My recent position on the Coupeville Community Greens Grant, submitted by the Town of Coupeville, elicited a variety of responses. These were helpful because it showed very clearly a growing disconnect between the elected voices for the Town of Coupeville and the overall beliefs of its citizens.
I made a policy decision to not support a grant request submitted to the Board of Island County Commissioners. As a commissioner, I make these types of political decisions every day. Most don’t get this level of community response.
In this case, I acknowledge that I failed to effectively communicate the reasoning behind my stance and chose to use language that, in today’s political climate, could have been more sensitive. However, I stand by my decision and believe it to be well-reasoned.
When elected community representatives, in this case the Coupeville Town Council, make public statements such as we are now a “terrorist target,” compare OLF Coupeville to “Pearl Harbor,” or when they say the only true way to mitigate jet noise is to not have the jets on Whidbey Island, but rather it’s to look at other bases, or when council members say things like, “We don’t want them at all,” I get protective of my district.
When the Town Council’s EIS statement submission reads that Navy flights are “not compatible with our economy, our history and culture,” it is incumbent upon me as an elected official representing the broader interests of Island County and specific interests of the Oak Harbor area to take those comments seriously and not look the other way.
The stance I took was never about a town council and mayor having the freedom to ask questions. Questions are encouraged throughout the EIS process. I have asked several myself.
The Coupeville Council went beyond questions. They took a stance, one with dangerous economic consequences.
Take this message sent to me by a prominent Oak Harbor businessman in direct response to comments by the town council: “I am concerned about how much more I should invest in Oak Harbor. How much (of this) will the military take before they say game over? There is no Plan B for a stable economy and it will sink people like me and so many others.”
People’s livelihoods are at stake.
The comments made by the town council could easily lead to reduced economic investment in North Whidbey because the remarks breed uncertainty in the minds of businesses looking to expand or locate here.
Reduced economic investment results in less tax revenue.
Hopefully you can now see the connection I made between the town’s actions and its sales-tax funded grant request. Simply, I believe, if you want to be a beneficiary of sales tax dollars, don’t engage in activities that significantly reduce the amount of funds available.
It’s time that Coupeville stoppped defining itself as a victim of the Navy, but rather acknowledge itself as a beneficiary. Claims that the town’s economy is somehow insulated from the broader economics of Island County is dangerously myopic.
Over the weekend I heard from Coupeville business owners who were angry because they fear Oak Harbor residents will stop coming to Coupeville, their logic being that my words and actions may hurt their businesses. I have more faith in my community than that, however, and believe many see that their fear should drive home the importance of Navy dollars in Coupeville’s economy. If a round of bad press puts your business at risk, can you imagine what it will look like if the town council’s words are taken to heart and there are no planes here at all?
You may be interested in knowing that, of the $9 million in sales-tax revenue distributed under this program in recent years, $3 million was distributed to North Whidbey and $6 million to Coupeville and South Whidbey.
Coupeville’s proposed Community Green’s project cost of $600,000 was much too high for the economic benefit the county would receive in return for that investment. The grant, as written, simply didn’t rise to the level needed to earn my vote, and I do regret I expressed myself in a way that angered some citizens and that the larger message was lost. I was, nevertheless, voting “no” on the merits of the project alone. The timing of the denial happened to allow for what I believe was a much-needed wake-up call, one that shows that we live in a very economically inter-dependent county, and we all have a responsibility to be accountable to that reality.
