My hat is off to Commissioner O'Brien

Published in the Ellensburg Daily Record, Dec. 5, 2015

To the Editor:

Having twice run against Obie O’Brien for County Commissioner, I pay special attention when I agree with one of his votes.

This actually happens fairly often, and the latest example is his support for changing county government to have a professionally trained hearing examiner make objective, non-political decisions about land use issues. Commissioner Berndt reluctantly voted against the idea, noting that land-use decisions can be very complex and that he worries about “doing harm to the people of the county through a lack of knowledge.”

Only Commissioner Jewell was solidly against the change. A Daily Record story about the decision paraphrased his reasoning: “having an expert make the final decision would be un-American.” He went on to note that he was unwilling to give up the power to rule on such decisions.

There is an important connection between this issue and the recent changes to county water rules. The unfortunate story of Ron Slater and his property east of Ellensburg is but one example. In the development-happy 1990s and 2000s, Mr. Slater was assured by the county that his planned development would have access to water.

Unfortunately, during that same time the Board of County Commissioners was engaged in ignoring the Growth Management Act and fighting with (and ultimately losing to) the Department of Ecology over water issues. This behavior cost the taxpayers an unknown but likely very large amount of money in legal fees and led directly to the problems Mr. Slater complained about in his recent letter to the editor.

Kittitas County finally became GMA compliant in 2014, and large parts of the county now have no access to groundwater at all.

Did politics and cronyism contribute to this situation? How about a lack of knowledge of complex regulatory situations? Of course. Would a professional approach to land use have saved us all this trouble and expense? It seems likely.

My hat is off to Commissioner O’Brien for his attempt to make county government better.

Steve Verhey
Ellensburg