Category Archives: Opinion

Revisions continue with island rebranding

An editorial cartoon by Milt Priggee mingling the uproar with the island annual Rotary sale (shown above) ran in the June 28 edition of the Kitsap Sun.
An editorial cartoon by Milt Priggee mingling the uproar with the island annual Rotary sale (shown above) ran in the June 28 edition of the Kitsap Sun.

As consultants work on revising logos and a new brand for the city and downtown associations, some Bainbridge Island residents are asking the city to restart the process with local artists.

Since the new branding ideas were unveiled June 11, an online petition has garnered nearly 600 signatures to cut ties Arnett Muldrow & Associates, a two-man team from South Carolina.

The petition came after critics were out in force when images of the proposed logos were posted on social media the day after the unveiling. Hundreds of comments, almost entirely negative, were posted on Facebook.

Several readers have weighed in through letters to the editor — “Bainbridge already lost its brand” and “Branding can do better on Bainbridge” — and an editorial cartoon by Milt Priggee mingling the uproar with the island annual Rotary sale (shown above) ran in the June 28 edition of the Kitsap Sun. (If you’d like to share your opinion in the Sun or Islander through a letter, email David Nelson at david.nelson@kitsapsun.com.)

The city took public comment on the branding process through June 26, and revisions are expected in one to two weeks, said Kellie Stickney, the city’s community engagement specialist.

That won’t be the last opportunity for public input though.

Feedback will be taken again after revisions are made public, Stickney said, although no date for a presentation has been set.

The axes in the proposed logos were nixed by the end of the June 11 presentation, and other options were nixed after online outcry the following day. At this point the crest won’t be moving forward in the design, and there could be a different font and color scheme, City Manager Doug Schulze told City Council.

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Plaintiffs in public records lawsuit fire back at councilman’s letter to the editor

A screen shot of part of Paulson's blog that fires back against Councilman Steve Bonkowski's recent letter to the editor.
A screen shot of part of Paulson’s blog that fires back against Councilman Steve Bonkowski’s recent letter to the editor.

Althea Paulson, who filed a public records lawsuit with Bob Fortner against Bainbridge Island in 2013, says in a blog post that she and Fortner do not agree with Councilman Steve Bonkowski’s version of the lawsuit in a recent letter to the editor.

Paulson and Fortner’s lawsuit said Bonkowski, Councilman David Ward and Councilwoman Debbi Lester violated city policy and the state Public Records Act by using personal email accounts to conduct city business and later withholding the documents.

In May, a Kitsap County Superior Court judge ruled city officials didn’t perform an “adequate” search for documents on Bonkowski’s and Ward’s personal computers.

Paulson and Fortner had requested documents regarding the city’s utilities, Utility Advisory Committee and the performance of employees.

Lester was dropped from the lawsuit as an individual at the beginning of last year after she turned over requested documents. She left the board at the end of her term in 2013.

Ward offered to resign as part of a $500,000 settlement from the city to Paulson and Fortner in December 2014.

Bonkowski is still a council member and is up for reelection in November.

In his letter to the editor, Bonkowski said he did not conduct city business on his personal email account and turned over emails in a timely manner.

“The Paulson/Fortner lawsuit has confused, disappointed, and divided our community, and now is poised to extract over half a million dollars from taxpayers,” he wrote. “I am pained to think that I may carry any responsibility for these circumstances. I want the community to know that I did not conduct city business from my private email account, and I did turn over my emails to the city in a timely manner for the public records request. What I did not do is provide my personal computer hard drive as part of that public records request.

“From the beginning of the records requests, and prior to the lawsuit, the requesters demanded access to council members’ private computer hard drives. Turning over one’s hard drive is not required by state law, nor the Public Records Act; the City did not ask council members to turn over personal computer hard drives.”

Paulson, Fortner and their attorney, Dan Mallove, disagree with multiple points in Bonkowski’s letter.

“Neither Paulson nor Fortner ever made a demand for access to anyone’s computer hard drive, before or after the filing of the lawsuit. Their records requests asked only that the City produce specified public records involving council members, ‘whether those records are on their private email accounts or otherwise,’” the blog post says.

You can read Bonkowski’s letter in full, as well as the reply letter on Paulson’s blog.

You also can read Councilman Val Tollefson’s letter to the editor about the settlement being an expensive lesson for the city.

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Bainbridge off-leash dog park up for discussion tonight

blog.dogpark

As we reported back in May, the park district is interested in leasing 15-acres of city-owned property surrounding the Vincent Road transfer station for an off-leash dog park. It took quite a lot longer than expected for the proposal to make it before the City Council, but the dog park is on the agenda for tonight’s meeting.

The memo attached to the agenda item (PDF here) lays out the history of the site and provides a preliminary design. City staff identified a number of concerns for the council to consider. The proposal is complicated by the fact that a portion of the property rests over a former landfill. The landfill was capped, and the land is safe for surface use, but any park development at the site cannot interfere with environmental remediation efforts.

City staff concluded the plan is feasible but will require “additional attention and research” to carry out.

Larry Steagall, file photo

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Poll: What do you think of the verdict in the Ostling trial?

After listening to 11 days of testimony and deliberating the the better part of three days, a federal jury took a middle path with their verdict on Friday.

Of the four main claims made in the lawsuit by the parents of Douglas Ostling, the mentally ill man who was fatally shot by Bainbridge police in 2010, the jury agreed with just one – that the Bainbridge Island Police Department failed to properly train officers in how to deal with the mentally ill. The jury awarded the Ostlings $1 million.

The jury disagreed with claims that officers illegally entered the Ostling family’s home, used unnecessary force and failed to render aid to the wounded Douglas Ostling.

How do you feel about the verdict? Cast your vote over to the right.

Head down below to see the results from the Bainbridge Conversation’s poll on how the city should pay for road fixes.

Continue reading →

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BI controversies cause burst of cartoon creativity

Recent dust-ups over the Bainbridge city manager and the police department has inspired a burst of island-related cartoons from editorial toonsmith Milt Priggee.

We couldn’t run them all in the paper but Milt has posted them on his blog, which you can find here.

Head below to see more of Milt’s recent Bainbridge-skewering work. Be warned – two of the cartoons involve beheadings.

Continue reading →

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Poll: How would you spend the $2 million?

After sitting on the $2 million Washington State Ferries settlement for the better part of a year, the City Council recently announced it was time to spend the money (or at least begin to talk about spending the money).

The council consensus was that the money would be spent on one or more construction projects that didn’t necessarily have to be on the waterfront (as WSF had initially required). Other than that, the sky’s the limit.

Two public meetings were held this month to gather ideas, and the council got ideas aplenty. Boaters, bikers, woodworkers, road-enders, little leaguers and others came forward with spending plans. You can read more about the range of ideas here.

The Kitsap Sun weighed in with its spending ideas here.

The council will take up the issue at a not-yet-determined date in December.

So, what do you think? Over in the poll to the right are ideas reflecting the proposals presented to the council during the two meetings. Pick one that reflects your top choice and then cross your fingers.

As for the Bainbridge Conversation’s last poll, the vast majority of votes were cast against a road-improvement bond the council is considering for next November’s ballot. Seventy-four percent said ‘no’; 26 percent said ‘yes.’

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Kitsap Sun editorial calls for better police misconduct complaint system

Last week, I reported on a police accountability consultant’s assessment of the Bainbridge police department’s policies for investigating misconduct complaints.

The Kitsap Sun’s editorial board echos the consultant’s determination: that the department’s complaint system is confusing, not readily accessible and can be intimidating to citizens.

Here’s a bit from the editorial:

“(L)ast week’s unveiling of a report commissioned by the city — which will be publicly discussed Nov. 16 — points out that a culture which the community’s trust should be built upon was incomplete at the bottom. A fairly basic function — providing a form for a citizen to file a complaint or concern — is neither clear nor easy to find, according to consultant Sam Pailca, and may even be written so as to discourage that type of feedback.”

Click here to read the full editorial.

By the way, the Sun is looking for some new blood on its editorial board. If you’d be willing to volunteer and make regular trips down to Bremerton to weigh in on issues about and beyond the island, head over here.

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POLL: Would you support a road improvement bond?

Drivers know the island’s roads aren’t what they used to be. Bicyclist know the roads aren’t what they could be.

Heeding calls for road repairs and new bike lanes, the Bainbridge City Council may put a multimillion-dollar bond measure on the November 2012 ballot.

The exact dollar amount and the scope of work has yet to be worked out, but one council member has floated the idea of an $8 million bond split between major road repairs and bike lane construction.

Would you vote for higher taxes if it made the roads less ragged and more safe for bike travel? Head over to the right (under the Facebook links) and have your say.

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Kitsap Sun editorial: Civil service examiner should be independent

The Kitsap Sun’s editorial board called the city’s decision to transfer the independent Civil Service Commission examiner’s duties to the city manager’s secretary a “a nickel-and-dime move” that has eroded accountability and public trust.

Read the full editorial here.

There’s been plenty more news since the transfer occurred earlier this month.

This week, the last of the three civil service commissioners resigned just before the city Ethics Board concluded that the commissioners had violated ethics rules by holding secret meetings with the city manager and city attorney.

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Fired police examiner turns to blogging

Fired Civil Service Examiner Kim Hendrickson has shifted her efforts for greater police accountability to the blogosphere.

Her new blog, Keep BIPD, Hendrickson lays out her arguments for greater police-hiring oversight, why the police department should remain under local control, and why she filed ethics complaints against two city Civil Service Commission members.

For those just tuning in to the Civil Service Commission controversy, head over here for the firing, here for the fallout and commission member resignations, and here for Hendrickson’s ethics complaints against two commission members.

The City Council will again take up the issue at their Wednesday evening meeting.

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