The League of Women Voters held a forum at the Grange on July 6 covered the five County Commissioner candidates running for one seat and the EMS levy.

Election day is Aug. 2, 2016 and the ballots will be mailed out by the Elections Office on approximately July 15.

The five candidates running for San Juan County Council District 1 had the opportunity to lay out their platform before voters in attendance, and dispel any rumors or misconceptions voters had about their policies and character.

In this year’s race the candidates are Sheryl Albritton, Steve Wehrly, Bill Watson, Frank Penwell, and Bob Jarman.

The opening question from the public was about affordable housing. Specifically, how candidates would address the issue if elected. All candidates spoke about the immediate things the county can do to help the crisis, such as looking for stakeholders to develop land and finding the land optimal for development, and said how it should be one of the primary goals of the County Comprehensive Plan. Watson was able to lay out a plan for dealing with the crisis.

“We need to find some sort of revenue stream for the entire affordable housing/rental situation,” Watson said.

His approach that included taxing tourists for vacation rentals, higher taxes on excess property and working with nonprofit charities to help solve the problem. Jarman pointed out that when developing land, access to utilities needs to be considered, because the cost to bring those utilities to undeveloped land could make developing the land too expensive for an investor.

Voters also asked about whether the candidates could guarantee equal access to the county council, no matter, which island they live on. Albritton said she plans to set up workshops open to the public on all the islands. However Wehrly took it a step further.

“Representing all of the people of this county is what the people are voting on,” Wehrly said. “I think that the county council should hold regular meetings on all of the islands. And I think that the county council should be available on all of the islands regularly.”

Climate change was also a concern of voters; specifically, how each councilman would approach the issue. All candidates made it clear that they believed in climate change and that the county needed to have a plan in place to deal with it appropriately. Albritton was concerned with certain areas of shoreline that are susceptible to the rising ocean levels and said we need to do some research and lay out a disaster plan.

“Climate change is upon us and as an environmental science student, it is alarming the effect it is going to have worldwide,” Albritton said. “But we need to incorporate into our disaster plan what houses are going to be affected; can they manage a retreat of their house?”

Concerns of vessel traffic around the islands was also brought forth by the public, specifically large tanker vessels that are at risk of spilling. Watson pointed out that while he is opposed to increased vessel traffic the county’s focus should be on preventing spills and putting more thought into a rescue tug at Turning Point. Jarman spoke about how oil spill disasters are a personal issue for him. He explained how he was involved in a beach cleanup around San Francisco that was hit by an oil spill and fears the same thing happening to the San Juans.

“The reason I don’t own a boat is because I am afraid it might leak oil,” Jarman said. “I don’t want to leave behind that sheen.”

Candidates also expressed their support for commercially grown marijuana on the islands. While Penwell said he would support the measure if the public wanted commercial marijuana, he also said that the marijuana would need to meet regulations set forth by the county’s ban on GMOs.

The primary will be held August 2 to decide, which two candidates will face off in the November county council election.

Also during the forum, EMS Chief Jerry Martin and Public Hospital District 1 Board of Commissioners Chairman Bill Williams were again on hand to provide information concerning the upcoming San Juan Island Emergency Medical Services levy vote. The San Juan Island Grange Hall saw a full house as locals gathered to have their questions about the levy, which asks residents to support another six year levy at the rate of 50 cents per $1,000 assessed home value to support the local EMS, answered.

The forum began with Williams giving a two minute opening statement on why the Hospital Board of Commissioners was supporting the EMS levy that will ask residents to raise the levy rate from 35 cents to 50 cents in order to keep San Juan Island EMS functioning at the high level of care and support locals have seen over the past few years. He stressed that Martin, the hospital commissioners and a Budget Review Committee made up of private citizens have been working to hard to not only understand what the public wants (which appears to be that EMS should continue with the multitude of services it currently offers) and create a working, realistic budget to support that.

“The community consensus is that the public wants EMS to continue at this level of service,” said Williams.

He also made it clear that 50 cents is the amount necessary in order to keep EMS functioning at this level and it will be the only amount asked for on the upcoming August ballot and again on the November ballot should the first vote not pass.

Questions from audience members were varied. One citizens wondered why the budget showed an increase in EMT stipends when cuts were supposed to have been made to the budget. Another, who preferred not to use Peace Island Hospital due to it’s religious Catholic affiliations, wondered if EMS would allow patients to choose which hospital they are sent to during an emergency. Another question asked was why EMS would ask for such a high raise (50 cents for this levy) when they could just go in a cut their budget back further thus keeping the levy at the current 35 cents. Other questions ranged from wanting an explanation of how the Public Hospital District’s superintendent salary was paid, to why the levy was only valid for six years as opposed to permanent to whether or not the old medical center building, currently for sale, had an affect on the EMS budget. Audience members also wanted to know if the levy fails on the August ballot will EMS try again with the 50 cent levy on the November ballot.

Martin and Williams fielded and answered these questions for an hour letting audience members know that Peace Island Hospital was separate from EMS-this levy would only fund EMS, the old medical building is paid for by the Public Hospital District, not EMS and that patients could choose where they prefer to be treated though EMS works within strict protocols that must be followed.

Williams reiterated his statement that 50 cents per $1,000 assessed home value is absolutely what is necessary to keep EMS running at it’s current level of care. The current 35 cent levy ends at the end of 2016 and if the 50 cent levy does not pass EMS will slowly go into bankruptcy or severely cut services.

“Think about what’s in your best interest,” said Williams. “About $200 per year or no EMS? That sounds like pretty cheap insurance.”