May 12

Written by:
5/12/2010 7:08 AM 

Last evening a guest listened to his hostess tell about what King County is charging for a building permit to install a large tank. The guest put this information alongside the dip in the economy and reached the irrefutable conclusion that the county’s DDES palace on Oakesdale needed some new Turkish rugs. His mind crunched inexorably on to reach the conclusion that Vashon Island badly needed a touch of self-government. By that he meant a body that enabled consensus.

Among the many issues on which consensus is long overdue, he thought, is the browbeating and exploiting we take from the DDES. It surprised the guest to realize this for he was in the habit of listing things like the commute, Glacier, health care, the homeless, drug use by youth, war, and so on. You know, the usual suspects for endangering our mental health. In the event, he not only realized this, but also was much encouraged by the newly current survey of opinion about having a credit union of our very own. Exclamation point implied.

So how would this touch of self government operate in the case of that tank? It would call in affected and interested parties to talk. Material issues like the access road, improved or dirt, would be settled, and then the issue of the string of fees, and the series of demands, for issuance of a permit would be addressed head and pocket on. DDES would be urged to reconsider the fees (plural intended), And this point is where the “consensus” gains weight. The letter from Vashon would be signed by the conferees. DD and Ess would then have to deal with not one, but many, objectors.

The present Council, funded by the County as it is, would not be able to generate the kind of consensus our guest dreams of.