INSIDE: Season on the line ... Sports, A7
Record South Whidbey
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2013 | Vol. 89, No. 12 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
Schools push need, plans at final levy meeting Fire boat
looks like done deal in port grant
By BEN WATANABE Staff reporter LANGLEY — Less than a week before ballots are due, the South Whidbey School District made its final push for public approval of two levies. At stake is $5.9 million of public funding through a maintenance and operations levy and a capital/technology levy. And as of Feb. 7, 64 percent of the 12,059 ballots mailed out were yet to be returned. The first levy is a renewal of $3.9 million annually for three years and is projected to be at a similar rate to the existing levy — about $1.04 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The maintenance and operations levy accounts for 26 percent of the district’s $15 million budget. Losing that money, Superintendent Jo Moccia warned, could result in devastating staff and service cuts. “If we have to reduce 25 percent of what we do, imagine what that would look like,” she told a small gathering at the meeting. The second levy for capital funds and technology was slated to double levy rates, bringing in $2 million for the next six years. Most of the money — $1.25 million — would go toward the capital side of the district’s budget. Disrepair across the district has caught up with its skeleton crew of maintenance employees, and major work is needed at each building. If the two levies are approved by a simple majority of 50 percent or greater, the owner of a property valued at $300,000 would pay $471 for South Whidbey school taxes for the next three years. Though only nine people attended the
By JIM LARSEN Record editor
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Superintendent Jo Moccia reviews the South Whidbey School District’s growth and decline in academic performance during a levy meeting Wednesday night. 50-minute meeting who were not school board members or district employees, discussion centered on how to get the possible work contracts to “local” businesses and contractors. The district is bound by law to accept the lowest bid after putting out any work project to
bid. Large contracts are handled by the state, which has a short list of preferred contractors, who can then hire other workers for tasks.
Mayoral candidates fixed at 5 Interview process revised by council By JIM LARSEN Record editor Five people have applied for the vacant Langley mayor position and the procedure to appoint one has been changed to treat applicants from the city council more like the others. The application deadline was Thursday and the final one to come in was from Fred McCarthy, a retired superintendent of the South Whidbey School District. Previous applicants included City Council members Bruce
Ben Watanabe / Record file
Hal Seligson, pictured here acting as Langley’s mayor pro tem, will seek the vacant mayor position of the Village by the Sea. Allen and Hal Seligson, who has been head of government as mayor pro tem since Larry Kwarsick resigned last month. Also in the running for mayor are Edwin Anderson, a retired GTE supervisor, software engi-
neer and web applications developer; and Thomas Gill, who spent two years on the city’s Planning Advisory Board and is its volunteer “manager of information technology.” He works for Whidbey Telecom.
South Whidbey Fire/EMS will get a new fire boat worth approximately $500,000 thanks to a federal grant confirmed this week by U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen. The cost of the boat is half the $1 million FEMA grant “for funds to be used this year,” said Larsen in a news release. He was compelled to pursue the matter after meeting last month with Port of South Whidbey officials at the Langley Marina.
“It would be really nice if we could work it into the dock.” Curt Gordon Port of South Whidbey
See Schools, A6
The procedure to interview the candidates has changed after inquiries by The South Whidbey Record following Seligson’ statement that he and fellow Councilman Allen could participate in the interview process as council members and vote for themselves if they wanted. He cited City Attorney Bruce Disend as the source of the advice. Later in the week, the process changed. The city’s legal firm did not return a call from the Record, but Clerk/Treasurer Debbie Mahler announced a new approach late Thursday afternoon. “After speaking with out municipal attorney and an attorney at Municipal Research & Services, I have advised Council that the members who are applying for the position should not vote for themselves and should recuse themselves, leave the Council table and join the other applicants for the interview and selection process,” See Mayor, A6
Angie Mozer, finance director for the Port of South Whidbey, now sees the grant, for which the port has been angling for several years, as a done deal. “It seems like it’s approved,” she said Thursday. “The port gets $1 million.” The port will use the Federal Emergency Management Agency money to purchase a fire boat designed and operated by South Whidbey Fire/EMS. Fire Chief Rusty Palmer had not been formally notified of the boat funding as of Thursday. “We’ve heard the rumor but no paper work,” he said. “But we are on the go for that.” The chief said the fire boat has been in the district’s budget for three years and specifications have been put together. The FEMA grant money apparently has to be spent this calendar year, and getting the boat built on time is expected to be a challenge. As designed, the boat could be used for water rescues, fighting fires from the water or evacuating people from the shore. The only boat the fire department currently has is a 1982 Zodiac, a trailered rubber rescue boat with an outboard motor. “My kayak’s two feet longer,” See Fire, A6