San Juan County council prepares for 2027 budget approval
At a meeting last week, Councilmember Kari McVeigh said San Juan County is tasked with “making gold out of corn.”
In the wake of a failed property tax measure in April and projections of a $3.7 million budget deficit — 12% of the county’s operating revenue — for 2027, the county council spent this summer going department-by-department looking for cuts.
“Almost $4 million is not small pennies in a county the size of San Juan,” County Manager Jessica Hudson said in an interview, “so it impacts a lot of things. There are reductions in personnel. There are reductions in programs and services.”
So far, the council has approved: Reductions to the Senior Services program, maintenance at county parks, high-risk family law, the Islands Oil Spill Association and the WSU Extension Forestry program. The council will also eliminate management positions in the Facilities and Environmental Stewardship Departments and eliminate or hold positions vacant in almost every department across the county.
On Sept. 8, the council will review the decision packages for department cuts. On Oct. 5, the county will hold the first public hearing for the 2027 budget.
Alongside cuts, the council is exploring additional funding sources, Hudson said. Passed by the state this year, House Bill 2442 offers additional local opportunities to change levy amounts. Some proposed examples were a veterans’ levy and a mental health and developmental disabilities services levy. Council has not yet decided if it will ask for a levy lid lift in 2027.
Last year, the county directed all departments to find 9% cut across the board, and 80% could not find 9%, Councilmember Justin Paulsen said at a sustainability advisory committee meeting July 23.
“This year’s directive was not to departments equally to find a percent. It was (that) we need to find $4 million,” he said. “How can we do that and still try and maintain as much of the programming across the county that we can, and there are other programs that are just going to flat disappear as the result of this.”
While the council must approve the 2027 budget per state law, it does not mean these changes are permanent, he said.
Environmental stewardship
“We have eliminated all low hanging fruit and some mid-level fruit as well,” McVeigh said.
While cuts have been made across the board, if public comment is any indicator, the approved cuts to the Environmental Stewardship Department is a “mid-level fruit” to say the least.
Earlier this summer, the council approved eliminating the department’s director and shifting the functions of the department to other departments. Utilities would go to county administration. Marine programs, climate and sustainability and cultural services would go to the Parks, Recreation and Fair Department. By doing this, the county would save $241,000, McVeigh said.
Because Environmental Stewardship Director Kendra Smith was out on leave, Hudson presented the Environmental Stewardship budget on her behalf.
“I think one of the reasons why a lot of people in the community are upset is because there didn’t seem to be a lot of transparency in the process that happened with this department,” sustainability advisory committee member Anastasia Jespersen said on July 23. “They weren’t allowed to present a budget, and the whole thing with Kendra being out. I understand they are mitigating circumstances and probably was just this thing that came together, but that did not look good. And I think myself and a lot of people came away from that thinking that it was just an easy way to get some money, and it wasn’t a priority.”
According to Paulsen, many departments did not have the opportunity to present their budgets to the council.
At a June 30 council meeting, Friends of the San Juans education director Jessica Newley said, “the department of environmental stewardship is not a luxury. It’s an investment in clean water, healthy shorelines, resilient ecosystems and ultimately the health and prosperity of our community. Words matter, but our actions become our legacy. So I leave you with one question: What example do we want to leave for the young people who are watching us today?”
Billie Swalla, former director of Friday Harbor Laboratories, said orcas can no longer be reliably seen on the west side of San Juan Island.
“The thought of dismantling the Stewardship Department seems the antithesis of what San Juan County has done in the past,” said Deborah Giles, orca researcher with the Sea Doc Society. “We were leaders in the protection of the southern resident killer whales, helping to push through local protections before the state protected the southern residents and before the federal government protected the southern residents.”
Hudson, as well as Deputy County Manager Tillery Williams — who both managed the department while Smith was on leave — made clear this is just a cost-saving measure to eliminate the director position, not reduce any of the department’s services.
“We’ve heard the department is going away, and if you talk about naming conventions, yeah that’s true, but the only thing that’s been proposed is the elimination of the director position,” Williams said at a marine resources committee meeting Aug. 6. “All functions, all services, all staff, other than that position, would still remain.”
Paulsen said, “I’d love to eliminate the language that says we are eliminating the department.”
Smith did not respond to a request for comment, but community members remained unconvinced.
“To me it doesn’t make sense,” Giles said. “We need strong leadership in that role. We are leaders in the state, and people look to us. Other communities look to us to help us to protect the marine realm.”
Lovel Pratt, a member of the marine resources committee, said on Aug. 6, “I think it’s an unfortunate statement to say that removing the supervisor is inconsequential to maintaining the integrity of the department.”
Another member, Karin Roemers-Kleven, said she anticipates some grant funding and support with tribes and state government will be lost as a result of the transition.
However, county officials insisted that this would not be the case.
“For folks that might have the mindset that if it’s not one person and if it’s not this person it’s going to fail, I can tell you now, as long as I’m in a leadership position in the county, it’s not going to fail, because I take that personally,” Williams said. “I may not have all of the experience in environmental stewardship that someone else had before me, but you can damn well better be sure that I’m going to talk to the staff and the community to make sure nothing skips a beat.”
McVeigh mentioned the change is likely not permanent, but a way to balance the budget for next year.
“I promise you right now I will reinstate the position once we have the funds to put it back,” she said.
Many departments are facing severe cuts without so much outcry, she said.
“We are gutting — and maybe because people don’t care as much about women and children and vaccines and health things — we are gutting our health department, and that tears me apart.”
—By Sam Fletcher