VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Jane Fuller addresses Lopez Solid Waste District controversy
Saturday, December 21, 2024
For an interview recorded Wednesday, December 18, 2024
A SanJuans.Today VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Jeff Noedel interviews Jane Fuller, whose middle name we learn is Bliss!
This is part 1 of a three-part interview. Part 1 is focused on the controversy between San Juan County Government and the Lopez (Island) Solid Waste Disposal District. Part 2 will break some news on Sunday regarding the status of the emergency funds for the mitigation of ferry problems. And Part 3 (Monday) will touch on Council member Fuller’s personal respect for her two outgoing colleagues, and the new Council to come.
At 1:45 minutes into the interview Council Rep Fuller (who represents Residency District 3, which includes all of Lopez Island) starts by speaking to the people of Lopez Island about the controversy between the County government and the Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District.
Lopezians affectionately refer to it as “The Dump.” She said her own memories of the dump date back to 1978.
Tempers have flared over proposed terms of a new multi-year inter-local agreement between the County and the LSWDD that is long overdue. The previous agreement expired a year ago. The County extended the agreement for a year in hopes of reaching a new agreement with the LSWDD, but still to no avail.
(3:20) Fuller traces the recent history, starting not quite two years ago when she took office. “They were having some challenges feeling adequately consulted,” she said looking back to early 2023. She added, “I’ve known almost two years now that that relationship needed mending.”
(4:15) Fuller said, “Having had three county managers in two years, we have not had a lot of stability on our side, in terms of having a smooth operation on the county side. We as a County have a role to play for things being difficult in that relationship.
“I think at the same time the District needs to look at the relationship and see how it can come to the table with us to strike amenable terms of a renewed ILA (inter-local agreement) grounded in our code properly. So it can be a well-functioning District as it has been and can continue to be for many years.”
(5:00) Fuller addressed a public comment on Dec. 4 that she says accused her of wanting the County to “take over the Dump.” She said, “That couldn’t be further from the truth. Looking into 2025 I want to get the relationship right, and for the long term. I want the County to properly serve and support that District as it deserves to be.”
(5:40) Fuller spoke with pride and admiration regarding the 80 percent “Yes” vote for the LSWDD Prop. 1 property tax levy lift, its first in 10 years. That ballot measure passed with the highest voter support (yes = 79.57%) of all the November ballot measures, including San Juan County Fire Prot. Dist. No. 1 (yes = 69.66%), Town of Friday Harbor sales and use tax for transportation improvements (yes = 68.52%), and the San Juan County Prop. 1 which extended the Conservation real estate excise tax, or REET (yes = 67.34%)
Fuller also paid respect to the 60 Lopezian volunteers who work at “The Dump.”
