Opinion - Top opinion

POSTED: Sunday, Aug. 09, 2009

Important decisions made in this month's primary

Every Whatcom County resident has a good reason to vote in the Aug. 18 primary election. There are multiple candidates for several seats in our local governments - the governments where the decisions have the biggest effect on our day-to-day lives.

We encourage all voters to fill in their ballot and return it.

Our editorial board had a chance to interview candidates in the Whatcom County Council at-large race, the Bellingham City Council's Ward 6 race and the two Port of Bellingham commissioner races that are on the ballot. Here are our thoughts after those interviews.

WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL, AT-LARGE

The one thing our community most lacks is leadership. We have far too many politicians who take stances based on pleasing some special-interest subset of citizens rather than doing what they know is the right thing.

Laurie Caskey-Schreiber is not one of those politicians. Caskey-Schreiber has taken so many bold, sometimes controversial, stances that she may not have won re-election in the council district she used to represent. She decided instead to run for the council for the open at-large seat, which is being vacated by Seth Fleetwood.

Truth be told, we don't always agree with Caskey-Schreiber. We were not pleased when she voted in favor of a tax increase in these tough economic times. But when it comes to the most important issues facing our county, such as controlling growth or protecting and restoring Lake Whatcom, Caskey-Schreiber is determined to do the right things even if it does upset small groups of citizens. For example, she told our board she is happy to limit growth in Lynden in order to protect vitally important farmland.

Caskey-Schreiber's opponents seem unprepared for making such tough decisions. Dave Pros, a long-time member of the Whatcom County Planning Commission, spent his time with our board talking about how he wants to hold more community "visioning" meetings and such - exercises that have been held over and over again in our communities and that always lead to the same result. Whatcom County residents, including those in the cities, want to limit sprawl and protect rural lands. More meetings are not necessary.

Lynden-area businessman Bill Knutzen brings a different perspective than either Caskey-Schreiber or Pros, but one that we felt was undereducated on the major issues. For example, Knutzen had few specific ideas on how to protect or preserve Lake Whatcom. We hope if he makes it through the primary to the general election he will spend more time formulating real plans for our community-wide issues.

BELLINGHAM CITY COUNCIL, WARD 6

We have decided not to make a recommendation in this race. We found Catherine Chambers, Michael Lilliquist and Christopher Morrison too similar in their stances to be able to mark a specific reason to recommend any of the three over the other.

When we asked them, at the end of our interviews, to tell us what they believe their differences are, all three cited their background: Chambers talked about her years working in local Democratic Party politics; Lilliquist talked about the many local boards he has served on in recent years, especially since his failed election attempt two year ago; and Morrison talked about running his small glass-blowing art business ownership and his time served on the boards of local arts efforts.

All three seem decent people, and we salute anyone willing to run for office and serve the community. But whoever among the three voters choose will have to learn to be leaders as the city deals with big issues such as growth, funding waterfront redevelopment or paying to retrofit the entire city with water meters.

PORT OF BELLINGHAM COMMISSION, DISTRICT 1

Incumbent Scott Walker has been a good port commissioner since 1991. He is personally responsible for many of the best ideas the port has pursued in recent years, including an emphasis on environmental cleanup, waterfront redevelopment and a budget that demands fiscal responsibility and only uses tax monies for needed environmental work or public amenities, such as parks.

Perhaps, though, Walker has become a victim of his own success. He admitted to our board that he dug in too deeply in the recent standoff with the city over the waterfront plan. If he didn't have such a worthy challenger in John Blethen, we might ask voters to forgive Walker. But Blethen is running and he is a great choice for the future of the Port of Bellingham. Voters should choose Blethen.

Blethen has already proven his leadership ability to this community on important port issues. When city of Bellingham and port officials refused to negotiate over minor details of the waterfront redevelopment, such as which direction the roads might go, Blethen used his own money to pay for a new plan drawn up by local architects. Blethen's plan became the basis of the compromise the city and port eventually agreed to.

We think Ham Hayes is an intelligent guy. How then to explain his claim recently that port officials "bribed" Lummi Nation officials? Hayes was unhappy with what he believes was a lack of public transparency before the recent signing of an agreement between the port and the Lummi Nation about the waterfront. That could be a fair criticism. But accusing Lummi leaders of taking a "bribe" is not only incorrect and offensive, but it could damage the relationship between local officials and the tribe. Hayes will need to learn to be more careful, and moderate, with his accusations and campaign rhetoric if he ever wants to serve in an elected office.

PORT OF BELLINGHAM COMMISSION, DISTRICT 2

Voters should return incumbent Doug Smith to the port commission. Smith brings a strong business and engineering background that has served him well in his 15 years on the commission. We find Smith's methodical approach of gathering data before making an intelligent decision a great counterweight to the emotionalism that too often rules public discourse in our community

Unfortunately, neither of Smith's challengers in this year's election - Doug Karlberg and Mike McAuley - have the same approach.

In talks to the community and in our meeting, both McAuley and Karlberg offered little in the way of feasible new ideas.

McAuley, who currently invests in and repairs homes for resale, said he ran for office because he believes the port commission must be changed. But when it came to specifics, he was very short, offering the idea of a "technology park" on the waterfront with little idea of how to create the interest needed to make such a thing work, and strongly supporting the outlandishly out-of-touch idea of turning old Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill's lagoon into a sewage treatment plant. There is no chance that citizens of Bellingham and Whatcom County want their redeveloped waterfront to be crowned by a smelly sewage plant.

Karlberg spent much of his time talking about making the waterfront home to a fishing and shipping fleet tied to the commercial fishing industry and the communities he knows in Alaska, where he has worked for many years as a commercial fisher. Karlberg suggested that the future of the waterfront is in food processing and fishing fleets, apparently to be lured to Bellingham from Seattle.

We suggest Karlberg should know that depending on the fishing fleet used to be a way of life for the port, but most of that fleet has left, and the commercial area at Squalicum Harbor Marina is full of boats for sale. Karlberg's suggestions have a nostalgic flair, but they are not a realistic path for the future of our community.