PORT TOWNSEND — The three Jefferson County commissioners have scheduled night meetings in Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Port Ludlow and Quilcene, and will put their agendas online beginning Friday, in an attempt to boost public access.
“We actually were going to do it last November, but with budget and holidays coming, we decided to do it at the beginning of the year,” said David Sullivan, chairman of the county board that conducts its regular weekly meetings beginning at 9 a.m. Monday.
Calling it an experiment that was tried by county commissioners prior to 2004, without much public turnout, Sullivan said he and his fellow commissioners were “looking for ways to engage people about what we do and about county government.”
Each of the “public outreach workshops,” as the county commissioners call the meetings, are scheduled at 7 p.m.
Dates and locations of meetings
Dates and locations of the meetings are:
• Jan. 11 — Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Ave., Port Hadlock.
• Jan. 25 — Port Ludlow Fire Station, 7650 Oak Bay Road, Port Ludlow.
• Feb. 11 — Port Townsend Community Center, 620 Tyler St., Port Townsend.
• March 1 — Quilcene Community Center, 294952 Old State Highway, Quilcene.
“This gives us a chance to visit those communities as a group rather than as individuals,” Sullivan said.
Agenda packets, which have been available only in paper form, will be posted by noon each Friday at the Jefferson County Web site, www.co.jefferson.wa.us.
County Administrator Philip Morley said that, for about the past six months, he has had conversations with the three county commissioners about improving public involvement and accessibility to county documents.
“This is where the commissioners can meet in various communities of the county to mostly dialogue with citizens of the communities to discuss their concerns,” Morley said.
“The idea being that, No. 1, this is bringing county government to the communities rather than have them come to the courthouse,” said Morley, who marked his first year as the county’s top executive in October.
The meetings were scheduled in the evenings to allow more working people an opportunity to attend, Morley said.
The online agenda packets will make the county commissioners’ agenda items more broadly accessible, he said.
While memos from his office and other county departments will be available online, letters and e-mails to the commissioners will not be posted because it would be too expensive and take too much staff time, Morley said.
However, a list of the letters and e-mails by name will be listed online, with hard copies available at Morley’s office on the ground floor of Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
Setting up such public meeting and putting documents online has been a budgetary concern at a time when county staffers have seen staff and service reductions, but Sullivan said the commissioners were trying to create more public access.
Unlike the city of Port Townsend, the county cannot afford the highly technical Granicus document search system that even archives videos of City Council meetings, Morley said.
Morley said that during the first quarter of 2010, the county Department of Community Development will convene a forum with private sector developers and builders about how the county department that issues building permits can operate better.
“This is recognizing that, in a time such as this, that economic development is important,” Morley said.
“We really need to be working smoothly together.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.