PORT ANGELES — In their 13th face-off, Republican Jim McEntire and Democrat Linda Barnfather spent an affable 40 minutes Tuesday morning explaining why each should be elected as the next Sequim District 1 Clallam County commissioner on Nov. 8.
McEntire, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner, and Barnfather, an executive legislative assistant for 24th District state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege of Sequim, were breakfast-meeting guests of the Port Angeles Business Association — about 24 hours before 45,702 ballots were slated to be mailed to Clallam County voters in the all-mail ballot, off-year election.
Barnfather, 48, and McEntire, 61, took subtly different approaches on a key feature of the state-mandated county Shoreline Master Program update that the county Department of Community Development staff is revising — the concept of “no net loss of ecological functions” of a shoreline when development occurs.
“If it ain’t broke in the existing plan, don’t fix it,” McEntire said.
“I would take a light touch on no net loss of ecological functions,” he said.
“Nowhere is it defined in the Shoreline Master Program,” McEntire continued.
“I want good information on policies that may restrict individual owners’ use of their own property,” he said.
“If the update further damages property values, I want to see a system of just compensation.”
Barnfather said it’s been several years since the statewide Shoreline Master Program has been updated.
Abiding by the no-net-loss standard will take a “balancing act” to “protect what we have as an asset,” she said.
“We must be allowed to develop as well.”
A June 2010 state Department of Ecology publication, Shoreline Master Program Handbook, includes a 26-page chapter titled “No Net Loss of Ecological Functions” and is available at http://tinyurl.com/3n7a35s.
The publication includes “potential” no-net-loss indicators and types of shoreline impairment.
“Simply stated, the no net loss standard is designed to halt the introduction of new impacts to shoreline ecological functions resulting from new development,” the chapter says.
“Both protection and restoration are needed to achieve no net loss.”
Experience
McEntire touted his 16 years of executive experience including four years as a port commissioner and his time as a Coast Guard commanding officer.
He said the “touchstones” of his campaign are individual liberty, self-determination, local control and “keeping the overall level of taxes level for the foreseeable future.”
Barnfather said she has “real-life experience,” including in the business sector as a co-owner of a Sequim property management company, and suggested she would ably segue from working with constituents on behalf of Van De Wege to being a county commissioner.
She said she assists people as they make their way through “the labyrinth” of local, county and state governments.
“People come to our office because they know they can get some help.”
Partnerships
Asked about the importance of city-county partnerships, McEntire said, “I know how to do that.”
He cited his efforts as a port commissioner in forming the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority, keeping Angeles Composite Technologies in Port Angeles, reviving the former K-Ply mill into the current Peninsula Plywood, “and on and on and on.”
Barnfather said the county should consider consolidating services with other governments.
“There are lots of ways we are going to have to reach out and save,” she said.
Growth management
Both agreed that if there were a law they could change, it would be the Growth Management Act.
Barnfather said she would tailor it more to rural areas.
McEntire criticized the law for bringing about a situation in Carlsborg in which building permits are not being issued.
Carlsborg is under a 3-year-old moratorium brought on by a ruling of the state Growth Management Hearings Board, which declared Carlsborg’s urban growth area invalid.
The present board of commissioners is fighting the ruling.
The board includes Democratic 24th District state Rep. Steve Tharinger, who is not running for re-election and whose seat McEntire and Barnfather are vying for.
Barnfather and McEntire also said they would serve their full, four-year terms if elected to the $63,348-a-year position.
“It’s been an amazing, wild ride, I can tell you,” Barnfather said in closing.
McEntire took a more forward-looking view.
“I’m well-equipped to serve,” he said.
McEntire said if he wins, he will resign his port commissioner position effective at the end of the year.
Barnfather said if she wins, she will resign her executive legislative assistant position effective Dec. 31.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.