Speaking of South Kitsap

PO Council Race: Lucarelli Closes in on Powers

chris henry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:07:15 +0000

Challenger is within recount range.

Chris Henry
chenry@kitsapsun.com
PORT ORCHARD
Cindy Lucarelli, challenging long-time incumbent Carolyn Powers, for Port Orchard City Council position 2, moved within recount range in unofficial results Thursday. The two candidates are now separated by 10 votes.
Powers has held a whisker of a lead since the election Nov. 3. She was besting Lucarelli by .58 percentage points as of Nov. 9
In revised results, released Thursday afternoon by the Kitsap County Auditor, Powers, with 1,207 votes, had 49.83 percent of the total vote. Lucarelli had 1,197 votes for 49.42 percent of the vote. That .41 percentage point difference puts Lucarelli within the range for an automatic recount, triggered under state law by a margin of less than half a percentage point.
There are currently 18 write-in votes.
Results of the election will not be certified until Tuesday, and Kitsap County elections manager Dolores Gilmore cautioned that things still could change. The county has a total of 14 challenged ballots received from the City of Port Orchard. These are unsigned ballots or ballots in which the signature does not match up with the voter registration. Voters have the chance to verify their signature by affidavit or in person, but it must be done by Monday afternoon. There are also military votes that could arrive before the final count, Gilmore said.
Powers is on a trip out of the country and was unavailable for comment.
Lucarelli is encouraged and eager to see the final count Tuesday.
“I have nothing to lose at this point,” she said. “It’s very exciting for me. I can’t wait to see what happens. … Hope springs eternal.”
Lucarelli is having a bit of deja vu. In 2007, she came within 3.12 percentage points of beating incumbent John Clauson, who has been on the council for more than 26 years. Powers was appointed to the council in 1988 to fulfill an unexpired term and has been reelected five times.

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Planning Consultant Undaunted by Spruce House Denial

chris henry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:29:02 +0000

The Kitsap County Hearing Examiner has denied a conditional use permit application for Spruce House, a proposed three-story development in Manchester. Planning consultant William Palmer says his client, John Park of BJP LLC, Gig Harbor, will likely appeal the decision.
Some of the town’s residents were unhappy with the scale of the building, plans for which received preliminary approval before the 2007 Manchester Plan limited building heights to two stories. But Hearing Examiner Kimberly A. Allen, in her ruling Nov. 11, said the project meets requirements of the Kitsap County Comprehensive Plan and Kitsap County Code in effect at the time Park first applied.
Allen rejected the application on the basis of stormwater plans deemed inadequate by county staff, who testified at a public hearing Oct. 22.
Another problem stems from an easement dispute between Park and the owner of a neighboring property. The neighbor’s property encroaches on the Spruce House site, and the two parties are involved in a suit and countersuit.
Since the project is in legal limbo, Allen wrote, her hands are tied for ruling in favor of Park’s application.

Palmer, who typically withholds his opinion on land use rulings, weighed in on Manchester’s potential for development vis a vis the resistance of some residents to the size and scope of Spruce House and three other retail-residential projects grandfathered in at three stories.
“I still think Manchester is the place for the kind of development proposal that is represented in Colchester Commons, Spruce House and Frank Tweten’s Project,” said Palmer, adding The Anchors at Manchester to his thoughts. “ All four, if allowed to go forward, would make Manchester a really special place to be.
“Obviously there are some who like the run-down nature of the buildings in the area and would like to see it stay that way.”

Here’s a link to a story on the one three-story project that has been built in Manchester.

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400 Submit Petition Against Park Closures

chris henry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:57:54 +0000

Marshall Kelch, manager of Wildcat Lake Grocery, is worried about the impact a proposed closure of Wildcat Lake County Park will have on his store.
“Our business actually doubles in summer,” said Kelch.
That’s due to the hundreds of Kitsap residents who visit the lake daily during summer months. Kelch on Thursday submitted a petition to the county with more than 400 signatures, gathered at the store, in protest of the proposed closure.

Wildcat Lake is now closed for winter, and Kitsap County Parks & Recreation officials say it’s likely they will leave it closed through 2010, along with Horseshoe Lake County Park in South Kitsap, to help balance the park’s department’s budget.

Closing the two parks would save the county $140,000 per year. The department must trim its spending in 2010 by nearly $500,000.

I wrote about the proposed closures on Nov. 4, including a discussion of the possibility of charging fees. I also made a blog post with a poll asking readers what you would be willing to pay in the way of fees.

It certainly wasn’t a scientific poll, and only 12 people took it. But for what it’s worth, the results were:
33.3 percent (4 people) said they’d be willing to pay $5 per carload
16.7 percent (2 people) said they’d pay $5 per person, $3 for students and seniors
16.7 percent (2 people) said they’d pay $25 per year
zero percent would pay $50 per year
33 percent (4 people) said they wouldn’t pay anything

Check the Kitsap Sun tomorrow for a follow-up story on the proposed park closures.

In related recreational news, a survey on a proposal to build a turf field at South Kitsap High School garnered the following results. Again, not scientific. Sixteen people responded.
56 percent (9 votes) said “Yes, the players are at a disadvantage since most other districts have turf.”
44 percent (7 votes) said, “No, muddy conditions are part of the game.”

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Friday Afternoon Club: Port Orchard Party Saturday

chris henry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:37:06 +0000

What: Port Orchard Party, an annual gala event hosted by Fathoms ‘O Fun; this year’s theme “Rockin’ in the ’50s.”
When: 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday (Nov. 14)
Where: Towne Square Mall.
Entertainment: Enjoy local restaurants’ best efforts as they vie for the top honors, listen to jazz, and then dance to “The Wayback Machine” playing your faves from 9 p.m. to midnight. There will be a silent auction.
Why: Benefits Fathoms ‘O Fun, South Kitsap Helpline and Port Orchard branches of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound
Child Care: The Boys & Girls Club will provide child care for children kindergarten through 6th grade at the National Guard Armory.
Cost for PO Party: Tickets are $40 at the door, $35 if pre-purchased at the following locations: Kitsap Bank, MoonDog’s, Too, Walk N’ Comfort Shoes in Towne Square Mall, Windermere Real Estate of Port Orchard and Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce. Or visit the Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce Web site.

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On Tuesday Five Chances to Speak Your Mind to the SK School Board

chris henry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:19:22 +0000

By Chris Henry
chenry@kitsapsun.com
SOUTH KITSAP
Members of the South Kitsap School District “Call to Action” Task Force have been meeting over the past year to establish goals and plans for the district in anticipation of a shift in fall 2010 to policy governance. It’s an organizational model that uses “ends” or goals to drive “means” or actions. Under policy governance, the superintendent assumes more responsibility for day-to-day decisions, while the school board focuses more on policy.
On Tuesday, members of the board will meet with the public at five separate locations to seek opinions on the direction the district should go. Meetings will run from 6 to 8 p.m. at John Sedgwick Junior High School, 8995 SE Sedgwick Road; Marcus Whitman Junior High School, 1887 Madrona Drive; Cedar Heights Junior High School, 2220 Pottery Ave.; Sunnyslope Elementary School, 4183 Sunnyslope Road SW; and Olalla Elementary School, 6100 SE Denny Boond Blvd.
Another series of public meetings is set for Dec. 16; locations to be announced.
For more information, contact Aimee Warthen at (360) 874-7002, or visit http://www.skitsap.wednet.edu.

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PO Council: One Vote Could Mean a Recount in Powers-Lucarelli Race

chris henry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:35:56 +0000

After Thursday’s election’s update, a single vote could trigger an automatic recount in the race for Port Orchard City Council Position 2.
Incumbent Carolyn Powers has 1,206 votes and 49.90 percent of 2,417 votes total, including 18 write-ins. Cindy Lucarelli has 1,193 votes and 49.36 percent of the grand total.
An automatic recount is triggered when the certified vote count, due Nov. 24, shows candidates within .5 percentage points of one another. According to Kitsap County Elections Manager Dolores Gilmore, write-in votes by law are not factored into calculations to determine if an automatic recount is in order.
Without the write-ins, Powers has 50.27 percent of the vote, and Lucarelli has 49.73. If Lucarelli earned at least one more vote (and Powers earned none), those percentages would change to 50.25 and 49.75 respectively, giving a margin of .5 percent.
Granted, with an estimated 50 votes left to count county-wide, there are still a number of scenarios that could produce other results.
Gilmore said races this close are notable but certainly not unheard-of.
“We’ve seen it where it’s been very close. We’ve had tie races and tossed coins,” she said.
A coin toss occurs if, after the recount, the race is still tied. Such situations typically occur in smaller districts, where the number of votes have a bigger impact percentage-wise. Gilmore has seen five coin toss races during her career in elections.
Votes are recounted by machine if candidates are within .5 percentage points of each other. They are manually recounted if the margin is .25 percentage points or fewer.
Stayed tuned for our follow-up coverage of this and other races in Election 2009.

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Mayor Coppola on the Mend (and Feisty) After Recent Surgery

chris henry — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:44:12 +0000

Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola said he’s doing “better every day” after emergency surgery on Oct. 22. Coppola, 59 and otherwise in good health, was admitted to Harrison Medical Center Oct. 20 for treatment of a cyst on his tailbone that had ruptured and become infected.

On his West Sound Politics blog Tuesday, Coppola said it was, “Nothing life-threatening, but fairly serious just the same, and recovery has just been slower than I had hoped.”

Coppola was in the hospital for six days. Throughout the ordeal he dropped 30 pounds, and it shows. He’s been working short days, 7 or 8 hours versus 12 to 15, annoyed with having to slow down and impatient to get back up to speed.

“I expect to be back to full strength in a week or two,” he said.

Coppola, in the blog post, shows himself scrappy as ever, pulling no punches in his acerbic recap of the Nov. 3 election.

On the Bremerton mayoral race, he appeared to criticize both candidates, calling Patty Lent, the apparent winner, “a nice person, but not really what I would term a decisive decision maker.” He handed Will Maupin a sideways compliment, saying, “I believe he is the best qualified for the job. However, based on my own personal experiences, his uncompromising, ‘My Way of the Highway’ style wouldn’t play well with the other electeds he’d have to deal with. For this reason alone, Bremerton may be better off with Lent at the helm.”

Coppola had a similar assessment of Becky Erickson, who ousted incumbent Poulsbo Mayor Kathryn Quade. Coppola wrote, “While Erickson is very smart and very resourceful, her highly aggressive personal style isn’t going to play well with the other electeds she has to work with in order to get anything done. Quade didn’t just lose here — I think Poulsbo did.”

Speaking of having to work with people, I asked the mayor if he wasn’t worried about burning political bridges. Coppola had no worries on this count. He said he’s simply providing a political analysis, and nothing that hasn’t been said before. “I don’t think I’m the only one to say that out loud,” he said of his comments about Maupin and Lent.

Closer to home, Coppola conveyed in no uncertain terms his dismay over results of the race for City Council Position 6, in which incumbent Fred Chang easily beat challenger Amy Igloi-Matsuno.

Coppola in his blog elaborated on his decision not to endorse Igloi-Matsuno, even though he endorsed incumbent Carolyn Powers over challenger Cindy Lucarelli in the position 2 race. “I believed Amy should win on her own. I didn’t want her tarred with any negativity that could be attributed to me.”

What negativity? I asked.

“I knew that Fred Chang was out there talking about the mayor’s salary,” Coppola said, referencing the council’s decision to give full-time compensation for the mayor’s position for the first six months of 2009. The decision, the council discovered on closer look at the WACs, will remain in effect through the remainder of Coppola’s term. The law allows a council to increase a sitting mayor’s salary, but not to reduce it until the seat comes up for election.

Coppola in his blog slammed Chang, saying “… what has disturbed me the most were reports from people who stated that when doorbelled by Chang, he claimed to be ‘…the only council member who opposed the Mayor tripling his own salary.’ It doesn’t get much sleazier than that.”

The factual inaccuracy of the statement in quotes is that the mayor doesn’t adjust his own salary the council does.

I asked, could those who bent the mayor’s ear by chance have misinterpreted Chang? Coppola said several people called him during the campaign, and the message was similar enough to convince him that Chang had been using the mayoral salary issue as a political wedge.

Chang today said he he knows full well how the process works and would not have made such a statement. He has always supported the idea of a full-time mayor, he said. But he has always felt the matter should be put to a vote of city residents (as does Fred Olin). Chang said he probably did agree to the concept of a full-time mayor in the September work study session Coppola mentions, but it’s also true he voted against two ordinances related to the mayor’s salary when they came before the council.

“I don’t think I’ve ever made it (the salary issue) personal about the mayor,” said Chang, who hopes he and Coppola can resume the “productive” working relationship they had before the election.

Coppola, too, said election-related prickliness won’t change dynamics on the council. When the dust settles, it will be business as usual.

On the topic of endorsements, I asked Coppola if, in endorsing Powers, he didn’t worry she, too, would be harmed by the “negativity” he feared would harm Igloi-Matsuno’s campaign. He didn’t.

“Carolyn is not a political neophyte. Amy was,” he said.
“I wanted her to win if she was going to win on her own terms.”

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Here’s One Government Official Leading the Charge on Social Networking

chris henry — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:46:30 +0000

The hitch is, he’s got a way bigger budget than Bud Harris, Kitsap County’s director of information technology, who recently reaffirmed his message of caution on mixing social networking with government.

Bill Schrier, chief technology officer for the City of Seattle, on the other hand, openly embraces new media. Schrier, who writes the Chief Seattle Geek blog, in a recent entry discussed the concept of an “open city,” in which information is shared via the Internet, now accessible 24/7 via laptop and desktop computers, as well as Blackberries, iPhones, cell phones etc.

Schrier writes:

“The theme is consistent: city governments, by opening their information, their data, their engagement processes, can generate a wealth of new ideas and understandings which make them more efficient and effective, and more robust, exciting places, with improved quality of life.

The old model, used for 250 years or more, is for a City is to collect as much data as possible about problems, its responses, services it provides and the general city environment. Then the typical city hires analysts or consultants – experts, if you will – to pore over the data and discern patterns. These experts then make recommendations for policy, action or changes.”

Schrier writes of applications that allow for public discussion of ideas and ranking of concepts through a “public engagement portal.” His department uses a model, Ideas for Seattle, that allows for some limited input online from people, and he hopes to see that concept expanded. Other governments are working on similar programs.

Pursuing this technology will provide a better community process than what Schrier calls “death-by-PowerPoint presentations and long lines of people trooping up to the microphone to give their 2 minute NIMBY mini-speeches,” he said.

Fourteen departments within the city, including police and fire, have blogs, and the city uses Twitter to communicate in “almost real time” about traffic tie ups and such. There’s also, for example, an arts blog to reach a “targeted community.”

The blogs link together on a single page. The city’s policy on social networking assures uniformity in how social media are employed and makes sure its use actually meets constituents’ needs, Schrier said. Public comments on blogs is limited, however. If a department wants to allow comments, they have to be moderated and approved before they’re put up. People who want to make comments can fill out a form on the Web site.

In today’s story on kitsapsun.com, Harris said he’s not against social networking, but, given the county’s budget struggles and his department’s own full plate, he lacks the resources to develop policy and software to cover the county on both free speech and open records issues. In Kitsap County, the public already can comment via e-mail or sign up for listservs from given departments, said Harris.

In fairness to Harris and his department, Schrier is working with a much larger budget, $57 million, about 70 percent of Kitsap’s total 2010 budget, and he has 205 employees.

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Port Orchard Council to Vote Tuesday on Tax Ordinance

chris henry — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:34:42 +0000

The Port Orchard City Council on Tuesday will vote on an ordinance declaring substantial need to raise taxes up to one percent. In past years, the city has automatically been able to do so. But this year, an ordinance is necessary because of negative inflation and the fact Port Orchard’s population has increased beyond the threshold that triggers a vote in such a case.

Read the complete story here.

Also at the meeting, the council will issue proclamations recognizing November as Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and recognizing Deliah Rene Luke for spearheading the Paint the Town event in August.

I’ll be at the meeting. Comment here, or e-mail me with your questions for the council, chenry@kitsapsun.com.

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What Would You Pay to Play at Horseshoe & Wildcat Lakes?

chris henry — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:31:15 +0000

In today’s story on the likelihood that Kitsap County will close Horseshoe Lake and Wildcat Lake parks for the 2010 season as a cost-saving measure, South Kitsap Commissioner Charlotte Garrido raises the question of whether the county should charge admission fees to keep the parks open.

The two parks were targeted by parks officials because, unlike other large parks, they don’t have rental facilities that could generate revenue. They are remote and therefore more costly to maintain. And there’s been gang activity at Horseshoe.

Several people commented on the fee issue. One suggested $5 a carload. Another said they would be willing to pay $5 per person, $3 for students, with children and seniors free. Yet another person said any fee would be prohibitive. Another person said, if the county institutes fees, they should apply to all parks, not selectively to the two that don’t generate revenue.

I called Garrido this morning about whether and how hard she would pursue the possibility of fees. With the new parks director Jim Dunwiddie arriving on Monday, she said, she will wait to comment further. But “nothing is off the table,” Garrido said, and instituting fees would definitely be part of the discussion county commissioners will have with the parks department.

What do you think?
Click Here to take survey

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