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

This past Saturday was the most recent meeting of your county Democrats. Our vice chair Geri reported on doings at the 40th Legislative District. The new chair, Spencer Lively, has been a bundle of energy, launching a number of new committees to foster more activism. There is a membership/recruitment committee, a political action/campaign committee, and a fundraising/finance committee. A few of us from our county have been participating in the political action/campaign committee. If you have an interest in participating in any of these committees, please let me know so I can put you in touch. And if you would like to check out the amazing website of the 40th LD, you can find it at 40thdems.org.

We have been holding our meetings by Zoom for the last year. This has been much more convenient for those of us who used to have to take the ferry over to Friday Harbor. Sometime in the future we will have the opportunity to again meet in person, should we want to do that. On the one hand, the Zoom meetings are more convenient and no impact on the environment, but on the other hand, we often have greater attendance at meetings in person. Several suggestions were made, and we may end up continuing with Zoom for the bulk of our meetings but hold a few meetings in person, perhaps one per year on each of the three major islands. If you have any suggestions about this, especially if it would motivate you to attend a meeting, please send them my way. And fyi, starting next month, we will hold our meetings at 10:00 instead of 11:30, giving those who attend more of their Saturday back.

After Joe Symons’ presentation in January about the need to be more aware of the carrying capacity of our county and its resources, a few of us have followed up on this. Alexandra has done an incredible amount of reading and research and reaching out to various officials. Her emphasis right now is on our stormwater systems, that we need more of the rain to end up down in our aquifers as opposed to draining down to the sound. She has submitted a docket request to the county on this, and she will be sharing more about this soon. Alexandra also suggested a number of resources to check out, especially Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy, which is available at our local libraries. You can also read her letter that appeared in the Orcasonian at https://theorcasonian.com/guest-opinion-we-have-good-cause-to-extend-vacation-rental-moratorium/

Joe has also filed a docket request with the county, asking them to do a study of what our county would look like at “full” buildout. At what point will the number of people outweigh the ability of nature to regenerate its various natural systems? What is the true carrying capacity of our islands? I will be sending a letter to you shortly explaining more about this and how you can support Joe’s effort.

My own contribution to this effort was to talk to a member of the Planning Commission, a staff member at County Environmental Health, and state Senator Liz Lovelett’s office. Apparently two years ago two of our locals and a man from Guemes Island had reached out separately to Sen. Lovelett about a water carrying capacity study, i.e., how many people can our water support without hauling in water or using desalination? This seems like an important bit of information to know when intelligently planning for the future. The study had been approved, but when Covid hit, the state budget had to be pared back, and this project fell victim. I was able to get the process going again, with the various parties resuming contact with each other, and we

are hopeful that the Legislature will approve this project. About 2/3 would be paid for by the state, the remaining amount by USGS, who would also be the ones to do the survey.

There will be an election of local candidates and issues on April 27. Right now, I am aware of several issues: a new tech levy for Orcas Island School District, a renewal of San Juan Island’s Parks and Rec levy, and an effort to bring the town of Friday Harbor into the fire district for San Juan Island. More information should be coming soon.

We discussed the recent decision of the County Council to alter the vacation rental moratorium. The moratorium will continue in place for six months in the villages, hamlets, and activity centers, but otherwise it is lifted.

Thanks for reading this summary, and you are always welcome at any of our meetings. There are always interesting issues discussed and important decisions to be made, and your participation with us gives you a voice in what we do.

We will be having our March meeting of the county Democrats this Saturday at 11:30.
The link for our meeting is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84365604010 with this additional info:  Meeting ID  843 6560 4010. Contact our chair David Turnoy for password information if you need it at davidgeri@rockisland.com.

We will talk about the upcoming election on April 27, subcommittees, and a resolution regarding prosecution of the former president.

We will also be discussing the utility of a buildout analysis in updating the San Juan County Comprehensive Plan. Check your email for details, and/or read Joe Symons’ analysis at http://www.doebay.net/appeal.html.

The first monthly meeting of the San Juan County Democrats took place this past Saturday. We elected officers for the coming two years. Here is the list.

Chair – David Turnoy

Vice Chair – Geri Turnoy

Deputy Vice Chair – San Juan – Ryan Palmateer

Deputy Vice Chair – Orcas – Keara Axelrod

Deputy Vice Chair – Lopez – Jeffrey Hanks

Secretary – Ryan Palmateer

Treasurer – David Dehlendorf

State Committee Woman – Sharon Abreu

State Committee Man – Bob O’Connell

40th Legislative District – Bill Severson

The main event for our meeting was a presentation by longtime islander Joe Symons. Joe has been trying for almost 30 years to get the county to study the carrying capacity of the county in terms of how many people can realistically live here without changing the quality of life. He also wants the county to make our wonderful Vision Statement an operational plan, breaking it down into actionable items. If we do nothing, it will cost all of us more, because growth doesn’t pay for itself; either we all have to pay more in taxes, or services are reduced. It will cost us money to do something about the problem, but better to spend the money and get some positive results than spend more money and continue to see livability degraded. Joe would like to see a branding of San Juan County so that everyone who lives here and everyone who visits here becomes a steward of our environment, as if we were stewards of a park. Currently there are no restrictions on vacation rentals or building permits, so growth is only limited by what the market will bear, not by a plan to preserve our quality of life.

New county councilors Cindy Wolf and Christine Minney were both in attendance. Cindy was able to ask Joe a number of questions, and Cindy made it clear that she welcomes working with members of the public. Joe mentioned that the council’s format for public comments has been really limiting over the years, providing three minutes per person and no opportunity for dialog back and forth between the speaker and the councilors. Cindy is interested in looking at changing that so there is more interaction with the public. Cindy also mentioned that the council will be dealing with the vacation rental issue this Monday and Tuesday at 9:00 each morning, and you are welcome to tune in.

We have formed a small committee to work on getting this issue before the council and keeping it there. If you have an interest in joining us in this effort, please contact me. It’s your county and your quality of life.

Important websites for information from Joe’s years of work on this issue can be found at http://doebay.net/bigpicture.pdf and https://www.keepsanjuanswild.org/.

There were a number of important items written into the chat during our meeting, and many in attendance were interested in those. Therefore, I am listing them below:

The Peacekeeping bill was introduced in the last Congress by Barbara Lee https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1111

A wonderful piece of writing by our own Susan Grout links domestic violence to some of the violence we saw last Wednesday at the Capitol – https://susansmagicfeather.blogspot.com/2021/01/do-domestic-terrorism-and-domestic.html Song about a Department of Peace by Sharon Abreu – https://sharmuse.com/DOP.html

History of efforts to start a U.S. Dept. of Peace (Peacebuilding) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Peace

Here is the staff Memo and Draft Land Use and Rural Element, being discussed by Planning Commission this week 1/15 – https://www.sanjuanco.com/DocumentCenter/View/21615/December-29-2020-Staff-Memo-Natural-Resource-Land-Policies-Discussion-on-January-15-2021

We had a great comment from Learner about the buildout issue: Other pathways for reducing the max-buildout potential include community non-profit or cooperative ownership. Profit driven development is the problem because developers only concerned with their bottom line tend to externalize the true costs to the community and the natural resources. Community ownership tends to result in better stewardship decisions because triple bottom line cost accounting is in the DNA of community-owned institutions.

If people have ideas about public/council interaction, contact the Charter Review Commission.

Happy New Year to all you SJC Democrats!

Our first meeting of 2021 will be this Saturday, Jan. 9, at 11:30.  While I hope all of you attend, it is especially crucial that if you are one our PCOs, your attendance is needed for a quorum to elect our new officers, and you are the only ones who can vote for these positions. There is still time for others to enter the race for any position, so let me know if you are interested.  I hope you will also look at doebay.net/bigpicture.pdf  to gain a little background information on the topic of our future livability in the county and the failure of county government to study our carrying capacity, the subject which our featured speaker Joe Symons will present to us. The Zoom link is:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82717169584

I have given Joe an hour for his presentation and Q & A, so we don’t want to add too much to our agenda, but if there is something of timely importance, please let me know.

Hope to see you Saturday,
David

For more information or questions, including the password for the meeting, please contact me at davidgeri@rockisland.com