Lopez Island’s new parks commission to strategize the best path forward.
The first task ahead of Lopez Island’s new parks and recreation district commissioners is a big one: determine how to proceed when the district formation passed, but the levy to fund it didn’t. On Friday, Jan. 9, at 4 p.m. in the Lopez Island Library community room, the commissioners will be sworn in and hold their first meeting.
The parks and recreation district earned 59.98% of the vote in the November election, while 50.31% voted no on the levy to support it.
While Lynn Slaughter, Brady Smith and Jenny Poole, ran unopposed for commissioner districts 1–3, the races for commissioner districts 4 and 5 were much more closely contested, requiring recounts.
Chom Greacen, founder of the energy research and advocacy nonprofit Palang Thai, treasurer of the Lopez Community Land Trust and board member of the Madrona Institute, won by just over 50 votes against small-business owner Bridie Spreine. Christopher Ledbetter, former parks and recreation director for Fontana and Lathrop in California and in SeaTac, won by a single vote — 705 to 704 — against Dan Post, former owner of Lopez Freight and 20-year Lopez Port commissioner.
“One vote was pretty slim, but now that I’m elected, I work for everyone,” Ledbetter said. “People that didn’t vote for me, people that voted for me; I’m trying to follow what they want to happen with the park district.”
There are multiple ways forward, said Smith, district 2 commissioner and superintendent of Lopez Island School District. “We have plans to meet in January, and that’s when the five commissioners will discuss our options and make a plan for going forward.”
One precedent is a loan through an interlocal agreement or other public option, he said. This would have to be paid for by an eventual levy.
Smith and Ledbetter hope to return to the ballot in April with a reduced ask, they said.
Should an April levy pass, the funds would be included in the 2026–27 school year with time to pay for after-school and summer programming when the Family Resource Center grant runs out in the summer of 2027.
“If we wait until November and go back to the voters, then the money wouldn’t come until 2028,” Ledbetter said. “It’s a long way to go either way, but 2028 is big. Without that passing in April, that means there would be a year gap without any sports or without any funding.”
The new district model works through an interlocal agreement with Friday Harbor High School, Smith said, to cover the costs of the athletic program, approved by both San Juan Island School District and San Juan Island Parks and Recreation District.
“We had some incredibly successful sports teams, which meant we had post-season expenses and those add up quickly,” he said. “We have facilities issues where we need to make some upgrades in order to meet (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) expectations.”
The cost of San Juan’s athletic program is about $180,000 annually.
Some Lopez islanders thought the ask was too high. The proposed levy would have raised much more money than to support school sports, as well as a director with a $117,000 annual salary.
This salary is not set in stone, Smith said. It was proposed by the formation committee, averaging similar salaries across Washington.
“When I talk to younger folks on this island and, working parents, et cetera, they’re working potentially hourly jobs that are making $35 an hour,” he said. “For somebody making $35 an hour, it costs that organization about $100,000 between wages and benefits. And so, our estimate of ($117,000) did not feel outrageous as we’re putting the budget together. But I do know people on this island who maybe have never earned that amount in their lives, especially retirees. I think that number was really a problematic number for people like that.”
More services and more taxes
According to several islanders, the formation of a parks and rec taxing district and the levy to fund it became a very divisive issue. With all the anticipated increases in the cost of living — health care, insurance, property taxes, food — adding a property tax at this time, for services other than supporting the school, wasn’t palatable to many.
Smith said there are more obstacles moving forward. When an entity is just forming, it is not required to pay ballot costs. However, now that the district is formed, new ballot distribution could cost up to about $40,000, depending on what other entities are running.
“We don’t want to use taxpayer money to pay the levy ballot costs, but it is a possibility,” he said. “We don’t have another possibility except perhaps an angel donor, but no one has stepped forward at this point.”
Many felt that a new tax of $.37 per $1,000 assessed property value was too high. According to the formation committee, property taxes on Lopez have grown by 7% per year for the past five years, and this new levy would have added another 6%.
A lower levy ask would mean fewer services and a smaller cushion for rising costs over the next six years, Smith said.
In a post to the community forum Lopez Rocks, islander Randy Wilburn wrote that property taxes are fixed and landlords inevitably pass them to tenants. The burden falls hardest on working families, service employees and retirees on fixed incomes. Each new tax “threatens the community’s long-term sustainability.”
Lopez Island’s Family Resource Center already offers after-school activities, he wrote. Run With the Pack supports youth athletics, and countless neighbors donate time, materials and money to events, clubs and trails.
Lopez Island Education Foundation’s $140,000 donation already helps the school district balance its $300,000 budget deficit without the formation of a new district, he wrote.
He thinks investments would be better made to entities such as the hospital district, infrastructure and emergency services. “Redirecting tax capacity toward recreation risks starving the services that make Lopez habitable.”
Wilburn urges voters to volunteer, donate to nonprofits and community organizations and pay user fees for the activities they value most.
On other islands
In the past, Orcas and San Juan islands have grappled with the passage of a parks and recreation district, Smith said.
The Orcas Island Parks and Recreation District, which formed in 2009, went through similar turbulence. Initially, the district passed but not the levy.
“When they passed the levy, it was a couple of years after that,” Ledbetter said. “The lessons learned is that they have too little money and they can’t do very much, so it doesn’t really show an impact on the community. San Juan has quite a bit more money and it shows some great impacts on the community.”
Per Smith’s assessment, community support without a district is not feasible.
“There’s a strong strain of self-sufficiency and people who feel like there are sort of grassroots or ad hoc or locally organized ways for all of these things to happen with volunteers and donations,” Smith said. “Those of us who are in the working age with working families are not seeing volunteers and donations as the solution, certainly not a sustainable solution.”
One perk of a new district is that school facilities — such as art, woodshop, tech and language classrooms — would open to the community.
“I remain very excited about the idea,” Smith said. “As superintendent of the district, I see great benefit with the partnership between the school district and the parks and rec. The school has the majority of parks and recreation related facilities, and we’re excited to sign agreements so that our facilities are in more use by the community. Personally, I’m very excited about all of the opportunities as a lifelong island resident to take advantage of those things and participate in them, not just benefit as superintendent from the partnership, but also as an individual, maybe taking a pottery class or something that isn’t done now and could be done with the parks and rec.”
— By Sam Fletcher
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Commentary: Lopez Rec: Setting the record straight,” Oct. 3, 2025
• “Commentary: Lopez Island in need of financial health check, community conversation,” Sept. 26, 2025