Judging from the two times I have seen all four candidates for
South Kitsap Commissioner “debate” one another, you’d think they
were good buddies truly sorry that in order for one to win, three
others will have to lose. Perhaps mindful of past rancor on the
board of commissioners, they want to show they can get along and
are cordial almost to a fault.
In the story I wrote for Thursday’s kitsapsun.com,
my editor and I decided to focus on the county budget and the local
economy because money is so much on people’s minds. On these
topics, none of the candidates has ideas that are radically
different from the others.
Republican Tim Matthes actually lamented being last to answer a
question on the county budget because, “These folks all have really
good ideas.”
What’s a voter to do? Let’s talk about growth management and
land use, ah. now there’s the litmus test.
Here’s what I remember about litmus tests from my days in chemistry class: You dip
a piece of paper into a substance. The paper has the same substance
on it in each case, but depending on the substance into which you
dip it, it turns color to indicate where on the spectrum of basic
to acid it stands. Please understand that I am not assigning a
qualitative value to acids or bases (and I’m not even going to try
to equate political inclinations to chemical substances, which
simply exist – and most everything in the world, by the way is
either acidic or basic in some respect). Now you know hwy I went
into journalism instead of chemistry,
Folks, this is a metaphor, my way of trying to show the
substantive differences between Matthes, Democrats Charlotte
Garrido, Monty Mahan and independent candidate Paul Nuchims.
On the Growth Management Act:
Matthes wants to streamline development regulations. He said, “I
have some serious reservations about the Growth Management Act. The
cost of regulations are driving us under in Kitsap County.”
Mahan supports the tenets of the Growth Management Act. He
believes concentrating growth in urban areas will to protect the
environment while making populous areas more attractive to
residents.
Nuchims, in response to a question on the Growth Management
Act, said Kitsap County tends to be “reactive rather than
proactive.” The county needs to “decide our own fate” instead of
reacting to other government agencies, he said. The county needs to
“fight for what we want.”
Garrido supports the Growth Management Act which is applied
through the county’s Comprehensive Plan. When she was a
commissioner (1997-2000), the comp plan had been declared invalid.
Her administration had to whip it into shape. “it was a really
tough time to be in office,” she said. There’s a lot of work yet to
be done.
On Kitsap’s membership in the Puget Sound Regional Council:
Mahan said the PSRC affords Kitsap access to funding for
infrastructure dollars and “makes us part of the the most powerful
lobbying block in the western part of the state. He does not,
however, “want people from across the sound representing the west
side of the sound … We should be at the table fighting for every
penny we should get,” he said.
Nuchims, showing his outside the box side, said Kitsap, Pierce
and King counties need to coordinate on a rapid transit system
similar to the Bay Area’s B.A.R.T. “It’s going to take a lot of
time, planning and money, but sooner or later, it’s going to be
necessary.”
Matthes said, “I think we need to understand all the
ramifications of being involved in the PSRC, and we need to do more
studying on that. … I’m very worried about a large bureaucratic
organization telling Kitsap County how we’re going to live and
where we’re going to live 20 to 30 years from now.”
Garrido said “absolutely, yes” the county needs to maintain
membership in the PSRC. “We’re increasingly in need of partnering
with other jurisdictions” to address regional infrastructure and
growth issues.” She said Kitsap and other jurisdictions can “find
efficiencies and ideas” from one another.
This doesn’t have to do with growth. It’s a category I call
“baggage carried.”
Matthes is a former president of the Kitsap
Alliance of Property Owners. He has said he does not want to be
regarded as simply a mouthpiece for KAPO, although he supports
individual property rights. In addition to fiscal conservatism, his
other main platform is land use regulations and the need to
simplify them.
Mahan is the son of Port of Bremerton
Commissioner and former Kitsap County Commissioner Bill Mahan. He
has said he wants to distance himself from his father – especially
when it comes to talking about SEED. The time he spend hanging
around county offices as a youngster has given him an insider’s
understanding of county government, he said.
Garrido lost in her bid to retain and regain
her seat on the county’s Board of Commissions when she ran against
incumbent Jan Angel in 2000 and 2004. She has learned much since
then from her involvement with the Kitsap Economic Development
Alliance and other local boards about the importance of “making
alliances.”
Nuchims is a relative newcomer to local
politics, having moved here four years ago. He joined the race
relatively late as a Democrat, but failed to get any votes of
endorsement from the Kitsap Democratic Party and then switched to
independent. He appears to see his role as being a “gadfly” to the
status quo of county politics. He is concerned with development in
Manchester and protection of view rights.
