La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

The La Conner Weekly News has organized a forum of District 1 Freeholder candidates for Oct. 18 in Maple Hall. The county ballot measure, Proposition 1, asks you to approve the election of freeholders, or delegates, for the purpose of developing a Skagit County Charter. Voters might pass this.

Separately, voters are picking 21 freeholders in the three county commissioner districts. Seven will be from District 1, Commissioner Ron Wesen’s district.

Confused? Asleep? Not to be bothered? Be careful: If you and your fellow voters approve the freeholder candidates that you are voting for, these 21 people will spend 2019 developing a charter, the framing document for running Skagit County governance.

So, like organizing a massive blind date, the Weekly News seeks to match 28 District 1 candidates with greater La Conner voters. Will you come and check your prospective freeholders out? There will not be any kissing or taking anyone home.

Will the candidates come?

My worry is that I am throwing a party and no one will come. None of the 28 candidates responded to an email informing them of this opportunity. John Doyle was the only candidate I phoned Monday who called me back.

What if there was a candidates’ forum and no one came? Well, that will tell you something of the candidates’ interest in their possible constituents and their interest in discussing the issues with them.

And if the candidates show? When they show? They will be asked questions by a moderator from Home Rule Skagit, the citizens group responsible for this measure and the freeholder candidates it spawned. Electing candidates presumes approving them. They will be asked questions by you. They will listen to your ideas and your concerns.

Once we elect them and approve them, what do we want them to do? They have to decide if the governing council will be part or full-time positions. Will the county executive be appointed or elected? Will candidates be elected from districts or at large using a fairer voting system than winner take all, such as proportional representation?

Whether you have one or a bucketful of ideas, come to hear these freeholder candidates tell you their ideas for shaping the future of Skagit County government. This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. If the freeholders get approved, the seven from District 1 that are elected, are winners because many of us will have voted them in. Let’s pick good ones.

The candidates need you as much as you need to be there.

This candidates forum is for you, candidate and voter, alike.