Category Archives: Bremerton

You Got a License for that Chicken?

If you live in Bremerton and have a chicken, you can get your license now at the Kitsap Humane Society. I thought the acknowledgment portion was interesting.

I hereby certify that the information submitted is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. In submitting the application I knowledge and agree that the application is subject to all the terms and conditions for a Backyard Chicken Hen License found in Title 7.06 of the Bremerton Municipal Code. I understand that any false statements or omissions, using the eggs in protest against council members, continuing to use the phrase “Chickenista,” confusing chickens with ducks, siding with anyone from Port Orchard in an argument, placing incorrect apostrophes in official or public writings, using the phrase “Bremelo,” complaining about Diamond Parking, being late with a library book, not voting “yes” the next time the council asks you for money, listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, wearing socks with sandals, farting in an elevator, not thinking of the children, asking “Who let the dogs out?” or laughing at Roy Runyon’s chicken puns may result in denial or revocation of this license. I further acknowledge that I have read the applicable regulations attached to this license application and agree to fully comply with the regulations set forth by the City of Bremerton and any terms and conditions imposed by the City Council as they relate to the Backyard Chicken Hen License.

I might have embellished that a little. You can see the entire application in what follows.
Continue reading →

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Vetting a City’s Candidate

On Wednesday night’s Bremerton City Council agenda is the nomination of Becky Hasart to take over as the city’s finance director. A week ago we had a story about what happened when and after she was in Washougal. In short, the city was tagged with findings for missing money. Essentially, the city spent money on festivals and a farmers’ market and missed on several procedures and was reimbursed for too little. Many of those expenditures came from the mayor’s office.

That kind of mess cannot look good for a candidate wishing to run the finances of another city and it certainly was a hurdle Hasart had to overcome. She did it successfully, though, not only in Bremerton but in at least one other location where she was offered a job. Hasart also had an interview lined up for another government. She canceled it when she was offered the Bremerton job, she told me.

The first sense that there was an issue came in a Bremerton City Council study session when City Councilman Will Maupin said the city’s prime candidate had been on the right side of a mess at Washougal.

Once we had Hasart’s name, we did some checking of our own. We read the state auditor’s reports and news stories from The Columbian, The Oregonian and the Camas-Washougal Post-Record. I talked to a Columbian reporter, the city’s current mayor and Hasart herself, Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and Maupin. I sought further help from the auditor’s office in finding a summary letter he wrote outlining the issues he found. I also tried to contact the former mayor of Washougal, but was unsuccessful.

The auditor’s reports are effective for finding out what the problems are, but in the end are not all that useful in determining exactly why they happened. Some of the poor practices named in the report could fall on the finance director, but other people within the city have the ability to spend money before the finance director has the chance to correct a problem.

Washougal did get issued another finding in an earlier year, because of a problem Hasart said she found herself. That kind of finding is not all that uncommon.

In the case of the missing money, however, no such clarity exists. Hasart’s name appears in the audit, but so does the mayor’s and every member of the city council. They are in a list of city officers.

Where Hasart got her most support was in the interviews Bremerton council members and the mayor did with others from Washougal. They were all supportive of Hasart. My experience with the city’s current mayor, Sean Guard, was pretty much the same, but I believe he might have been more reserved with me (a media member) than he was with Bremerton city officials who called. City officials are likely to be more candid with other city officials than they might be with a reporter.

There is, then, the other context, best illustrated by the story in The Oregonian. The former mayor, Stacey Sellers, fires almost all, if not all, the department heads, including Hasart. Her replacement for Hasart is a sitting city council member who the city later learned had had his law license suspended for misdealings with two clients. The council had also agreed to a mayor’s request that all questions from the council to department heads go through her, essentially shielding staff from the council.

The mayor and the Hasart’s replacement went to Las Vegas for a conference and among the charges they made on a city credit card were for alcohol, including $88 for a 2000 bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Washington taxpayers are not obligated to pay for city officials’ alcohol, so those charges were disallowed. Sellers was trounced in her bid for re-election and resigned shortly after the election. She did repay the charges for those drinks.

Because the auditor could not get cooperation in his look at what caused the city to misspend money, he couldn’t make any conclusion for why it happened. A non-profit that was the recipient of some of the money refused to be interviewed or provide some records. Others I spoke to, however, said Hasart helped in the investigation. After she left the city she also helped Washougal as it prepared its 2010 budget. She did it for nothing, according to Guard.

The current mayor has since asked the Clark County Sheriff’s Office to investigate what happened in the city. Nothing has come of that yet.

Hasart interviewed well when she met with those in Bremerton on the interview panel. Some were reminded of Laura Lyon, former Bremerton finance director now with the Bremerton Housing Authority. They said she displayed a knowledge of city finances necessary for someone about to take on the job.

Making the decision to look into something further depends on a lot of elements. From what I received in one day of checking into this matter, it seems to me that if I spent a lot of time looking into this more the possibility is high that if I did find a solid place to lay the blame, it would be with someone besides Hasart. We will likely not be able to make any conclusions until the sheriff and prosecutor down in Clark County decide that charges should be filed against someone, if that ever happens.

I do still have a question about the mayor of Washougal having that much discretion over that much spending, but based on the narrative I heard from others down there, it is not out of the question. Mayors have budgets. Mayors make decisions. This money that’s unaccounted for did come from the mayor’s office.

And people do find themselves working in bad situations they cannot control. That’s what people tried to tell me happened to Hasart. For Bremerton’s sake, everyone here has to hope they’re right.

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Heads Up on the Agenda

MONDAY
Port Orchard
7 p.m.: The Kitsap County Board of Commissioners will meet at the county administration building. Notable on the agenda: The board will honor local civil rights pioneer Lillian Walker, whose memories are featured as part of The Legacy Project, an oral history program established by the Office of Secretary of State in 2008. Also on the agenda, the board will consider resolutions:
* establishing an Energy Conservation Committee to develop and implement a comprehensive energy efficiency and conservation plan for Kitsap County.
* approving the purchase and sale agreement for the Harborside Condominium Unit T-102.
* freezing salary rates of elected officials and providing for self-pay of health care premiums.
* designating Kitsap County as a recovery zone for purposes of issuing recovery zone economic development bonds under the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

TUESDAY
Port Orchard
7 p.m.: The city council will consider Ordinance No. 019-10, Approving the Annexation Request for Sidney Glen, File No. A-24-10.

WEDNESDAY
Bremerton
5 p.m.: The Bremerton City Council will hold a study session and discuss a request from the city engineer to apply for an Economic Development District.

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Chicken Signs Go Beyond Politics

There is propaganda and there is art. Sometimes the two intersect, but for my money you don’t find much propagandart in politics. I have a “Keep on Truckin’ for Nixon” sign from 1972, but that’s more kitsch than culture.

So the regular act of thievery that occurs with regards to campaign signs is, I assume, usually about A. maldoings of the supporters of the candidate’s opponent, B. A property owner not happy that a sign was posted on his/her lawn or on public right of way near his/her lawn, or C. Vandalism.

In 1992 I was living in Salt Lake City and a friend of mine, I am kind of reluctant to share, was a prolific stealer of Enid Greene signs. His bedroom, for the Halloween party, was awash in “Send Enid Greene to Congress” signs. Other people had a different, more creative kind of fun with the signs, changing them to read things like “Send Enid Greene for Pizza,” or “for Beer.” My friend’s room on Halloween was art the same way Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup can painting was. You take a functional piece and place it in a new context and it can inspire admiration for seconds, sometimes minutes.

Greene lost a close election that year, won in the Republican sweep in 1994 as Enid Greene Waldholtz after marrying Joe Waldholtz, who, it turned out, was later convicted of bank fraud, which caused her to file for divorce and at the urging of the party to not run again in 1996.

While some regard sign stealing or vandalism good-natured prankery, it does cost someone money.

Most times you can find the discarded signs feet or yards away from where they once stood. I once had the notion to line my garage wall with discarded campaign signs, those found weeks after the election is over. For me it would have been somewhat artistic, way better than hanging on the wall the heads of things I have shot. I have a pro-foot ferry sign, one for Bev Woods and another from Will Peddy’s failed mayoral bid on Bainbridge Island in 2005. The first two were given to me. The Peddy sign was one I found about 40-feet from the highway down the ravine from that corner on Bainbridge Island where the guy ties balloons to the post.

If anyone wants those signs back, I’d be glad to return them. They sit in my garage, unhung. They can and are recycled and reused as backing for new candidates’ signs.

Every election we get lots of complaints about stolen or vandalized signs. James Olsen, Republican candidate for state Rep. in the 23rd District regularly keeps us updated on his lost signs. He might be interested in that Peddy sign I have.

Some signs do disappear and campaigns are prepared for that. It would seem to be rare, though, that all of them would be gone.

That, however, is what has happened with the signature chicken signs that have been placed around Bremerton. Eugene Brennan, self-described “chickenista” and creator of the signs, said many have disappeared. When they’re gone, though, they stay gone.

Brennan speculates that some people like the design, possibly enough to take one and put it on display somewhere else. If so, those placards could linger in garages and living rooms and offices and coops for years, long after the likes of Peddy, Woods and passenger-only ferry pushes have been forgotten. They may be around long enough for people to forget what they were for.

This could be a lesson for any burgeoning politico. I got no beef with the signs out there now, but I dare someone in the future to wow us the way Brennan and his chickenistas have. How about recreating that elephant with the glasses Goldwater had? There was nothing else to it, but you knew what that was saying. Since yard signs seem to be the most obvious evidence of a campaign, next time around I want a candidate who will thrill us with one.

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Heads Up on the Agenda

The Kitsap County Board of Commissioners will meet at the county administration building at 10 a.m. Monday for review of calendar and agendas, and board information sharing.
The board will be in budget preparation meetings from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

City of Port Orchard: The city council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday for a work study session. Topics include homelessness, liquor initiatives, facilities upgrades, McCormick Woods Division three, Veteran’s Memorial and Goals & Objectives, among other topics.

City of Bremerton: The city council will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. Wednesday regarding a concession agreement with the Pierce-Kitsap YMCA among other business.

City of Poulsbo: The city council will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The agenda was not available.

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Is No News Good News?

Brynn Grimley writes:

The big news coming out of yesterday’s Housing Kitsap (formerly Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority) meeting was the agency is looking good financially, compared to this time last year. Read that story here.

Beyond that, everything was cut and dry. Which left me wondering, where was the board discussion about whether the agency should move from Silverdale to Bremerton?

I’m not trying to sound like a broken record, but I’d like to be able to write a story that says the decision was made and the authority is moving to (insert location here).

Executive Director Tony Caldwell did mention the move, but the board had no further comment after his update.

Huh?

It has been more than 60 days since county commissioners sent a letter to the agency requesting they move out in 60 days. But that letter, besides a mention by Caldwell at the August meeting, has never been discussed by the board. (I should say, the letter has never been publicly discussed by the board in a meeting. I can’t attest to what has been said behind closed doors during an executive session).

As the meeting adjourned, I decided to do my due diligence and ask why the county commissioners had not raised the issue of the move at either of the last two meetings?

Here’s what County Commissioner Josh Brown told me:

“The majority of the board feels there is a possibility of a deal with the city of Bremerton that, at the end of the day, would be the most financially viable option.”

But, the county commissioner’s no. 1 priority remains keeping the agency’s overhead costs down, he said.

OK, but I’m still left wondering what the answer is to the agency’s Shakespearean dilemma: To Move or Not To Move?

In his update during the meeting, Caldwell said he planned to meet with the city of Bremerton later this month. From that meeting he hopes to get a clear direction about the city’s intent for the ground floor office space. Ultimately, does the city want the space or not?

Their response will dictate how the housing authority moves forward.

In the meantime, we wait. Again.

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Mayors’ Forum: “No 800-Pound Gorilla in Here”

At a mayor’s forum today, featuring Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola, Bremerton resident Klaus Golombek asked, “Where are the 800-pound gorillas?”

The event, at Port Orchard City Hall, was hosted by the Bremerton and Port Orchard chambers of commerce.

Before the Q&A, both mayors highlighted the positive side of their respective cities. Lent touted public and private development projects completed and in the pipeline. Coppola, whose city is still trying to get multiple major projects shovel-ready, noted that his city is financially “in much better shape than most other cities” due to conservative budgeting.

The tone of their comments was not derogatory, and neither mayor appeared to be trying to one-up the other.

Lent, in response to Golombek’s question, talked about fiscal challenges the city faces and will continue to face under the “new normal.” The city in 2010 eliminated 34 positions through layoffs, buyouts, early retirement and unfilled vacancies. A total of 17 individuals left the city. City workers in Bremerton, as elsewhere, will continue to have to do more with less for the foreseeable future, Lent said.

Councilman Jerry Childs brought up what has been an 800-pound gorilla, Bremerton’s annexation of the South Kitsap Industrial Area and Gorst sewer project, which cast uncertainty on Port Orchard’s plans to provide SKIA with sewer. But as you’ll read in the story, both mayors said they could sit down and come up with a resolution to this and other areas of conflict.

Lent, a former county commissioner who was sworn in as mayor in November, 2009, said she was against the SKIA annexation. “I never wanted that airport to be annexed by any cities,” she said. “I thought it should be a regional airport, but I was out of office.”

Lent continued, saying Bremerton has a “great relationship” with the Port of Bremerton, SKIA’s major property owner. So, basically, she’s willing to work with what she “inherited” from former Mayor Cary Bozeman, now CEO of the Port of Bremerton.

Another thing she inherited but didn’t seem too keen on was the Bremerton ferry tunnel. Phone calls to her office criticizing the tunnel have subsided, Lent said, in response to a question. The tunnel is doing its job, which is diverting traffic to make downtown more pedestrian friendly. “People seem to be used to it now,” she said.

Golombek thought the mayors, particularly Lent, side-stepped the gorilla question. He’s still smarting about the Port of Bremerton’s marina expansion. He thinks increased revenue from the marina should go toward paring down the bond. Less should go to the city’s general fund, he said. Looking ahead, Golombek’s got concerns about Bremerton’s planned Youth Wellness Center, which he thinks could become a financial burden on residents.

As for the rapport between Bremerton and Port Orchard, however, there doesn’t appear to be any gorilla in here. At least as far as the two mayors are concerned. Port Orchard Councilman Jerry Childs said the two councils may be a different matter. The only interaction they’ve had was over SKIA, and it wasn’t pretty. Competition for state and federal funds is another potential area of conflict for both cities.

“It makes it difficult for our cities to get along, because we’re both fighting for a piece of the pie,” Childs said.

The Port of Bremerton, too, should be included in talks on potential areas of collaboration and conflict, Childs said.

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Urban Chickens Back in Chambers

Late in Wednesday’s (Aug. 25) Bremerton City Council meeting Councilman Roy Runyon reported that chickens would be back on the agenda in a committee meeting.

The Public Safety and Parks Committee will spend some time this coming Wednesday (Sept. 1) discussing perhaps a revised ordinance to the one two other council members, Jim McDonald and Cecil McConnell, would not send on to the full council for consideration.

My attempts to reach Runyon have been unsuccessful, so I don’t know details, but it would seem to show that there might be some appetite to have the council define the chicken terms should the city decide to allow residents to have them. The process, described somewhat in a Kitsap Sun editorial, has been entertaining to watch.

Again, should the council take up the issue and approve an ordinance, it would likely kill a citizen-led effort to do the same. Those citizens, however, would be eager to see that happen.

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Heads Up: On The Agenda

Brynn Grimley writes:

Well this week is easy, the only government jurisdiction with its agendas available is the county. Bremerton and Poulsbo haven’t posted them as of Sunday evening, and the city of Port Orchard isn’t meeting Tuesday. Check later in the day to see if Bremerton or Poulsbo posted agendas for the week. Both councils meet Wednesday — Bremerton at 5 p.m. for a briefing before heading into a regular meeting 30 minutes later. Poulsbo meets at 7 p.m. for a regular meeting.

Here’s the Kitsap County Commissioner meeting schedule for the week:

Monday, Aug. 30, 10 a.m.: Board information sharing until 11:30 a.m., then review of calendar and agendas until noon.

2 p.m.: Legislative update from Tom McBride until 3 p.m.; 30 min resource conservation update; sewer financing plan follow up for 45 minutes until 4:15 p.m.; community planning project and year of the rural updates until 5 p.m. Adjournment to follow.

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 8:30 a.m.: Voluntary separation program discussion; the rest of the meeting becomes DCD Director Larry Keeton’s meeting. He’ll give a 45 minute presentation on Limited Areas of More Intense Rural Development and site specifics; after a 10 minute break, he’ll start the board on the revision of Chapter 3 of the Comprehensive Plan for 45 minutes, next he’ll tackle the rural commercial/industrial code development until 11:30 a.m. The board will recess into executive session following this for 15 minutes to discuss real estate issues before adjourning.

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Patty Murray to Chat with Vets and Supporters in Bremerton

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray will be in town as a senator and as a Democrat running for re-election Thursday. At 3:15 p.m. she will be part of a roundtable discussion with veterans to discuss employment. We will cover that one.

Later that day there will be a campaign event at the Kitsap Conference Center. We will not be covering that, because press is not invited.

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Bremerton’s Priorities

Bremerton reporter Steve Gardner’s back in the saddle after a two-week vacation, so I guess I’d better get off his beat.

While Gardner was gone, I reported on the Bremerton city council’s selection of a contractor to build a parking garage at Park Avenue and Burwell Street, and their approval of a property transfer from parks that will allow a proposed improvement of the oft-snarled intersection of Warren Avenue and 11th St.

Port Orchard probably has a bad case of Bremerton envy, not only for having to share its intrepid reporter with its rival big brother across Sinclair Inlet, but for the fact that it, too, aspires to such great things.

Bremerton’s “garage” promises much more. The garage is part of a planned 50,000-square-foot development at the corner of Park Avenue and Burwell Street. The mostly underground garage will provide a “pad” for privately-funded retail space, affordable apartments and a multiplex movie theater that is predicted to boost the city’s economy and funnel new springs of retail sales tax into the state’s coffers. The selection of a contractor for the project represents a milestone in the nine years of planning it’s taken to get to this point.

Meanwhile. back in Port Orchard city officials are also aggressively hatching plans for a garage that’s so much more. The city plans a Town Center Revitalization Project that includes a parking garage, a new library, retail space and a public plaza. The parking garage, phase one of the project, is seen as the cornerstone of the campus. Preliminary cost estimates for the garage range from $19 to $24 million. In March, city officials were elated when Congressman Norm Dick Included $1 million in federal housing and urban development funds in his proposed 2012 allocations for the project. But allocations are a far cry from choosing a contractor. If memory serves me, the Town Center project developed out of city council plans for improved parking off the waterfront that started around 2005.

Likewise Bremerton’s transfer of property from parks to the public right-of-way paves the way, so to speak, for another project long on the city’s to-do list.

Port Orchard, too, has been working on its traffic bottleneck. The Tremont Street Corridor project is creeping forward like an SUV at rush hour. OK, that was literary hyperbole. City planners are moving the project through the pipeline to the best of their ability given the constraints of funding, permitting, right-of-way acquisition etc. Suffice it to say, it’s been a long time coming, and no doubt city officials will be elated when the first backhoe full of dirt is moved.

Take heart Port Orchard. Bremerton’s been at this urban redevelopment for some years now. Presumably, your turn will come.

The Bremerton City Council, at a meeting I attended recently, handed out a list of the council’s priorities, based on a survey of council members. Not surprisingly, public safety and fiscal stability rank high on the council’s list of concerns. The dead, alas, come in last place, with the city’s cemetary ranking at the bottom of the priority list.

Here’s the list of BremertonPriorities

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Barbara Stephenson Retires

Barbara Stephenson, Bremerton’s financial services director since February, announced Monday she’ll retire as of Friday.

Stephenson was hired by Mayor Patty Lent after Lent dismissed former director Andy Parks. Stephenson was county treasurer for seven years and was replaced by Meredith Green.

The city issued the following press release:

Barbara Stephenson, Director of Financial Services, has submitted her letter of retirement effective the end of the work day July 2, 2010. She informed me that she has reassessed her personal priorities and decided to join her husband John in retirement.

I enjoyed having Barbara part of my management team and felt several important goals were accomplished including the Park Plaza garage financing utilizing the Build America Bonds which provided a very attractive interest rate for the city, a renewal of the Bank of America Letter of Credit backing the variable rate bonds on the Conference Center parking garage and most importantly she created a much more sustainable 2010 budget (subject to council approval) and laid the groundwork for the 2011 budget.

I appreciate Barbara’s service to the City and I wish her well in retirement.

Patty Lent

Mayor

More information as it becomes available.

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Heads Up: On the Agenda

Steven Gardner writes:

Brynn had herself a little holiday and left the agenda reporting to me. Unlike last week, I’ll actually have to go to a couple of these this week. See you there. Aloha!

Kitsap County Board of Commissioners (meet at 619 Division Street)

Meeting dates:

Monday, June 28: 1 p.m. Note the earlier start time, but the first half hour is yet another executive session. Then there is a budget update to detail how recording and licensing revenues are down, property tax delinquencies are up, penalties and interest on those delinquencies are up, expenditures are down, unemployment payments are up, supplies are down and Bremerton owes the county $200,000 for jail stays. The rest of the meeting deals to some degree with budget meeting, until 4 p.m. when there is a half hour on countywide planning policies.

Monday, June 28: 7 p.m. Jon Brand was named Engineer of the Year for an Urban County, Cami Lewis is employee of the month and a couple other awards will follow the pledge of allegiance. Some public airing will happen dealing with closing the streets for Whaling days and an interlocal agreement for the Newberry Hill Heritage Park. Public hearings will be on a “no parking” restriction on parts of Sidney road at Horshoe Lake Park and road closures on Seabeck Holly Road for culvert replacement. As always, there’s an option for you to stir things up at the beginning and end of the meeting.

Wednesday, June 30: 8:30 a.m. The board will spend three hours in a discussion about “water as a resource.”

City of Bremerton (meet at 345 6th Street, Norm Dicks Government Center)

Meeting dates:

Wednesday, June 30: The City Council study session will have a few short items, but the longer conversation is likely to be about the city’s 2010 budget. The council could make recommendations on how the budget will be cut, responding some to proposals from department directors and making unwanted mandates on others.

City of Port Orchard (meet at 219 Prospect Street)
Meeting dates: It’s the fifth Tuesday of the month, which means no meeting, unless we’re notified otherwise, because if Port Orchard has a problem, it’ll deal with it.

City of Poulsbo (meet at 19050 Jensen Way)
Meeting dates:
No meeting until July 7

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Heads Up: On The Agenda

Brynn Grimley writes:

For those who have been living under a rock, in case you didn’t know today’s a holiday. Which means that all government offices are closed. That means for this blog there’s one less meeting day to have to review. (Woo Hoo!)

Without further adieu, here’s the agendas for the week:

Kitsap County Board of Commissioners (meet at 619 Division Street)

Meeting dates:

Wednesday, June 2: 8:30 a.m. The board’s weekly work study session will include a 30 minute presentation by Parks and Recreation Director Jim Dumwiddie about parks grants, County Fire Marshal David Lynam will follow with a 45 minute presentation about special events. The board will take a 10 minute break then reconvene for an hour presentation by DCD Director Larry Keeton about large onsite sewage systems. The board will then recess into executive session for 30 minutes to discuss existing litigation and then recess again into executive session from 11:30 to noon to discuss real estate matters. They’ll adjourn following the executive sessions.

City of Bremerton (meet at 345 6th Street, Norm Dicks Government Center)

Meeting dates:

Wednesday, June 2: 5 p.m. The City Council will have a briefing until 5:30 p.m. where they’ll convene their regular session in council chambers. The following items are on the general business agenda: approve parking enforcement services contract with Diamond Parking; award contract to Stan Palmer Construction for construction of the Lions Park Renovation project. The public hearing portion of the meeting includes: review of a Local Solicitation 2010 Justice Assistance grant application; public hearing on an ordinance to amend Title 18 titled “City Fire Code” of the Bremerton Municipal Code and to adopt the 2009 changes to the International Fire Code; hearing an ordinance to amend Chapter 17.04 titled “State Building Code Adoption” of Bremerton Municipal Code, to repeal the adoption of the Washington State Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality Code and to adopt the 2009 editions of the various building codes. Council committee reports will follow and then adjournment. (A story on the Diamond Parking contract is here).

City of Port Orchard (meet at 219 Prospect Street)

No meeting this week.

City of Poulsbo (meet at 19050 Jensen Way)

Meeting dates:

Wednesday, June 3: 7 p.m. The council will begin the meeting with an update from Mayor Becky Erickson. There are only two items on the business agenda. They include: reviewing a contract amendment with ICF Jones & Stokes for a Dogfish Creek study; and a contract amendment with Krazan for the Fjord Slide Repair project.

Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority (meet at 345 6th Street, Norm Dicks Government Center)

Meeting dates:

Tuesday, June 2: 1 p.m. I either didn’t receive the agenda for KCCHA before the long weekend or I accidentally deleted it. The agenda is not listed on the website (or if it is I can’t find it), but here’s what the organization submitted for the civic calendar listing for its meeting: The Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority commissioners will meet at the Norm Dicks Government Center, 345 Sixth St. This public meeting will include an executive session (closed to the public) to discuss real estate and potential litigation.

Kitsap Reginoal Coordinating Council (meet at 345 6th Street, Norm Dicks Government Center)

Meeting dates:

Tuesday, June 2: 8 a.m. The meeting kicks off with a study session to review countywide planning policy revisions between council representatives and Health District staff. The regular meeting will call to order at 9 a.m. and will cover a public hearing on funding recommendations on the homeless housing grant program; a report on a ferry service meeting held recently with Kitsap legislators and citizens; a work program report which includes a report from the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance/KCCDC; report by the non-motorized ad hoc committee; a report on the progress of the revenue sharing/UGA program partnership Kitsap County staff is doing in tandem with city of Port Orchard staff; a report on the city and county’s roles; and a report on the broadband ARRA grand application. Adjournment is slated for 11 a.m. (A story about the revenue sharing/UGA program is here.)

Port of Illahee (meet at the CKFR Station 41 off Old Military Road)

Tuesday, June 2: 5:30 p.m. The Port of Illahee is holding an informational meeting for district taxpayers to learn about the Illahee Plan, the port’s opportunity to buy land from the Timbers Edge development, a petition for the community to sign if they support the purchase and how these issues could effect the community. Commissioners want to hear from all community members in the port district. (The story about the petition and the option to buy the Timbers Edge property is here.)

That’s all I got for the short week. Hope everyone is enjoying their day off today.

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Another Name Added to CK Commissioner Race

Brynn Grimley writes:

Incumbent County Commissioner Josh Brown has a third challenger in his bid for re-election to the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners — and he’s faced off against this challenger before.

Central Kitsap resident and native Wally Carlson has stated his intent to run against Brown, and recently filed with the Public Disclosure Commission. Last week Republican challenger Abby Burlingame announced her intent to run.

Saying he still thinks county government is heading in the wrong direction, Carlson chose to run “because county government has become even less transparent, less accountable, more wasteful and has continued to strangle private property rights,” he said in an e-mail.

Compared to his previous election run, Carlson says this time around he has four or five points he plans to stick to throughout the campaign. Still claiming himself to be “no politician,” Carlson said he has “more definition” this time about how he’d like to see the county run.

He’d like to see a performance audit of the county’s various departments — especially Public Works and the Department of Community Development, he said. Once the audits are complete, he wants to see the results analyzed and changes made from the bottom up instead of top down, he said.

Carlson hasn’t decided yet what party he will run under. Currently he’s listed as “other” on the PDC website. Four years ago he ran as a Democrat, but this time he’s hoping to appeal to more of the property rights crowd, he said. He’s thinking he’ll run as a “rogue conservative Democrat,” he said.

Carlson still lives in Central Kitsap with wife of roughly 21 years Vicki. They have five children, one who still lives at home.

Carlson, 63, graduated from Central Kitsap High School in 1965 and received his bachelor’s degree from Central Washington University in 1970. He owns Wally’s Design Works, a custom home/design business. Four years ago he and wife Vicki were working on marketing a novel Carlson spent eight years writing. He’s since published the book, “Annie’s Second Wind”, and has been speaking to area book clubs.

I wrote about Carlson back in September 2006 when he was running for the same position. That story is here.

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Rules Changes in the Works for Parking for Handicapped in Bremerton

A handicapped tag in Bremerton currently allows you to park just about anywhere downtown for as long as you want.

That could change.

City Councilman Nick Wofford is proposing a change to city rules that would create special spots for cars driven by or carrying handicapped people, but would limit the time in those spots to four hours.

Lynsi Burton at the Bremerton Patriot has a story about the idea, including conversations with an opponent, a supporter and two other city council members. The others on the council don’t appear to be outright opposed to the idea, but they might be to the timing. Parking Committee recommendations are supposed to come forward next month, after all, and they think it might work better to discuss the question then instead of at the council’s May 26 study session. The mayor is for it, according to Burton’s story.

Wofford said citizen demand is driving the issue. “This has been a complaint from downtown businesses for a long time,” he said. “It’s been talked about at the council for a long time. It’s time to take some action.”

Here is the draft version of the proposed new ordinance:

Draft of propose parking ordinance in Bremerton

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Bremerton Boycotters Can Shop in Yakima

Story commenters who swear they boycott Bremerton because of red-light traffic enforcement cameras can shop peacefully in Yakima.

The Yakima City Council voted 5-2 to shelve a proposal to add the technology there.

From the story:

Councilman Bill Lover noted that a municipal judge predicted the city would have to hire extra clerks to process all the extra tickets that would be generated by cameras.

The judge “said an additional cashier,” Lover recounted. “That tells me something.”

Instead, that “additional cashier” will be needed in one of the city’s retail stores, no doubt, since the city won’t be boycotted, at least not because of the cameras.

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Citizens Playing Chicken

Note: U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair came by the office. David Nelson has his notes and video from the conversation at his blog, From the Editor’s Desk. Ed Friedrich shared his notes with me and I hope to transcribe them later. I want him to see them before I post.

Some Bremerton residents are showing how citizens can go over the council’s collective heads on an issue.

On Monday residents presented their plan at a meeting of people from Councilman Roy Runyon’s district. They talked about their plan to gather petitions to get a citizen-led initiative on the Bremerton ballot to allow residents to have up to four hens. My hunch is many of them won’t like the comparison to state initiative guru Tim Eyman, but they’re doing exactly (except for the making money part) what he does. If your local electeds won’t do what you want, do it for them.

What they really want is for the council to make all this unnecessary by putting the item on the agenda for the full council. Until then, the citizens promise to continue charging ahead with the initiative drive.

In a sense this isn’t like a game of chicken, where two cars line up against each other and drive straight toward each other until someone chickens out or they crash.

There’s no crash here. The council is standing still. If the council does nothing and the residents get their signatures, voters will decide whether hens should be legal within the city. If the residents say “yes” then the citizens have essentially passed the council by and created law the council has no power to change without another vote. If the residents say “no” then it’s akin to the finish line moving to the council.

Any guess what the council will do? I have one, but I probably shouldn’t share it and I’m not very confident in it anyway.

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