Since the beginning of this year, I have been attending the County Commissioners’ meetings with some regularity, as a concerned citizen. I feel that I must voice my concerns about the actions of Commissioner Jan Angel.

Last year, in a thinly veiled election eve ploy, Angel unilaterally planned and funded a forum at the Admiral Theater, which was billed as a discussion of economic development. Featuring speaker Wendell Cox, in reality it was meant to add fuel to the fire of the anti-Smart Growth and anti-Botkin forces in the community. It took place only 6 days before the elections, and was obviously intended to fire up the crowd to beat the bushes and get the vote out to defeat Botkin.

One of Angel’s first actions after the swearing-in ceremony this year was to complain bitterly about the long hours and demands of her job, referring to it as “horrendous.” It is her contention that in spite of the fact that she receives a salary of $85,000/yr., she needs to have full-time staff assigned to her, as her surrogate, to attend meetings in her place, and report back to her. I have never heard either Endresen or Botkin complain about the demands of their job, nor state that they needed “help.”

Who can forget the local right wing’s incessant whining about Angel being given her “just due” as chair of the commissioners? Yet, chairing her first hearing on the subject of the DNR’s proposed geoduck harvesting, Angel was strangely silent. She sat with yellow highlighter in hand, catching up on her reading, deferring instead to Endresen to conduct the hearing.

And who is the “Silver City Group,” of which Paulette Degard and Dale King are members, and what is their connection with Angel? Paulette Degard was Botkin’s Republican opponent last year, but withdrew early, and was replaced by Patty Lent. At Angel’s recommendation, Degard and King were facilitators at the commissioners’ recent retreat. Last November, Angel used district funds and hired King and the Silver City Group to design a survey, which the county’s mayors and chambers of commerce used to rate the Economic Development Council (EDC).

Angel reported that the EDC and it’s director were rated very unfavorably, and Angel planned punitive action against the EDC, by slashing it’s 2003 budget by 10 to 20 percent, and withholding it’s March funding, some $21,000. She proposed to pass this money on, in the form of “seed money,” for her pet project, the much-touted “industrial clusters.” Could one of these industrial clusters be the Silver City Group? More needs to be known about King, Degard and this Silver City Group, especially as they seem to have the ear of one of our commissioners. We wouldn’t want any hint of impropriety or conflict of interest to be attached to Angel’s reputation as County Commissioner. Would we?

Denise Hood
Poulsbo