Commissioners approve contract for Dearborn

Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Island County Commissioners approved a new two-year contract with Seattle land-use attorney Keith Dearborn to continue helping the county write critical areas regulations and to handle challenges to the new rules.

Despite the controversy surrounding Dearborn for the money he has received in consulting fees from the county in the past — which stretches well above a million dollars — no one attended the commissioner meeting Monday to comment on the new contract.

However, five e-mails were sent to the county commissioners opposing a new contract for Dearborn.

Citing Dearborn’s reputation as one of the top 10 land-use attorneys in Washington state and his base of institutional knowledge about Island County, Assistant Planning Director Jeff Tate asked county commissioners to sign a new contract.

On a 2-0 vote, the board approved the new $321,105 contract. Dearborn will help revise the county’s critical areas policies and regulations concerning wetlands and fish and wildlife habitat conservation. Commissioners Mike Shelton and Bill Byrd voted for the contract; Commissioner Mac McDowell is on vacation.

The new contract is needed because Dearborn’s existing contract — one that allowed Dearborn to bill the county up to $351,500 for his work on the county’s critical areas rules — expires at the end of December.

According to the discussion Monday, Dearborn’s legal fees had not hit the $300,000 mark yet under his existing contract.

“About $60,000 was unused and rolled into the new contact,” Commissioner Shelton said.

Tate said Dearborn had contracts with the county previously in 1983 and again in 1997. That meant he could bring “institutional knowledge to the table, which is helpful in moving forward with the new critical area regulations and to handle the legal challenges to the new rules,” Tate said.

Although no one attended the well-publicized meeting to criticize the contract, some county residents were quite outspoken against the new agreement in the e-mails they sent to commissioners.

An e-mail from Ed Van Patten said: “The last time you extended the contract for outside legal services, I told you that I thought it was a lousy idea and the county had better places to spend its money. Where are you getting the money to extend the contract again? I believe that the contracts for legal services have been counter productive to obtaining a fair solution to the bigger problems of environmental protection for all county residents, including the farmers.”

Julie Glover of Langley wrote: “It is way past time to stop squandering the taxpayer’s money. The contract with Dearborn has already wasted more than $2 million of taxpayer money.”

“The fact that Dearborn’s and the county’s legal arguments were soundly rejected by the courts the last time indicates how their attempts to evade compliance with the (Growth Management Act) is folly, and represents a callous used of taxpayer money. We’re sick of this,” Glover wrote.

Shelton said the e-mails will be included in the public record.

Tate said Dearborn’s legal assistance is crucial as the county completes its state-required rewrite of its critical area regulations, rules meant to protect lands with wetlands, streams and other environmentally sensitive features.

“We are about halfway through with wetlands, and fish and wildlife will probably happen next summer,” Tate said.

“Early on we were sidetracked with agricultural issues while trying to update the fish and wildlife portion,” Tate said.

“We are pleased with the relationship with Keith Dearborn and his handling of the agriculture issues and litigation with Whidbey Environmental Action Network. And we have received resounding accolades from the state,” Tate told the commissioners.

In the past, critics of Dearborn’s consulting contracts have said the county should add lawyers to the prosecuting attorney’s office to handle the legal work necessary in the planning department.

By comparison, Gov. Christine Gregoire makes a salary of $150,995; Attorney General Rob McKenna makes $137,268. Deputy prosecuting attorneys in the Island County Prosecutor’s Office are paid salaries between $49,000 and $62,000, according to payroll estimates in the 2006 county budget.

But Tate said the county is getting a bargain with a fixed-rate contract, compared with other counties that have hired legal consultants on an hourly basis.

“We are taking it seriously that we are spending public money,” Tate said.

The new agreement has a two-year term because state law limits the amount of time a professional consultant can be retained, he added.

The contract budget also includes $23,725 for legal work by Dearborn on the court appeal on the county’s new farm rules that were made under his previous contract.

Gayle Saran can be reached at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com.