By Minor Lile

Sounder contributor

The San Juan County Charter Review Commission held its first meeting on Jan. 21. The initial meeting of the commission was largely devoted to housekeeping matters, including the election of a permanent chair and vice-chair, review of the funding that is available to support the work of the commission, consideration of future meeting dates, and various other protocols and procedures.

Kevin Ranker was elected as the permanent chair of the commission and Olivia Roseberry was elected as vice-chair. Both Ranker and Roseberry are from Orcas Island. Their nominations were unopposed. Ranker previously served on the San Juan County Council from 2004 to 2009 and in the Washington State Legislature from 2009-2019. Roseberry is the branch manager for KeyBank in Eastsound.

The meeting got off to a slow start as several of the participants had difficulty utilizing the Microsoft video conferencing software provided by the county. This led to a short recess followed by discussion and eventual agreement to move to the Zoom platform for future meetings.

The county has allocated $7,000 to support the work of the commission. The cost of purchasing access to Zoom will come from this fund. The commissioners also agreed to contract with someone yet to be identified to take minutes and provide administrative support.

The 18-member commission was elected last November. Commission members were elected from each of the county’s three legislative districts based on proportional representation, with three members from Lopez Island, six from Orcas and nine from San Juan.

The purpose of the Charter Review Commission is to conduct a review of the County Charter and recommend any changes that the majority believe to be necessary. Before taking effect, any changes that are recommended by the commission must also be approved by voters at next November’s election.

The next meeting of the Commission will be on Thursday, Jan. 28, from 4-6 p.m. Due to the difficulties getting the meeting started, several important agenda items will carryover from Thursday’s meeting. These include a 30-minute introduction to Open Public meeting requirements. The presentation will be provided by Deputy Prosecutor Amy Vira. Also on the agenda are an opportunity for each of the commission members to introduce themselves and agree on the timing and schedule of meetings going forward. The process is expected to continue for the next several months. Information on public access for the meeting will be available on the San Juan County website, www.sanjuanco.com/.

In the absence of a full-fledged presentation, County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord offered some guidelines to help commission members not run afoul of the Open Public Meetings Act. A key point was that all official commission business on email, including inquiries from the public, should be done using the email addresses that have been provided by the county for this purpose. This eases the ability of the county to comply with access to information requests and helps avoid the mixing of private and public business that occurs if personal email addresses are used.