Nerditorial: I Am Applying to Serve on the County Planning Commission

The County Planning Commission has three seats up for grabs. Those seats are to be filled at the January 15th County Council meeting.

I am going to try and get appointed to one of those seats. But I am going to need help.

My main reason for wanting to serve on the County Planning Commission is to advocate for the protection of Lake Whatcom.


If you live in Bellingham, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Lake can be adequately protected by the Bellingham City Planning Commission. As understandable as this impression seems to be... the problem is that Lake Whatcom, and its watershed, is almost entirely outside of the Bellingham city limits. And, by that virtue, largely outside of Bellingham's jurisdiction.

This is about the COUNTY Planning Commission, because that is where most of Lake Whatcom is... in the county.

Bellingham needs advocates for protecting Lake Whatcom on the COUNTY Planning Commission, folks.


COUNTY...

...[cough] county [cough]...



There aren't that many members of the County Planning Commission right now who seem to be interested in protecting Lake Whatcom.

This is not to say that the Planning Commission hates the lake, or doesn't care at all about Lake Whatcom.

But... as I see it, the majority of the County Planning Commission are just not that into Lake Whatcom. They just have a different set of land use priorities. Lake Whatcom is just not on their radar.

Most of the members of the County Planning Commission don't rely on Lake Whatcom for their drinking water. And their actions as a Planning Commission are informed by that fact.

In 2013, there is a very real possibility that there will be only one ostensibly pro-Lake-Whatcom voice on the Commission. Ken Bell is a Silver Beach resident and he is painfully aware of the state of the Lake. That's one member. One Lake Whatcom advocate out of nine commissioners.

Then there is the matter of established custom.

You see, the custom is that the County Council allows citizens who are willing to serve on the Commission to serve two terms. (Commissioners are limited to two terms under the Whatcom County Code.)

Normally, this is a good custom that encourages public service. But that custom was not intended to keep people interested in protecting Lake Whatcom out of the Commission. This is the effect that the custom is having now, as an unintended consequence.

I live in the Second District of the County. There are two seats to be filled from that district. The citizens serving in those seats on the Planning Commission now are both eligible for another term. If left to its own devices, the County Council is more likely than not to adhere to estabished custom and re-appoint these two not-that-into-Lake-Whatcom Planning Commissioners.

I am likely to be the only person who identifies as a Lake Whatcom advocate to apply to this Commission in 2013. In addition to being a tough commission to serve on as a Lake Whatcom advocate... there appears to be profound pessimism among other Lake Whatcom stewards about the possibility of getting appointed to the Commission at all.

Case in point: Jean Melious.

Ms. Melious was serving on the County Planning Commission until 2011. And she served as a strong defender of the Lake when she was a Planning Commissioner. She ran for the County Council in 2010 and was defeated by Tony Larsen. 

In January 2011, she was up for a second term on the Planning Commission, and she was not reappointed. The Council, at the time, decided that established custom did not apply to citizens whose last name ended in... "elious"... and removed Ms Melious from the Commission. In her place, the Council appointed local conservative gadfly David Onkels to the Commission. 

You may remember Mr Onkels better by his online screen name at the Herald Politics blog... davesix...

The inability of a Lake Whatcom advocate to be reappointed to the Planning Commission is a hint that there is not much point in such advocates applying for an initial appointment either.

Well, no one ever accused me of taking hints. So I'm applying.

Citizens who have been interested in protecting Lake Whatcom have been replaced by citizens who are more keenly interested in other land use issues.

I am concerned about the direction in which the County Planning Commission is taking this County, and I am prepared to do something about it.

So, dear reader, if you are inclined to do so, I am appealing to you to apply pressure on the Whatcom County Council to buck established custom and appoint me to one of those seats.

Otherwise, it is likely to be more of the same on the Planning Commission. Possibly for four more years.

The next time that someone is actually term limited out of the Planning Commission will be in 2017. So it will be four years before the Council can stay in its comfort zone of established custom and appoint a pro-Lake-Whatcom citizen to the County Planning Commission. That is a long time.

The only way I see a majority of the Council making an exception to its own custom is if the Council is subjected to significant pressure from the public to do so. If a lot of citizens petition the County Council for a change on the Planning Commission, they might chose to make a change. Otherwise, political inertia is likely to prevail and it will be a Lake- Whatcom-Complacent Planning Commission until after the next Presidential election.

When I say pressure, I'm talking about contacting the County Council members by phone and email, and petitioning them in Open Session at the January 15th meeting at the Whatcom County Courthouse. The idea is to place the Council in a position to justify why they are unwilling to place a defender of Lake Whatcom on their Planning Commission... and by their Planning Commission... I mean your Planning Commission.

I don't think that a majority of the members of the current County Council are opposed to increasing the number of Lake friendly voices on the Commission. They are, however, reluctant to buck their own tradition.

You, the electorate, must give them permission to set the custom aside. By vigorously encouraging them to do so.

Hey... look.... a LINK to some contact information... how did that get there?

Remember, my real name is Shane Roth. Not Apexnerd. ;)