Letter: Restoring the people’s faith in Pierce County government: What I would like our new government to know

Submitted by by Claudia Riiff Finseth.

Pierce County will have a new government this month. What will the next four years be like? Will they be more of the same as the last eight years? I have great hope that they will be different. 

Different, first and foremost, in restoring a healthy county democracy. This can be done in three broad ways.

1. Respect for Constituents

One of the basic tenants of democracy is, that by doing our civic duty of paying taxes to fund our government, citizen residents earn a seat at the table, deciding and making policy. Truly listening to their constituents, is a major responsibility.

But that is not how the past eight years have gone in unincorporated Pierce County. From Burley Lagoon to Spanaway-Parkland, the voices of constituents have been gravely ignored. 

Last year public testimony was relegated to the end of each meeting. While no time limits were put on staff or applicant presentations, public testimony was frequently curtailed. At a Conditional use Permit hearing in Spanaway, speakers were simply cut off when time was up.

Communication goes two ways, and the former county officials also began to decrease their communication with constituents and nearby residents.

They stopped holding required meetings or open houses in a timely manner. Constituents were not notified of development plans for their community until much later in the process, after plans were solidified and not easy to change. 

Last year the county shrank the radius of residents they were required to notify by mail about potential new development. The greater community has to rely on yellow signs at the building site itself. 

Large swaths of unincorporated Pierce County constituents, feeling more and more shut out of the process of self-government, have become frustrated, angry, and distrustful of county government.

They are wary of whether a new government will change any of that. But it can. There were times in the past when our elected officials were more responsive to the people, and invited their ideas and views for their communities. We can have that again.

2. Respect for the Rule of Law

Another basic tenant of democracy is respect for the rule of law. 

A remarkable thing happened in the early 2000s in Pierce County, under the Growth Management Act: grassroots committees of everyday constituents were appointed to create Communities Plans. The process was guided by Pierce County Planning and Land Services and voted into law by the Pierce County Council in 2002.

Many people in Pierce County likely have never heard of the Communities Plans. Yet in unincorporated Pierce County they are the main documents that protect each person’s primary investment: their home and property. Without a mayor or city council and with no city charter, the law that protects our specific and unique communities is our Communities Plans.

The guiding principal of Communities Plans is to enhance the livability of our communities. Crucial elements include laws around surface waters, aquifers, drinking water, restoration and enhancement of natural environment, and the building of roads and infrastructure not only for now, but into the future.
These Communities Plans are overseen, implemented and enforced by our Land Use Advisory Commissions (LUACs). 

But almost from the moment our Communities Plans were made law in 2002, opposing forces were working to undermine them, including creating ways to by-pass them, such as PDDs (Planned Development Districts), RBDs (Rural Bonus Density) and the Planning staff’s use of DNS (Determination of Non-significance) to avoid publishing an Environmental Impact Study. 

Over the last eight years, our county government joined in this effort to suppress Communities Plans. Officials down-played the law as stated in Communities Plans, and in fact, moved toward nullifying the Communities Plans and erasing the Land Use Advisory Commission. LUAC Commissioners no longer receive a hard copy of the Community Plans they are appointed to follow.

All of these things wear away at the rule of law, until the cumulative effect is considerable: ultimately imperiling the livability of our communities.

Our recent election is a great opportunity to reset all of that. Our newly elected officials will have the power to put the Rule of Law front and center again. Protecting our laws, instead of weakening them, is the right path forward.

3. Respect for the Environment

We have one environment that we all share: water, air, earth and the vegetative ecosystem that enhances all three. Outside entities, businesses and developers, by and large, do not care about these things: their bottom line is profit.

Profit can no longer be the driving force behind government decisions. The government’s over-arching driving force must be the welfare of constituents, including health and safety, for which the environment is crucial.

Business and development can be a part of that, if done according to the rule of law, but it must fit into the community and environment, not destroy or be deleterious to it. 

Regulations are important, and should be supported by rigorous enforcement. To care about the environment is a set of values. What is the value of clean, unpolluted drinking water? What is the worth of plenty of open shoreline along Puget Sound? How would the extinction of salmon and orca impoverish our lives?

What do trees do for human health? How do they prevent flooding and limit the damage from storms? What does an eagle or heron in flight do for the human spirit?

I hope these kinds of questions will be returned to the county dialogue and factored into any policy decisions by our newly elected officials. So many of the constituents of Pierce County want them to succeed in, as Abraham Lincoln said, creating a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

We wish them well in their endeavors. We will be watching, and we will be speaking up. Most of us care deeply, and will do all we can to assist them. They only need call on us.