Letter: Cast vote for Janet St. Clair for Island County commissioner

Editor,

This fall’s election is offering us an experienced, committed, engaging, people-oriented candidate for Island County commissioner, one we see only rarely.

Janet St. Clair has declared strong priorities for her term while also declaring herself open to dialog with all who have concerns on any issue. She seeks to replace Rick Hannold, who declares “I’m not usually in favor of negotiating with anybody,” Whidbey News-Times, Feb. 16.

First, St. Clair has a wide background in nuances of social and medical services for those in all levels of society with critical needs, while Hannold has shown a pattern of regularly reacting to any measure that requires public monies for effectively helping those less fortunate unless it involves. His glaringly narrow approach to our serious opioid crisis: “My take on the whole thing is, until we start doing law enforcement and ridding the streets of the supply, then nothing’s going to fix anything,” June, 5.

Our current national government has been stingy on all manner of people-care — in agreement with the rhetoric of Hannold.

Contrast this with Janet who has consistently spoken about building the resources of “… food, housing, counseling, domestic violence services, disability and inclusion supports, senior services and homecare services. Government can connect people to those social supports.”

As an example, she got federal grants and helped launch one of the first of four fully integrated care programs in Washington state with mental health and physical health coordinated in one location.

Janet is also ready to grow the vital small business sector, a major provider of jobs that builds an economy that recirculates island money.

She is a protector of resources we value, promising “…through common sense planning and policies to protect our farms, forests and beaches.”

Hannold says the Conservation Futures Fund, one essential resource for such planning, has “outgrown its usefulness” (Dec. 12, 2017).

Hannold is on the record bemoaning too much protected land in conservation in Island County. He denies climate change issues: “I feel it’s just part of the natural course of things,” Oct. 13, 2014. In fact, a consultant evaluating all commissioner leadership styles concluded Hannold tends “to rely almost exclusively on [his own] impressions” of data, May, 25.

St. Clair sharply grasps climate change and other data and wants to include it all in vital future planning needed for our vulnerable shorelines.

I’m ready for thoughtful positive change with openness to learning and listening.

We’ll get it from Janet St. Clair. Vote!

Mark Wahl

Langley