Obama supporters

stacked the deck

To the editor:

I was present as a precinct delegate for Sen. Clinton at the recent Island County Legislative Caucus held at the Langley Middle School because I believe that this is the most critical presidential campaign in my lifetime.

The Bush-Cheney administration and the insidious machine that supports it must be ousted, for the sake of our children and future generations.

I experienced the caucus system as terribly flawed and think that it should be terminated. Being a researcher by profession, I did my research regarding our nominees. I was at the time quite willing to support whichever Democratic nominee won in order to win against the Republican nominee.

Which candidate is the people’s choice given that the caucus system is unsound? Working people, the elderly, disabled individuals and many others could not attend their caucus.

Many people here in the state of Washington were unaware that their primary absentee or mail-in ballot would not count.

I understand only 10 percent of the population voted in the caucus whereas 41 percent of our state’s population voted in the primaries. When the votes were evaluated, it appears that Sen. Clinton won. However, we will never know for certain.

The Obama Campaign is very well organized and enthusiastic. Sen. Obama is a charismatic, eloquent speaker. The Wall Street Journal article on Monday, April 24 summarized Obama’s political history. We discover that he is the consummate politician and that as soon as he won the U.S. Senate seat, the machine behind him sent representatives to all precincts in the United States to prepare for the caucuses. The upshot of this is as follows.

The Obama campaign sends bus loads of students from state to state for each caucus, causing confusion and disruption – although it is not illegal. At our Democratic Island County Caucus, no one could tell us where our precinct was located nor checked our ID’s. As a regular bus commuter from Seattle to Whidbey, I saw a few folks whom I did not recognize. They carried Obama signs and were met by people on the island side. Attendees who rode at other commuter times noted the same thing the day before our caucus.

The Credential Committee is a critical aspect of our caucus process which has been an issue of contention in several Washington state counties. I learned that in King County there were a significant number of Obama delegates who were disqualified because they were also delegates (not just registered) in other counties. Yakima and Skagit counties also reported many discrepancies in the qualification process, and we discovered several unusual aspects regarding disqualification of Clinton delegates here in Island County.

Given these concerns, do I believe that the caucus process truly represents the voice of the people and that super delegates should cast their vote accordingly? Absolutely, not!

Aurora Sosa

Clinton

Here is some free advice for the residents of Clinton, Bayview and even Greenbank: Never, never, consider changing from a Rural Area of Intense Development (RAID) to a non-municipal urban growth area (NMUGA).

If you are approached by your commissioner to form a committee to study the possibility, and if you are told you are being directed to do so because of the Growth Management Act, run away as fast as you can. You have no clue what you are getting into and will have no clue as to what happened after you get out.

After years of delay, Freeland is now an NMUGA.

I participated in the process and am now clueless as to what was accomplished. The first development proposal, or at least the first large one, in the new NMUGA is for a 24,000-square-foot warehouse next to the Freeland Library. Despite the fact that warehouses are expressly prohibited in the Freeland Sub Area Plan – the citizen-committee generated document that contains the goals and policies the people of Freeland would like to see accomplished – the county gets to ignore the goals and policies during this “interim phase.”

The plan is an element of the Island County Comprehensive Plan, but the commissioners, in adopting the resolution making Freeland an NMUGA, also adopted a “finding” that in its own convoluted way says that the county planning and development department is exempt from having to use the plan.

Oh, the finding says that the planners should work to find common solutions between the existing comprehensive plan and the Freeland Plan, but if there are inconsistencies the existing comprehensive plan will be used.

This is despite an ordinance that says if there are conflicts between existing county code and the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan of which the Freeland plan is part, the comprehensive plan will control.

Are you as clueless now as I am?

Is this any way to properly govern Freeland?

In effect, Freeland is now a city. Commissioner Phil Bakke is our Mayor and Commissioners Mac McDowell and John Dean are the city council. Jeff Tate is the city manager. What do you think of their governance of our city?

Many of us are asking the commissioners and the planning director to act quickly and close this gaping hole that allows for development in Freeland while ignoring the goals and policies of the Freeland plan. They have the power to do so. They have the ability to remove this finding and replace it with one that directs the planning department to use the Freeland plan to prevent future non-conforming development.

There have been enough substantive public comments submitted in opposition to the proposed Freeland warehouse that it is not within the realm of comprehension that the planning director would approve the proposal.

But what about the next one? Who’s minding the store and what rules are they observing? Is the Freeland public comfortable in the knowledge that their goals and policies are being carried out? I don’t know, as I am clueless.

Do you know? Are you willing to read every legal notice of application and monitor development proposals in Freeland so that we can have a community uproar when the next non-conforming use application is submitted to the county planning and development department?

I am beginning to wonder why the word “community” is in Island County Planning and Community Development Department. As a matter of fact, if you removed “planning and community” from the department name you would be left with Island County Development Department.

It really saddens me to think that, as I have had many good experiences participating in the Freeland Sub Area Planning meetings. I, along with many others, thought I was helping our county government create community-supported plans for the development and growth of a better future for Freeland. I’m clueless as to how the county managed to miss that glaring fact.

Until the issues of this finding are corrected, however, I will remain clueless as to the future of Freeland.

What do you have to say to the commissioners about it?

Lou Malzone is a community activist and Freeland resident since 2003.