Submitted by Steve Wehrly

I ask you to vote for me because I want to work for you. I want the job, not the title. I want to use what I have learned during my 40 years as a participant in local, state, and federal governments to benefit all my fellow islanders and all of our wonderful islands. If you vote for me, you will be my only employer, my only “special interest”.

Whether you vote for me or not, I will always be ready to talk with you about our county and about issues important to you. I cannot promise to always do what you want, but I will consider your ideas, I will convey your ideas to my colleagues, and I will do my best to include your ideas in the legislation I write and vote on, including the county budget.

As your Councilmember, my first priority will be to do what I can to assist health care providers to return the people of San Juan Island to health and to return the economy of all islands to stable prosperity.

The most important matter I will work on will be the county budget. We must deal with the reductions in revenue and the increases in expenditures caused by the coronavirus crisis.

I have worked on many budgets as a lobbyist, and I have studied and worked on the county budget as a reporter for the Journal. I know how to work with the complexities preparing a budget. I know that the budget affects the taxes you pay to fund the services provided in that budget, and I know that a substantial portion of that budget is provided by both state and federal governments.

I look forward to working with the other councilmembers and with the county employees to achieve a balanced budget that provides funding for the necessary services that we all rely upon

I have been a lawyer and lobbyist since 1980. During that time I have worked to get things done with conservatives and liberals, with Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians and Independents, with women and men. I am not a partisan for any party or viewpoint; I am not an ideologue.

I was a regular visitor to San Juan Island from 1991 until Peggi Bailey and I moved here in 2004. After my lobbying work was interrupted by a subdural hematoma in 2008, I have worked on political campaigns, wrote for this newspaper and others, sold beef jerky at Roche Harbor, and worked at the transfer station, at Tammy Cotton Farmers Insurance, at Post San Juan, and, now, at the Friday Harbor ferry dock greeting ferry riders.

Please read my statement and biography in the Voters Pamphlet. For more information about me, or to tell me about issues or matters you think I should know about, please phone me at 360-298-1292 or e-mail me at wehrlyforcouncil@gmail.com. You can also google Steve Wehrly reporter to check out some of the articles I wrote for this newspaper.