Review Bainbridge Island
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2013 | Vol. 113, No. 32 | www.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.com | 75¢ 2013 ELECTION - NORTH WARD CITY COUNCIL POSITION
Bainbridge candidates bring business and public service approach to dais BY CECILIA GARZA Bainbridge Island Review
A single distinction stands between the two in the running for the North Ward seat on the Bainbridge Island City Council. On one end, Dick Haugan, 69, says he’s running on issues, not platitudes. On the other, Val Tollefson, 71, says instead of an agenda he’s doing this because he’s committed to public service. “I think the city council has been illserved in recent years by people who had come to the job because they had a mission,” Tollefson said. Not having an outright stance on particular controversial issues is what makes him the better candidate, he explains. If elected, it will give him a better perspective to serve the community, rather than spending time on issues that have already gone through the process. “The last time around there were a number of people that were elected on the strength of the uproar over the water utility issue,” Tollefson said. “Not to say that the water utility wasn’t important, but they spent an inordinate amount of time fighting over that and precious little time attending to long-range planning and things that they acknowledge that they’d like to do, but they’re just distracted,” he said. Haugan on the other hand, says that in contrast to Tollefson’s “status quo” approach to the council race, he has dug into the issues. As stated on his candidate website, these are the sewer utility, Winslow Tomorrow, Rockaway Beach Road, the city park bathroom, Wyatt Way and Wing Point Road, fiscal control, stormwater utility funds and the Shoreline Master Program.
State finds few faults with Bainbridge SMP Ecology finds no problems with public process, property rights or constitutionality issues BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
Cecilia Garza | Bainbridge Island Review
Dick Haugan and Val Tollefson square off at the first candidate forum of the elections, hosted by the American Legion. The two are in the running for the North Ward, Position 7 seat on the Bainbridge Island City Council. Critics of Haugan’s campaign pamphlet say too many of the issues he brings forward are spending problems that no longer exist at city hall, since several of them took place four city managers ago and during the old council-mayor form of government that prompted an overwhelming vote to change governance at city hall. Despite this, Haugan says that these issues are examples of fiscal irresponsibility. “I would say wasting money and not getting the people’s work done are kind of the prime drivers of what I’m doing,” Haugan said. “And how I’m different from my opponent, is that I’m a businessman.” Haugan has many years of experience in marketing, advertising and database. In the same tone, Haugan likens his potential election to the council to a business marriage.
To solve the city’s business problems, he says, is to be in the company of business-minded council members. “I think it’s time to get these problems fixed,” he said. “It’s not just being a nice guy.” After meeting with three of the remaining council members of whom he didn’t know prior to the race — Dave Ward, Sarah Blossom and Steve Bonkowski — he knows that since they all have business backgrounds they will be compatible. “I think if you got the right group together, you should be fine,” Haugan said. “If I thought we were incompatible, you and I would not be talking right now. I wouldn’t have done it, because that core group of people has to get along. You don’t have to agree with everything, but there has to be give and take.” When asked what he would do if turn to north ward | A30
Bainbridge Island’s controversial rewrite of the city’s shoreline regulations has largely passed muster with the state Department of Ecology. Ecology officials gave the city notice earlier this week that the state has no problems with most of the changes that have been suggested to the city’s Shoreline Master Program. Work on the update started in 2008 and came to a tumultuous end in May, when the city council approved the updated plan on a 4-3 vote. The Shoreline Master Program, or SMP, is a statemandated set of policies and rules that regulate development along the coast while protecting natural resources and providing for public access to the water. But the update to the SMP was bitterly opposed by some on Bainbridge Island, including many shoreline property owners who said the new plan was too complex and too restrictive and trampled on their property rights. Some also claimed the new program was unconstitutional, and they complained that the public did not have enough chances to offer input on the plan. Earlier this week, however,
Paid Political Advertising
“We need a city councilmember who can see the problems clearly and initiate a solution based on the facts. Dick Haugan has the right skills and experience. I support him wholeheartedly as someone who will do just that.” - Liz Murray, Past Bainbridge City Council Paid for by Dick for Council – Position 7
Ecology officials offered their draft comments on the plan that was approved by the council. Barbara Nightingale, a regional shoreline planner with Ecology, said most of the required, and recommended, changes center on regulations that restrict aquaculture.
Aquaculture changes Ecology officials pointed out two dozen “required” changes that would clarify policies and rules such as aquaculture design standards, commercial geoduck policies and regulations, and other changes, such as refined definitions for shellfish gardens. Another 23 “recommended” changes also involve aquaculture polices and regulations. Nightingale noted the suggestions offered to the city from Ecology this week are draft suggestions. The city can accept the changes as written by Ecology, or offer suggestions that would clarify the policies and regulations set out in the city’s new SMP. “This is a time for them to provide alternative language,” Nightingale said. After an agreement is turn to smp | A14