolution, which I would imagine will pass unanimously. 

Our final guest was Dwight Colley, candidate for Fire Commissioner in Friday Harbor.  Dwight has a long history in public service, both in his career and in volunteer capacities, especially in managing nonprofits.  He also has personal experience in EMS, which gives him a perspective on the job not shared by his opponent.  He wants to make sure EMS is represented if EMS and the Fire Department merge.  Dwight would also like to see more transparency and accountability from the department.  As to dealing with fire, he has some excellent suggestions related to having smaller fire trucks that can be used to fight brush fires a lot better than the large engines.  Dwight is an excellent candidate who has asked for our endorsement, and once we vet him, we look forward to voting on his endorsement. 

We had on our agenda another major topic—looking at local elections for next year.  However, we decided that after our well spent two and a quarter hours at this meeting, we can safely postpone that topic until next month.  Our next meeting will be at 10:00 AM on Saturday, Oct. 9. 

Wrapping up, let me just remind you of items to keep in mind: 

If interested in running for state committeeman or treasurer of the 40^th, please contact Geri or myself. 

Remember the meeting of the 40^th next Sunday afternoon. 

Please let me know if you would like to participate in one of the four areas of the voter engagement plan. 

If you can, we would really appreciate a donation to help get our organization ready for ncxt year’s elections.  Go to https://secure.actblue.com/donate/sjcountydems?refcode=directory. 

Thanks for reading, 
David Turnoy 
Chair, San Juan County Democrats 
davidgeri@rockisland.com 
360-376-4165 

Our July meeting is Saturday, July 10 at 10am. Here is the Zoom info:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81336823696 Meeting ID 813 3682 3696

The agenda includes talking about Facebook page, the status of fact sheets by the Charter Review Commission, participation in the San Juan County Fair, engaging with the state party’s outreach, re-registering Democrat voters who have been purged by the Secretary of State, and Registering new voters.

An information session for local party leaders will be held on Friday, July 16 at 6 pm over Zoom. Register now to join us Friday evening for an overview of the projects, how to plug your local party into them, and an opportunity to ask questions! Here is the link – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpfu-qrDIjH93garkMXmcz3bcQo4VLCe7i

We had the presence of Senator Liz Lovelett and Representative Alex Ramel at our county Democrats meeting this past Saturday.  We heard their perspectives on quite a number of topics, and lots of our questions were answered.  Here are a few of the highlights: 

• Congressman Ramel spoke about going into the session with 4 big priorities: COVID recovery, economic recovery, responding to the historic civil rights movement, confronting the climate crisis. He believes they have responded to those priorities in a big way. Not as many bills died this year. The large shift in politics is believed to be from all the grass roots level activism provided by folks like us. 

• While the final climate bill was not all we wanted, it is still a historic achievement, and it incorporated many of the good provisions from the WA Strong Act. 

• Sen. Lovelett secured for us the state funding to conduct a water capacity analysis in San Juan County.  Combined with some funding from the USGS and implementation by USGS, we will be able to finally know what the real population capacity is for our county based on available water.  This is a hugely important tool to help the county plan for the future. 

• Arrests for drug use will no longer be a felony; instead, they will become a misdemeanor and eventually an infraction.  The Legislature knows that 81-95% of drug users want help, yet only 11% get help, so almost half a billion dollars is being invested in this effort. 

• The formerly incarcerated are having their voting rights restored upon having served their time.  This has been shown to reduce the rate of recidivism. 

• Most of the criminal justice proposals related to police were adopted.  The chokehold and no-knock warrants are banned, militarized police equipment is banned, and a use of force standard that prioritizes de-escalation was adopted.  A few other bills were passed in this area, but it is recognized that there is more to be done. 

Our local party has not done any kind of a fundraiser in several years.  We spent most of our treasury on the November elections, and while the results were very good, our treasury has been mostly depleted.  In normal times we meet in person and pass the hat at meetings, usually collecting $100-$200 per meeting.  Due to meeting virtually, we haven’t had that opportunity.  Therefore, I am going to make a pitch for you to make a donation to the San Juan County Democrats.  If you value receiving the election postcard we send you at election time to help you with your voting decisions, if you value the information I provide in my frequent emails to you, if you value having an active local Democratic Party that is very progressive, I would ask you to make a contribution.  It would be terrific if you could mail a check to the San Juan County Democrats c/o PO Box 1007 in Friday Harbor, 98250.  While this year is fairly light with big ticket elections, there are local elections for many positions this year, and next year will be an extremely important election year both here in the county and nationally.  Starting to build up our treasury now for these elections will be most prudent. 

One of the somewhat controversial issues we deal with is whether to endorse in nonpartisan races.  We know that some people are not happy about political parties getting involved in nonpartisan races, so it has not been our policy to engage in all of these.  However, there are people who appreciate and rely on our endorsements when voting, which is why we put out a voter postcard in presidential election years.  In addition, while some positions may be technically nonpartisan, a ploy sometimes used by minority parties is to make positions nonpartisan in order to hang onto power.  For instance, as our state becomes more heavily Democratic, it is rumored that our only statewide elected Republican, Secretary of State Kim Wyman, wants to make her position nonpartisan.  Another factor to consider in whether to endorse is the need to build the bench of candidates who will in the future run for higher positions; they have to start somewhere, and Port or School Board or Fire Commissioner are good places to start.  The 40^th LD would like to endorse this year in county council, city council and port commissioner races.  We discussed how far we want our county party to go in this endeavor, and it was the consensus that we should send an email to all who file, giving them the chance to seek our endorsement.  We would not endorse anyone who does not want our endorsement, and we would certainly vet anyone who applies to us for an endorsement.  Positions included will be FH city council, port commissioner, school board, parks and recreation commissioners, fire commissioners, water commissioners, hospital commissioners, and cemetery commissioners.  Four of us volunteered to be part of an endorsements committee. 

If there is anyone reading this note who was not at the meeting and would like to help with endorsements, please let me know. 

I have a very exciting event to tell you about.  The Lummi woodcarvers have created a huge totem pole that they will be driving across the country, stopping at sacred sites along the way, then delivering it to President Biden.  Eventually it will go to the Smithsonian.  But before they start the journey, they are coming to visit their traditional home here in the San Juans, and there will be events on the three largest islands: 

RED ROAD TO DC 2021 Totem Pole Journey to Protect Sacred Sites 

A totem pole carved at the Lummi Nation from a 400-year-old red cedar will begin a cross-country journey next month, evoking an urgent call to protect sacred lands and waters of Indigenous people.  The journey called the Red Road to DC, will culminate in early June in Washington, D.C. 

Lummi tribal member Jewell Praying Wolf James with The House of Tears Carvers will kick-off the Red Road to DC Totem Pole Journey to Protect Sacred Sites with three stop-overs in their traditional territory of the San Juan Islands: 

San Juan Island – Monday, May 10, 2:30-4:30 pm, Pe’pi’ow’elh, Mitchell Bay Lhaq’temish Village (English Camp, San Juan Island National Historical Park) 

Orcas Island – Tuesday, May 11, 12:30-2 pm Orcas Island, Madrona Point Lhaq’temish Village 

Lopez Island – Tuesday, May 11, 4-5 pm Sxw’alech (Odlin County Park) 

After traveling across traditional lands and throughout the US, the totem pole will be gifted to the Biden administration in June and displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.    

All gatherings will abide by covid-19 safety measures of mask-wearing, socially distancing, and hand sanitizing. Events will also appear on Facebook Live. 

Donations can be made at the event or to the: 

Lhaq’temish Foundation c/o House of Tears Carvers 
2665 Kwina Road, Bellingham WA 98226 (360) 312-2114 

For more information, please contact: 

NW Road Manager, Sul ka dub Freddie Lane (360) 391-7560 
National Director, Dr. Kurt Russo (360) 961-4554 
San Juan Islands Stopover Coordinator, Stephanie Buffum (360) 472-0404 

The Charter Review Commission is continuing to meet, and several of our leading local Democratic Party participants are members of the CRC.  There are several meetings coming up that you should know about.   

• This Tuesday from 10:30-12:00 the process committee will be discussing the rights of nature.  Go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84297134309#success, or go to  https://www.sanjuanco.com/1764/Charter-Review-Commission and click on “join the zoom meeting” next to Charter Review Process under Charter Review Committees.   

• If you can tune in to the CRC meeting next Wednesday, May 12, you’ll get to hear the Climate & Environment Committee’s meeting about the creation of a new Climate & Environment Department headed by a Climate & Environment Commissioner for SJC that will have the authority and the time to deal with climate and environmental issues in the county that those currently tasked with that responsibility don’t have the time for.  The meeting is 10am-12pm on May 12. You can join that Zoom meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85271643269 or dial +1 253 215 8782, meeting ID: 852 7164 3269.   

• Later that day from 4:00-6:00 that committee will present to the full CRC.  You can attend that one at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85271643269.   

• Finally, there will be two final Town Halls – June 1 & June 2, from 4-6 pm.  I hope you can attend at least one of them. This will be the final opportunity for community members to chime in on the CRC’s work over the last several months, our recommendations, and to voice your priorities again, or perhaps for the first time.  Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81389616014 ; Meeting ID: 813 8961 6014  Dial by your location: +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma); Meeting ID: 813 8961 6014  Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc3jo8TjR  For more information, please contact Olivia Roseberry, Vice Chair at oliviar@sanjuanco.com. 

Our next meeting is this Saturday, May 8, at 10:00. Here is the Zoom info:                               https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86532124135

Meeting ID 865 3212 4135       

The highlight of our meeting will be appearances by our state legislators.  We will have Sen. Lovelett for the first half hour and Rep. Ramel for the first full hour; Rep. Lekanoff has a prior engagement, so she cannot attend. They will be there right at 10am, so please come on time. They will present an end-of-session wrap-up for what turned out to be a very consequential legislative session, and we have them all to ourselves.

There will also be a wrap-up presented by the three of them a couple days before to the whole 40th LD on Thursday in the late afternoon. You can find information about that in my email.

Hope to see you Saturday.  It would be nice to have an especially good crowd to show our appreciation to our hardworking legislators.

Thanks,

David T

I. Call to order / Quorum – 6 PCOs in attendance, quorum achieved for confirming new PCOs, meeting called to order at 10:07am

II. Approval of minutes of March 13 – Motion to approve minutes by Susan, 2nd by Geri. All voted in favor. Minutes approved.

III. Treasurer’s report – no report given as David D will not be in attendance.

IV. 40th LD report – Geri – Bylaws 4/18 2-5; Endorsements 4/29 5-7 Geri gave report from 40th LD, Geri has been going to Executive board meetings monthly as well as the elections committee. Geri has been reporting to 40th LD on Vacation Rentals. Skagit working on getting bi-lingual materials and ballots. Whatcom has eliminated the executive committee as they already have an executive board. Working on a ballot to demilitarize the police. Washington Dems working on Gender Parity issues. Spencer Lively questioned why so much time is being spent on this issue. Given that we have an active chair, (Lively) is proactive in getting more membership from the 40th LD and increasing phone banking opportunities. Let Geri know if interested in volunteering with reengagement phone banking for the 40th LD. April 18th, 2-5 bylaws committee for 40th will be presenting the bylaws revisions, located on the 40th LD website calendar. April 27, 40th LD presenting an event called “how to run for office” speakers and a panel of folks who have run for office. It’s a facebook event and Spencer Lively is working to get it on the website. April 29th, endorsement committee will be meeting to go over the endorsement process. (link coming)

V. State committee reports – Sharon, Bob. Bob reported that a call went out for the next meeting for the State committee will be May 1st 9am-2pm on Zoom. April 17th will be the next meeting of the resolution committee. Bob was appointed to the advocacy committee (which reminds State Party of Party Platform). And Sharon was re-appointed to the resolution committee.

VI. Charter Review Update? Charter commission has yet to make any recommendations for change officially yet, however there are discussions in the pike ongoing. Ranked Choice voting is likely to find its way into the CRC. There is a public comment period at the end of each of the CRC meetings.

Bob is in charge of coming up with a new preamble to Charter. Lots of people are interested in having a “rights of nature” section added to the Charter. and potentially a commissioner of climate and environment. Bob states that it’s a terrific experience to be a part of the CRC.

To add public comment and see all information, notes and members for the Charter Review Commission, visit the county website. https://www.sanjuanco.com/1764/Charter-Review-Commission and click on calendars for Charter Review commission.

Membership discussed the CRC meetings, website difficulty and conflicting information.

VII. Chair’s report – David T – Contest Every Race (CER)

David Presented on Contest Every Race. The State Party hired a private firm in recruiting potential candidates for various offices. They have requested from county chairs a report on positions, incumbents, and offices that could be contested by a more democrat-leaning candidate. Group then discussed.

VIII. Old Business

A. Vacation Rental Moratorium – Keara – led off and set parameters – Can we discuss the vacation rental moratorium/permitting issue some more at the next meeting? Specifically trying to organize a showing of San Juan Island residents who are in favor of reasonable restrictions on vacation rental permits… apparently there is an impression that most of San Juan Island wants unfettered tourism (despite the restriction on vacation rentals in Friday Harbor). Spending of lodging tax dollars is also an issue. Group then discussed organizing residents on San Juan Island is needed to present to the county council in favor of moratorium. Ryan mentioned that the need for decoupling VR permit from Home Title would radically reduce vacation rental Recidivism. Alexandra mentioned the worry from lack of concern for businesses working in residential zoned area. Bill mentioned that the largest amount of covid cases brought to the islands are from people who live here, making trips to mainland and less from tourism. Much discussion about the pros and cons of vacation rentals, tourism, local economics.

B. Election – Fire and Hospital – Dick Grout presented about the special election with background information on the various ballot measures listed below. The group then discussed the measures. Dick was requested by Chair for a paragraph on the issues with his view, to send out to the party at large.

1. Orcas Island School District No. 137 – Resolution No. 2021-01 Technology Capital Projects Levy

2. Town of Friday Harbor – Ordinance No. 1710 – Intent to Annex the Town into SJC Fire Dist #3

3. San Juan Island Park & Rec District – Resolution No. 21-01 – Property Tax Levy

4. SJC Fire Protection District No. 3 – Resolution No. 2021-01 – Supporting annexation of the Town of Friday Harbor

IX. New business

A. New PCOs – Nathan Ross for SJ SW #12, Siri Thorson for Waldron Island – Motion to confirm Siri Thornson and Nathan Ross as PCO’s for San Juan and Waldron. Voted all in favor.

X. Good of the Order – Sharon Abreu – Charter Review Commission this Wednesday, April 14, from 4pm-6pm on zoom. Presentation from Fairvote Washington on ranked choice voting. Please attend if you can.

CRC meeting Wednesday April 14th 4-6 pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85271643269

Meeting ID: 852 7164 3269

Or call in by phone: +1 253 215 8782

CRC proposed Climate Council position. Elected? Appointed? What is best? Group discussed.

XI. Next Meeting – May 8

XII. Meeting adjourned at 12:40

Hi Everyone,

Our April meeting of the county Democrats will be this Saturday at 10:00 AM on Zoom. 

I am very excited to announce that we will be voting to approve two new PCOs: Siri Thorson from Waldron Island and Nate Ross from San Juan SW.  You may remember Nate from several years ago, so we are happy to welcome him back.  And we want to extend a very warm welcome to Siri, who will be joining us for the first time and giving Waldron some representation.
If you wish to attend and haven’t received the Zoom information via email, contact me for information.

Hope to see you on Saturday,

David T

davidgeri@rockisland.com