Charlotte Garrido was elected county commissioner in 1996 — at the absolute height of Kitsap’s battle over growth management. A staunch environmentalist and member of the Kitsap Citizen’s for Rural Preservation, as one of the people who challenged the comprehensive plan the county had submitted to the state she was in the thick of the fight.

She ran for county commissioner from District Two and narrowly defeated Republican Dusty Wiley thanks to the voters on Bainbridge Island.

She joined environmental activist Phil Best and newly elected Chris Endresen on the commission. One of the first acts of the new commission was to withdraw the comprehensive plan the previous commissioners had submitted to the state before the Growth Hearings Board ruled on its validity, scrap the plan, and start over. What they submitted to the state a year and half later was much more restrictive and much more to the liking of the environmental community who supported both Garrido and Endresen heavily.

Last year, Wiley challenged her again, only this time as a Democrat, and won in the primary. He was later defeated by Jan Angel in the general election.

I’ve editorialized about Garrido a number of times — not always agreeing with her politics, but personally, I like her. One-on-one, she can be very charming, with a sense of humor most people don’t often get to see. I’ve had opportunities to discuss issues with her and have come away from time-to-time thinking perhaps we had more in common than I imagined.

So, how does Garrido feel about her time in office? What did she learn? What now? We sat down with her recently and asked those very questions.
KBJ: Why don’t we work backwards. What are you up to these days?
Garrido: “I’m just getting back into community life. I’m volunteering at the grade school, Olalla Elementary. I’m working with a group called C.L.A.S.S. which is citizen leaders supporting the school system. I’m working on Banner Forest, making sure it’s well stewarded for now and in the future.”
KBJ: Are you planning on going back into environmental activism?
Garrido: “I’m really glad you asked that question right away. People seem to think environmental activism is what I’m all about. I think I’ve done four years of very hard work to show I know a lot about a lot of other things. That’s a priority, but it’s not the highest or the only priority at all.”
KBJ: So what are those other priorities?
Garrido: “First and foremost is finishing my dissertation, which is fairly close. But now I have four years of experience to blend into it including citizen involvement and the politics of land use planning.”
KBJ: Any opinion about the ferry situation?
Garrido: “I think that people in Kitsap County really have to tell their elected officials — and especially their legislators — what they want out of the ferry system. I brought together a group called Kitsap Connections after the Rich Passage legal activities. It was made up of electeds, citizen riders, and residents of some the areas that have ferry runs. We have four marine highways in Kitsap County, and we can’t let others decide the importance of our transportation. We have to take that responsibility. When we talk about transportation, we tend to talk about roadways, concrete and asphalt roadways.

“Yet we have more marine highways than any other county. And when you look at the passenger only ferries, and how important getting them here was, it actually came right out of the citizens — especially in the Kingston area. The Chamber of Commerce was instrumental in getting passenger only ferry service here. It wasn’t the electeds that took the leadership on that. They certainly came in and were supportive, but it was the citizens. Now that we have passenger only service, we’re learning at this point that we’ll have to pay far more to ride a passenger only vessel than to ride a car vessel That’s crazy! That’s absolutely crazy!
KBJ: So, what’s the answer?
Garrido: “We have one of the biggest problems with traffic in the whole United States. So what should we be doing? I think we should be reducing the number of cars where possible, and that’s our transit system right there. We should be enhancing it by making sure it’s easy to use and affordable. I’d love to see some grass roots groups come together here in Kitsap County and let our legislators know what our ideas are on how to make it happen. I know the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council is working on it, but what that effort is missing is the citizen input.

“I think there needs to be some grass roots organizing here in Kitsap County about passenger-only ferries — and ferry service in general, but certainly around passenger-only ferries and how important they are. In the Connections group’s work over the last couple of years, we were able to have a much clearer understanding of what kinds of vessels work well, what kinds of costs are required — we probably do need to pay more.

“We know a lot more about wake issues, and that wake issues are determined lot by the vessel, and that design has a lot to do with whether you’re going to have problems. Rich Passage is certainly one of the most unique waterways anywhere. So if you can satisfy the wake issues in Rich Passage, you have vessels that can work anywhere.”
KBJ: One of the things you’ve been criticized the most for is your insistence on “the process” and bringing people into it. How do you respond to that?
Garrido: “I think process is important. I know that you want to get to an end product, but process is how you decide what car you’re going to buy or what your family is going to do for the weekend. Does somebody just dictate it? Or do you have to have some kind of understanding about what the relationships are and who’s going to have what responsibility for putting it together?

“Process is something that helps you. Look at, for example, the comprehensive planning process. Look at how many years we spent in arguments about what should go into it. If you look at the process it will help you understand. The methodology that surrounded meeting after meeting after meeting on the comprehensive plan wasn’t even addressing some of the issues the comprehensive plan needed us to talk about. It was making more work than we needed to create. Process helps you to focus on what the major issues are and who’s going to take responsibility for working through them so you can get to the end result. If you have a good process you’re going to have a better product.”
KBJ: That said, one of the negative things about doing that created a public perception of you as indecisive. Your thoughts?
Garrido: “I heard that when I was running in 1996. I was very, very careful to make sure I made good decisions quickly. I worked long hours — I don’t think anybody knows, except people who worked in the courthouse — what kind of hours I worked to make sure I was being responsible and timely.”
KBJ: Is that the downside of being a commissioner?
Garrido: “I wouldn’t call it a downside, because I believe local politics is the level that’s most important to us. So, if someone chooses to go into local politics, I think they also need to choose to be married to that responsibility. My family didn’t see a lot of me for four years. Weekends, evenings were not theirs. They were the county’s citizens’, and I think that’s the way it needed to be.

“I was very proud being able to show respect for a lot of activities that happen in Kitsap County by attending events or having the board issue proclamations or resolutions in recognition of those events.

“One of the things I think Kitsap County could pay a little more attention to is more pride in who we are, and where we are, and celebrating that. I think we’re overly critical of one another and what’s going on. The few weeks I’ve been out of office has allowed me to stand back and reflect on that in a different way.

“The question of our ferry service — and its uniqueness and specialness — we’re the ones that have more knowledge of that than anybody, so we’re the ones who have to step to the mark and declare its value to us.

“I just saw the article in this morning’s paper about Herb Myers and his spin off businesses. So often we talk about economic development and we’re woeful about not having enough business. What we really need to do is look at what works and make sure we’re aware of what kinds of facilities we need to create more business and to enhance economic development here.”
KBJ: One of the big criticisms of the comp plan was there is no place for business to locate. How do you answer those?
Garrido: “The question is, what do we want to locate? Do we need big, industrial, in the physical sense, type of industry, or we looking for cleaner industries, more the computer businesses, that wouldn’t require so much floor space?

“One of the things I did as a commissioner was that I was on the Washington State Public Works Trust Board. That allowed me to not only decide where funds would be disseminated in the state for public works projects, I also went out and visited a lot of projects that were already in the ground, whether they were roads, or bridges, or sewage treatment plants, or water systems, or telecommunications. What it brought home to me was the importance of having the vision of what it is we want to get here. Even if we don’t know specifically who the business is, you’ve got to be able to have the infrastructure available to them. You don’t necessarily have to have the buildings right there at the moment, but it helps. But you’ve got to have the infrastructure because that’s what they need.”
KBJ: What do you feel is the largest challenge Kitsap County faces?
Garrido: “Economic development and getting a real vision of what it is.”
KBJ: Do you not feel there is a real vision of what Kitsap County should develop like economically?
Garrido: “I think it could be brought into a lot clearer focus.”
KBJ: Does that mean “no?”
Garrido: “It doesn’t mean absolutely no. It means we’re working on it, we’ve got some ideas. But if we were more specific, we would be more successful in landing the types of business we want.”
KBJ: What about salmon and the endangered species act?
Garrido: “We in Kitsap County, because of our setting, have done a lot of the work that needed to happen already. For me the key has always been, what are the pieces of work that are done already that help us get to the end goal. So you look at what the National Marine Fisheries Services has asked us to do, and you see there’s only a couple of areas where they’re asking for more work.

And those are shorelines and stormwater. We have actually done amazing work on stormwater in the last year or two. So you look at shorelines.

“I think Renee Beam’s workshops were an important way for us to begin the conversation. I know there’s that other group out there working aggressively on shoreline issues. But I would hope that instead of taking the adversarial position, we could go back to where Renee started and review the kinds of questions and conversations that happened — to get the kind of information shoreline owners in Kitsap County need to have to make sure they understand what the requirements are. I really think it’s doable, and it’s doable in a very civil way.”
KBJ: Aren’t people more afraid of losing their ability to use their property, afraid it’s going to be taken away from them?
Garrido: “I know that’s the fear. I don’t think that the fact.”
KBJ: Why not?
Garrido: “First of all, we’re talking about building on shorelines. How many buildable lots are left on shorelines? The first place this whole county was developed back in 1890, was along the shoreline — those that were most easily built on.
KBJ: Isn’t part of the fear that when you look at the proposed rules from the Department of Ecology, if your waterfront house burns down, you won’t be able to rebuild in the same place?
Garrido: “I don’t think that’s what they say. My understanding from talking to county staff is that you can rebuild. If your footprint gets a lot a bigger, it will be reviewed — carefully. But you can certainly rebuild where a house burns down. That’s my understanding.”
KBJ: What’s your view on future growth?
Garrido: “Growth is happening. It’s going to happen. It’s interesting to me that we spend so much time talking about developing outside the Urban Growth areas. It would be a healthy exercise for us all to talk about what we want out of our cities. What is a vital and vibrant city. I’ve said this for years. When you look at our cities, how important is a unique city that has a very recognizable core? Bainbridge has a recognizable core. Take the recent discussions about whether the county building should be in Bremerton or totally in Port Orchard. Perhaps we should look at what we want Bremerton to be, what we want Port Orchard to be.

“In looking through the region at a lot of the suburban type cities and how they’ve developed without any centers, they’re defiantly car-oriented. It’s difficult to walk from one big box to the other. Neighborhoods have their own private driveways, there’s no gathering places. What we’re learning from those kinds of cities is now they’re beginning to develop the center. They’re purposely setting out to build a city hall, or sidewalks so people can get around, and attract the kind of service businesses that bring people together, so you’ve got the coffee shops and dry cleaners and some jobs, and housing, all close in together. You get the housing above some of the shops. You’re seeing that in Mill Creek and Redmond and other places. People want to be able to walk around and feel a sense of life, and culture. I think Kitsap County needs to be looking at that.”
KBJ: How do you feel about Port Blakley?
Garrido: “A lot of the promises and a lot of the assertions that were made during the planning phases are not reflected in some of the documentation, so there’s no guarantee that those will be followed through on. That’s a concern to me.

“I absolutely believe we need more jobs in Kitsap County. But taking something that was zoned industrial and turning it into an area that will have 600 and some houses before they’re required to have any jobs is not assuring that you’re going to have a job-work relationship. If people move there and have jobs elsewhere, its very unlikely that when the jobs locate there, those same people will be the ones to get them.”
KBJ: If you could do anything different in the time you were commissioner, what would it be?
Garrido: “I would have had a higher profile in talking about issues that were important to me instead of just working on the things that were in front of me.”
KBJ: Opinions on the other commissioners?
Garrido: “No.”
KBJ: What is your opinion of the Freeholder decision not to have their committee meetings open to the public?
Garrido: “As commissioners, we faced that all the time. You just get used to working with people observing and knowing what you’re doing. If they’re going to be making recommendations for government, they need to know how government needs to operate.”
KBJ: Do you feel the fact they don’t want to meet in public will hurt the overall Home Rule effort?
Garrido: “I don’t know if I’d say that. But it could compromise what they come up with because there’s an appearance they don’t want to do it publicly.”
KBJ: Any plans to become active in the environmental politics locally?
Garrido: “I may. The way I’m working on environmental issues right now is that I’m on the Banner Forest stewardship committee. That’s real important because it’s such a big park and we need to take good care of it for future generations.”
KBJ: Do your future plans include politics?
Garrido: “I’m never going to leave it. I really want to get this dissertation done. It’s so close and it’s one of those things I need to complete. I still believe local politics is the most important because people can interact with people who are making decisions and help to make the decisions. I would like to continue to work in Kitsap County.”
KBJ: So does that mean you’re ruling out say, the state legislature?
Garrido: “At this point, I have no interest in that. I’ve worked as a commissioner at a breakneck pace on a lot of projects. Many of them interested me in a way that I couldn’t put as much attention as I would have liked because I needed to move on to other projects. Now, I have the luxury at being able to look at projects, many of them still needing serious attention, so that’s what I’ll focus on doing.”.