Submitted by the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization that encourages informed participation in government. The Observer Corps attends and takes notes at government meetings to expand public understanding of public policy and decisions. The notes do not necessarily reflect the views of the League or its members.

County Council meeting Dec. 9

During public access time, eight people from Lopez spoke about the negotiations of a new interlocal agreement between the Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District and the County. Most of the speakers supported renewing the current agreement without change, while several requested another extension of the current agreement for three months to one year to allow more time for negotiation and community input into a new agreement. The Council held over approval of a draft letter to tribal governments to Dec. 10 to allow time to review the final language.

The Visitor’s Bureau presented its case to keep the current funding formula. All three islands had drops in visitors of 7-21% since 2023 from January to mid-October and July to August, though visitor numbers grew robustly on the Olympic Peninsula and Leavenworth. About 75% of visitors each year are first-time visitors. In the past an average of 73% of visitors were from Washington; in 2024 that fell to 67%. The amount spent here on marketing per visitor is well below that of other state destinations, while advertising costs are rising. Lodging tax revenue is down by 3.8%-6.8%. Tourism businesses have falling revenue and increasing costs, squeezing their viability. Sales tax revenue from visitors is another significant factor for county services. Many nontourism businesses depend on visitors for viability. For example, the Orcas Island Market is only profitable due to the additional revenue provided by visitors.

The grants administrator reported to the Council on the state audit; the report will be issued soon. Grants are the second largest source of county revenue. The current grants policy resolution from 2014 needs updating. The calculation for recovering county administrative costs is cumbersome and ineffective. A federal rule change will allow the County to move to a simpler 15% de minimis rate that will support higher recovery. Federal grants flow mostly to Health and Community Services and Environmental Stewardship and may be affected by changes at the federal level. The county will obligate funds remaining from the ARPA grant (Covid-era federal support) to general fund personnel expenses by year-end.

Health and Community Services is managing the grant to supplement ferry services and is developing requests for proposals for barge services, and interisland foot passenger service when Washington State Ferries service is unavailable and scheduled foot-passenger service Anacortes. They will need more staff support when services begin. Councilmember Jane Fuller will do a CNL2 interview to update the public on these plans. The Council took a second look at the proposed reorganization of the planning code.

County Council meeting Dec. 10

During public access eight people from Orcas Island spoke in favor of the cultural access program. A person from Lopez supported the tree-planting plan for Lopez Village. This was the last in-person meeting for council members Christine Minney and Cindy Wolf, but they will attend meetings on Dec. 16 and 23 virtually. The Council approved the letter to 14 tribal governments about a proposed engagement framework.

At a public hearing on the cultural access program and sales tax an additional 25 county residents spoke in support of the program, which is supported by all four County public school districts. The Council approved the tax and creation of the program. Council member Fuller abstained as she would have preferred the tax go on the ballot for voter approval and due to concerns about a potential negative impact on the chances of a levy to establish a Parks and Recreation District on Lopez.

After public hearings, the Council approved the transfer of a parcel of land to the Agricultural Conservation Land Program and added 2024 docket requests of proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and the County Code to the Department of Community Planning’s workplan. Friends of the San Juans spoke in favor of moving quickly to update the code to allow renewable energy projects on Rural Farm and Forest Land, now only allowed on Agricultural and Forest Resource Lands. The Council noted the burdens on the Department’s workload and that it was important to address this in the upcoming comprehensive plan and code updates.

The Council approved a $12,000 grant to volunteer entities running cold-weather shelters. They approved grants of $84,000 from Housing Sales Tax to each of the three resource centers for housing case management services. The Council adopted a resolution setting 2025 state legislative session priorities. The Council approved the recommended Public Facility grants – four to the Economic Development Commission and a $500K grant to the Town of Friday Harbor for the water treatment plant.

The Council approved the Public Works Department moving forward to request designating the land purchased for an essential public facility of Shaw for rural industrial use instead of rural general use. The process will be similar but faster because the allowed uses are narrower. The next step in the process is the CEPA checklist and Shaw Island residents have lots of questions about the impacts of the proposed uses.

The Council reaffirmed its recommendation to the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee to allocate a flat $500K to the Visitors Bureau for destination marketing.