The Right Wingers Who Took Over the King County Conservation District
If cleaning up the river is your thing, then it's worth taking a look at the folks who are supposed to be taking care of the land that feeds the river along the way. If you've followed the extreme right wing "property rights" lobby throughout the years--from Ron Arnold's and Alan Gottlieb's "wise use" anti-environmentalism of the 1990s to the Building Industry Association of Washington of the here and now, one gets the sense of the consistent party line of the "free market" mentality that will supposedly just take care.
We see how well that worked in the Duwamish Valley.
The King [County] Conservation District (KCD) elects board members from time to time. Yet, you have never seen candidates on your regular ballot. Candidates never see more then 1,000 votes. Our property taxes fund this state regulated agency:
The King Conservation District (KCD) is a natural resources assistance agency authorized by Washington State and guided by the Washington State Conservation Commission. Our mission is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources through responsible stewardship. A five-member Board of Supervisors is responsible for all District programs and activities...We promote conservation through demonstration projects, educational events, providing technical assistance and, in some cases, providing or pointing the way to funds which may be available for projects. The KCD has no regulatory or enforcement authority. We only work with those who choose to work with us...All landowners within the District boundaries are entitled to free information and technical assistance for water quality protection, wildlife habitat enhancement, farm management plans, soil and slope stability information, native plant products, manure exchange information, volunteer opportunities, stream restoration/enhancement assistance and many other natural resource topics.
The board itself has three elected positions and two appointed ones. The property rights crowd has been fielding stealth candidates successfully, and the fact that the KCD is low profile--one can only vote in person in ten locations around the county (up from just four a couple of years ago, and only one in Seattle), makes it easy to stay below the radar.
The latest board of supervisors election resulted in the re-election of Bob Vos. Vos, who in his candidate's statement makes reference to classic rightie coded rhetoric like "alternatives to excessive regulation", and "preserving family freedoms", also claims membership on the board of Citizen's Alliance for Property Rights. The CAPR efforts include advocacy of electing judges that will be friendly to the property rights lobby (i.e. BIAW), participating in the coalition to get I-933 passed, and (my favorite) published a newsletter which compared direct democracy with Germany's National Socialism. Nice.
The right wing blog, Sound Politics, also shows evidence that the right wing was actively organizing to get their people on the board. For example, here is this post, encouraging turnout to get Matt Livengood elected, who won: 768 to 327, against Max Prinsen...
From the CAPR email list ...
PLEASE help us again this year to elect a Conservation District Supervisor, Matt Livengood, who has our interests at heart. Last year you successfully helped elect Bobbi Lindemulder by a vote of about 500 to 300, so this is a small election and every vote counts.
The Conservation District is crucial to farmers and other property owners, often serving as a protection from the abuses of the county DDES. This year a Sims/Phillips candidate is trying again to be elected, and there will probably be more votes cast. So PLEASE cast your vote on February 13!
...a ringing endorsement from the property rights lobby. Oh, and the CAPR mailing list is a public archive, for your perusing pleasure (UPDATE: the public part of the archive has been removed, of course, since this posting, but you can sign up for their mailing list here.)
Bobbi Lindermulder, also referenced above, is also a current member of the KCD board of supervisors, who won on in 2006, 518 to 316. Here's a post on the Sound Politics blog cheering the victory, and another one from a liberal blogger giving credit to the author for pushing Lindermulder as the property rights candidate.
That makes three right wingers, a majority out of five, on the KCD board, that are supposed to be stewards for the environment, whose perspective might prefer that this task would be effectively privatized or controlled by agribusiness or the developer lobby. What's more is that the KCD is now hiring an executive director, and it isn't a stretch to say that a new executive will be closer to the "values" of the three right-wing stealth board members. Time will tell what will be the effect on staffers--the ones actually doing the good work.
In the meantime, it might be wise for folks to consider 2009--and who might run for those offices, backed by some kind of organized effort, in hopes that the balance might be shifted back to a more rational, and less ideological and ultra-right agenda driven perspective.
10 comments:
How can "right wingers" control any thing in Socialist seattle?
They run for city council and the mayor's office pretending to be "Democrats". The last Socialist elected to anything here was Anna Louise Strong, in the 1920s.
What would be the position of someone vehemently opposed to a candidate promoting "alternatives to excessive regulation?” Wouldn’t it have to be a position in support of excessive regulation? Not just favoring regulation, but demanding “excessive regulation.” If Mr. Vos is extreme right wing for wanting alternatives to excessive regulation, what is the correct label for the beliefs of The Paper Noose? Perhaps “totalitarian” fits:
totalitarian. adj. Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed: "A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.) n. A practitioner or supporter of such a government.
(n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 19, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/totalitarian
Totalitarianism is a very efficient form of government. There doesn’t need to be any discussion of the issues or messy compromises to try and find solutions to problems that work for disparate interests. The totalitarian can paint anyone he wants to as irrational, ideological, agenda driven, sub-human “right wingers.” Since the totalitarian is intellectually and morally superior, all others, extreme right wingers that they are, should simply be forced to conform.
It has to be frustrating for The Paper Noose to live in the King Conservation District (not all of King County is in the district, by the way) and have an unpaid, volunteer board two-thirds elected by voters of the district. Two of the positions are appointed by the liberal Washington State Conservation Commission and three are freely elected, one each year. That opens the door for those nefarious “right wingers” to actually participate in the election. Since they are not totalitarian, they automatically can be assumed to be in league with the Great Satan (BIAW) for the purpose of destroying KCD and the world as the totalitarian wishes it were. One wonders which BIAW builder The Paper Noose hates most; the one who built his house or the one who built his mother’s house. Heaven forbid someone build a house for his child to live in.
Being totalitarian makes the following facts irrelevant:
KCD has a long, successful history of working with landowners to maximize conservation and environmental functions of their properties. KCD is the only “environmental” organization that most rural property owners trust.
The King County Critical Areas Ordinances forced KCD into a regulatory role (via farm plans) in rural King County. They had never before had any regulatory authority. Note that their regulatory authority does not apply in Georgetown. KCD spends 31% of the tax collected in its name. Nineteen percent goes to cities and 50% goes to bureaucratic waste in the WRIA watershed forums.
Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR) endorsed candidates in the last three KCD elections. All three candidates were incumbents with track records of their work on the KCD Board of Supervisors. CAPR endorsed Matt Livengood who might best be described as a rational, liberal, environmentalist. He has done a good job as Chair of the board. CAPR endorsed Bobbi Lindemulder, a moderate, because she is a perfect fit by education, training, and avocation to support the mission of KCD and she has done a good job. Bob Vos, a conservative Republican, is active in CAPR and is on the King County Agricultural Commission (appointed by the Democrat controlled King County Council). Anyone labeling Mr. Vos “extreme right wing” shows their total ignorance of Mr. Vos and what he has done as a KCD supervisor.
In fact, The Paper Noose doesn’t see fit to discuss the actions of these supervisors, only their evil supporters. His blog entry carefully conceals any knowledge he might have of the specific actions of the KCD Board of Supervisors or the issues faced by KCD.
CAPR has an interest in what happens with KCD because of its history of rational balance of the interests of landowners and the natural resources of the conservation district. The following is from the CAPR mission statement: “After observing environmental conditions around the world, we conclude that private owners are far better stewards of this earth than government planners. Landowners who own and control their own land take much better care of it, regardless of whether they live in an urban, suburban, or rural setting.”
CAPR is working to protect the KCD status quo so that its staff can continue to do the good work that The Paper Noose readily attributes to them. Major changes via a totalitarian member of the Board of Supervisors would not be in the best interest of anyone except The Paper Noose.
I look forward to The Paper Noose doing some homework to learn about KCD so that we can have a discussion of where the candidates in the next election stand on the issues. Character assassination based on real or imagined third party associations might be fun in blogs where you have anonymity, but it is a poor way to find the best person for the job.
Rodney McFarland, past President
Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights
Let's start with the faulty logic of "if you criticize people obsessed with regulations then you are obviously a (fill in the blank: totalitarianist, statist, socialist, etc.). The attack is launched from the perspective that there are only two world views (extreme regulation, or no regulation), making a claim of political moderation, while failing to address the ideological bent offered in CAPR. It shows a simple lack of depth in political analysis.
Second, it seems as though your assertion that I am dragging the BAIW into the center of this discussion would be better directed at someone that actually did it. Did CAPR not participate in a coalition with them on I-933? Is CAPR not in the same activist camp, when it comes to influencing the elections of judges? These two questions remain unaddressed by you.
I realize that the community of property rights uber alles feels that they are entitled to place any epithet on their critics (see above), while not offering up any evidence that such a bent benefits anyone except a narrow constituency. I've got some news for you, Rod: you, or no one else is entitled to those positions. That fact that you would come onto some tiny neighborhood blog, read by folks that live down stream and have a stake in the matter and make hay, shows that indeed, your people were trying to operate below the radar, and you are simply angry because that is no longer possible.
And you weren't busted by some reporter at the PI or Times, or some liberal blogger, but some tiny little blog which by comparison remains in obscurity. I bet that burns your ass.
Thanks to the original writer for expressing his/her concerns about “right wingers” taking over the King Conservation District. As the most recently elected board supervisor, I welcome dialog and interest in the KCD.
If you have not been previously involved with KCD, be aware that our board meetings are open to the public and there is always time allowed for public comment. There are also many opportunities to join with us volunteer unpaid board members in service, from attending advisory committee meetings to actual on-the-ground efforts like stream restoration and native plantings. For the latter, come prepared for hard work as well as a sense of accomplishment.
The writer’s concerns quoted two phrases in my candidate statement. The complete sentences in the statement were “I am a conservationist who loves the land, and the family freedoms and growth potential of the rural lifestyle.” Also “I want to work with both urban and rural residents to educate and bring people together, and encourage volunteer efforts as a much better alternative to excessive regulation.”
On “family freedoms” my wife and I decided to live the rural lifestyle on a small farm, perhaps not well understood by all county residents. This lifestyle has given our children opportunities to explore our little forest (where I’ve hand planted over 4000 tree seedlings), to observe the spring ritual of a mother cow giving birth to her calf, and to learn responsibility and work ethic by taking care of animals and sharing in the family chores.
On “alternative to excessive regulation” I suggest that if you force a man to be a conservationist he will conserve for a day or a year (while being watched), but if you teach and motivate a man to be a conservationist he will conserve for his entire life. This choice comes with the need for open-minded dialog and a willingness to evaluate the actual results.
You can visit the KCD website at http://www.kingcd.org/ and/or contact me by personal email at ramvos@yahoo.com. I’d also be happy to arrange a little tour of our farm/forest and we can continue the dialog.
oooo, one got polite. that changes everything. but do you really want to head to the woods with these guys after their first two posts?
#6: I grew up in rural Sno and Island counties and did my share of the chores. I watched timber companies and developers destroy most of that life style. The place where I learned to ride a horse, ride a bike, and the rope swing in the barn is now...a Fred Meyer parking lot. Whiskey Ridge isn't what it once was; all of it due to lack of regulation and zoning (or because of the "right kind" of regulation and zoning. All those backroads are now overrun by SUVs on the weekends. But in that world, if you are against developers (or anyone else) dredging streams in sensitive areas, lumber companies stripping hillsides, or displacing rural communities in favor of suburban shite, then that makes you some kind of Caw--myu--nist.
It is development that has put so much pressure on farms and rural communities in general, but I don't see the Republican Party or any of their constituent bloggers taking them on. To them, the environmental costs of displacement must be shifted onto the public, rather then the onus being placed on the builder of apartment complexes and McMansions to not displace rural people. It's my recollection that the major Eastside developers who destroyed that lifestyle in King county over the past 25 years were all republicans--the old John Carlson think tankers among them and some on the far right who supported Pat Robertson(Jim Summers). Yeah, did my homework a long time ago. I don't see the Republican party of even some Democrats atoning for past sins here.
I know that people are unhappy with the shift of the board. What we see now is the beginnings of damage control, but there is more to come on this issue.
I find it hard to believe true property rights folk would get involved in a bureaucracy like King County Conservation District. Reality is that King County Council calls the shots on whats done down there. Property rights folk that I know don’t get bogged down in this kind of civil service garbage. I have looked at the King CD website and I see no financial outline of where they spend our money? If these right wingers are interested in transparency and rights, why is that not up for public scrutiny? You say they are hiring an Executive, well pray tell why did they had to go to California to hire someone to do that hiring, the website has a job description form an outfit in California ? What’s with that? Property rights folk I know protect our rights and don’t get caught up in squandering tax payers dollars…they are usually pretty conservative individuals.
Hmmm, maybe you should attend the board meetings to see how one particular (some might say, dominating) board member pushes his own agenda, freely spending the KCD money to employ his friends as highly paid consultants. For example, please take a look at the KCD Washington Legislature Lobbyist expenses.
I find it interesting that KCD was under the radar for years with a small budget and a dedicated staff. Now, after fighting with the KC Council to win the higher assessment, it is on everyone's radar. You know the old saying, be careful of what you ask for...
At the moment, I wonder why anyone would want the Executive Director position. The board is highly dysfunctional and micro-manage rather than delegate, the current co-managers are looking over their collective shoulders (with a new ED, what happens to their positions?) and the rest of the staff are sticking their fingers in their ears just trying to get some work done.
And none of this actually addresses the core issue here: What are they doing to improve our collective use of the land to insure its preservation for the future?
Personally, I don't care if you're a Right Wing Zealot or a Left Wing Anarchist. What I care about is productive land, clean water and a sustainable lifestyle for those of us who chose to live here. I've seen both sides point fingers at the other and chant dogma: "But we feed your babies!" and "Save the Salmon."
The AG interests are worried about the bottom line and want to farm every last square foot of land, right up to that salmon stream, as they always have.
The save the salmon interests are asking for the clock to be turned back to 1900 on land use. Yeah, it would be nice, but can that be made a reality in this day and age? I have my doubts.
What I would really like to see come out of this whole discussion on the KCD is a coherent business plan to 1) preserve farming; 2) incorporate conservation measures (reasonable buffers, limit pesticide use, erosion control BMPS, etc) into all KCD project, and; 3) acknowledge that AG needs to wake up and smell the coffee and make some ecological concessions.
I can already hear the complaining from that last comment. But, its time to realistically assess the cumulative effects of all of our actions: urban, rural, AG, forestry all need to collectively pull their heads out of their, well, you know, and really look at what each can do to improve our part of the world. Not just dig our feet in and say NO.
If the new ED at KCD can start that process, while reining in the board, I'll be a happy camper.
sounds like property rights folk are the least of the county conservation district problems.
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