Washington
State Review of Comments and Facilitator Bias

Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 11:23 AM

Subject: RE: State review continues

If Michelle is making substantive
comments as an employee facilitator of the county/DOE then the  process is obviously flawed. It also is blatantly
obvious that Michelle's job is to skew the process into whatever the county
commissioners and DOE thinks it should be.

For a public employee this is highly unethical if not also illegal.

Since we still live in the USA and "We the People" takes precedent
and not -"we the bureaucrats" or "we the politicians" all  comments  must be made public ASAP!

RCW 90.58.090 among others that Jim
Hagen found obviously will have legal ramification?

Edel

Subject: Re: FW: State review continues

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 07:27:57 -0700

Ken, you are
right.  The County must make
Michelle's comments available and allow comment on them.  State agencies
allow comments to be submitted, but do not make their replies available until
it is too late to respond back.  Kind of a parent-child relationship,
"I don't want to hear your excuses, we're doing it because 'I said so'
"

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 10:41 PM

Subject: Re: FW: State review continues

"1.       The
County is currently working to provide Ecology some feedback on the issues
raised by the 300+ comment letters received during the state-wide public
comment period. "

OK, why was the
comment period state wide ??? Oh, I know, everyone on
the planet has an interest in MY PROPERTY !

Why can our 'County'
(who else but - Michelle?) provide DOE with 'some feedback' after the comment
period ended ??

The County is US, WE
THE PEOPLE - not Michelle. We have spoken and she has no right to clarify or 'feedback'
- ANYTHING. (we
should demand copies of everything she fed back)

This is especially
true because she is paid from a state DOE grant - a very incestuous situation !!   Why is a defacto
state employee representing the property owners of Jefferson County who pay the
property taxes and who are being hurt by this SMP ?? (essentially DOE
represents the county in DOE decision making)

As far as I am
concerned Michelle's actions reopen the comment process and roll back the
timeline, otherwise we are denied equal protection as guaranteed by the 14th
amendment! Our comments have not been protected from her SPIN
!

Ken

From: Michelle McConnell [mailto:[email-masked]]

Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 4:15 PM

To: Michelle McConnell

Subject: SMP: State review continues

Greetings & Happy Summer
Interested Parties!

STATE PROCESS

The State’s review of our Locally Approved SMP (LA-SMP)
continues with WA Department of Ecology:

1.
The
County is currently working to provide Ecology some feedback on the issues
raised by the 300+ comment letters received during the state-wide public
comment period.

2.
After
our Response to Comments is submitted to Ecology (within the next month or so),
Ecology will prepare their Findings and Conclusions along with their decision
to A) approve; B) approve with required changes; or C) deny the SMP.  If
changes are required, some dialogue may be required to find complete agreement
between the State and the County.

3.
After
Ecology approval, the final step is for the Board of County Commissioners to
adopt the new SMP by ordinance as new components of the Comprehensive Plan and
Unified Development Code.

So while the process is moving
forward, we still have a few months to go before final adoption and the new SMP
takes effect.  Stay tuned… this email list will continue to receive
project updates.

NEWSPAPER CLARIFICATIONS

You may have seen the recent articles
in last week’s Leader newspaper – a few points of
clarification are needed:

·
Buffers
& Setbacks – While it may seem a finer point, there is a difference
between the terms buffers and setbacks as proposed by the LA-SMP.  The
150-foot distance proposed is a standard shoreline buffer for
stream/river and marine shorelines that fall under SMP jurisdiction.
There are separate 5-foot side-yard and 10-foot building setbacks
proposed as well.  Far from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach,
the LA-SMP also proposes 6 options to adjust the standard shoreline buffer when
specific situations arise.

The current SMP has only requires
setbacks:  30 to 100-feet for residential and a minimum of 15-feet for
commercial and urban development.  The County’s Critical Areas
Ordinance has included a 150-foot buffer for fish & wildlife habitat
conservation areas since early-2008, and has successfully withstood legal
challenge.  The City of Port Townsend SMP requires buffers that range from
50 to 200-feet.  Other jurisdictions around Puget Sound also have 150-foot
buffers in place (e.g. Whatcom County).

·
SMP
jurisdiction – Not all shoreline areas in the county meet the
statutory definition for ‘Shoreline of the State’.  The SMP
will apply to all shorelines that meet the criteria for SMP jurisdiction.
Lakes less than 20 acres in size, rivers/streams with less than 20 cubic feet
per second mean annual flow, and lands under federal or tribal ownership do not
qualify.

Thanks for your continued interest,

Michelle

No reply to this message is
required.  You have received this message as a member of the Jefferson
County Shoreline Master Program (SMP) Interested Parties Email Distribution
List. If you do not wish to receive further project notices, reply to this
message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" as the subject and body text. Anyone who
wants to be added to the list may send an email with "SUBSCRIBE" as
the subject and body text. Please note: Recipient names and email addresses are
not shown to keep that information private.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michelle McConnell,
Associate Planner - LRP Lead

Jefferson County
Department of Community Development

Long Range Planning
Division

621 Sheridan St., Port
Townsend, WA 98368

MAIN
360.379.4450        DIRECT 360.379.4484
FAX 360.379.4473

WEB
www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment

OFFICE OPEN:
9:00 a - 4:30 p Monday - Thursday; Closed Friday

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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