Posted by Candidate Questionnaire
Kevin Fetterly is challenging incumbent Council Member and Mayor Kol Medina. Medina’s questionnaire appeared yesterday.
Candidate: Kevin Fetterly
Position #: North Ward, District 2
Your Website: fetterly4bi.com
Your Email: fetterly4bi@gmail.com
Ward of residence: North Ward
Representation: Which Ward or At Large: North Ward
Are you an incumbent? No
- If incumbent, how many terms have your served?
Current occupation: Engineer and Businessman
Previous Civic Activities: Habitat for Humanity
Why you are running: I hope to focus the Council back on to the basics: Financial Integrity, Safety and Mobility and Infrastructure. More “do”, less theatrics.
Issues
Issues are listed alphabetically and not in any suggested priority.
Downtown parking
There is broad agreement that parking downtown is inadequate. The lack of parking spaces is probably costing businesses patronage. You were asked at the Chamber of Commerce candidates forum how you would solve parking. One candidate noted a lack of support from business. Another suggested creating a one-way street to add parking. Neither solves a problem.
Q. How would you solve the parking problem downtown so that both residents and tourists have sufficient places to park and shop?
Convert Bjune to one-way to add 75 spaces. Lease parking for COBI employees at nearby churches and provide a shuttle service to downtown…freeing up more parking at the City Hall lot. We could build a Downtown Parking Garage using a Local Improvement District (LID) supported by the commercial properties. The City can provide the land, a LID would provide the funding.
Q. Would you support a program that would incent tourists to leave the car at home while creating more transportation options when visiting the island?
Yes.
Environment
Islands are inherently fragile ecosystems that show stress quickly and have limited capacity to recover from environmental impacts.
Q. What grade would you give the current City government on environmental protection and sustainability?
Fair.
Q. What would you do the same or differently?
Fix our 20 some-odd failed culverts. Clean up the 16 hazardous waste sites (rated serious by the State of Washington). Institute a septic system inspection regime for those neighborhoods that have proven fecal coliform seepage.
Q. Do you think the current City government is doing enough to protect our island ecosystems for the long term?
Mixed.
Q. Do you think the island residents would support stricter protections? Please explain.
Yes, for specific clean-ups backed by evidence.
Q. How do you think the City needs to prepare for climate change for the near term and long term?
We need to monitor our aquifers and institute conservation measures, if necessary. “Sea-level-rise” zone designations should be included with on real estate transactions. Buyers need to know of risk before they buy a property (similar to flood zones).
Finance
Voters rejected recent levies for the new police department building and roads.
Q. Why do you think voters rejected these levies?
Distrust of the City Council and their promises that the work will actually get done. For example, only 26.5% of the Storm Water budget is spent on stormwater projects. The rest disappears into paper pushing.
Q. What message would you convey to the citizens in support of future bonds?
Earn Islander trust first before attempting anymore levies. Show that the percentage of budget funds spent (on actual project work) has actually increased.
Q. Tim Eyman has another $30 car tab initiative on the November ballot. If it passes, Bainbridge Island will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars annual from its Transportation fund. How would you deal with this significant shortfall of transportation dollars in the Bainbridge budget?
I understand that the loss is to forecasted revenue, not from current revenue.
The entire budget is due for a rebalancing anyway, considering there is only one safety project scheduled for the next six years. First item to repurpose is the Council’s $300K uncommitted slush fund, then we have $3.8M consulting budget and $350K for “updating” the City Hall building, $150K being spent on Sustainable Transportation outreach (levy cheerleading).
Growth and Development
GMA
City governments often use the GMA as a reason for increased growth and density, while authors of the GMA insist that the GMA provides tools with which to guide growth to be sustainable and in some cases, limit growth.
Q. What’s your view of the GMA?
COBI has met the GMA requirements. We do not have to implement any more growth measures than already approved.
Q. Do you think the City of Bainbridge Island is using the GMA wisely to make growth sustainable?
Our growth will be limited by the water supply. Given that the Fletcher Bay aquifer already has salt intrusion (in Seabold), the Commodore production well has gone dry…the “growth days” may be short anyway.
Q. Do you think Bainbridge Island has room to grow?
We have already approved density in Winslow that has not been built-out.
Q. How much and where should this growth be channeled in order to preserve the more rural nature of the majority of the island?
There should not be any more upzoning until Winslow is filled to its current zoned density. We need to halt plans for Rollingbay and Island Center.
Housing
Q. Do you think the City should allow Tiny houses, ADUs and carriage houses to provide for more affordable housing while being more sustainable?
I will be proposing an “ADU-Express” program that will make the development of affordable housing ADUs easier. Tiny houses still need to be built to normal building code standards.
Q. How would you regulate these housing options?
Any option will need to meet standard codes: egress, insulation, electricity, plumbing, sewage.
Q. Do you believe RVs should be allowed as permanent housing?
RVs are not designed to be permanent housing. The Council’s plan to legalize them for housing raises serious questions about fire safety, sewage disposal and Carbon footprint.
Q. Where would these RVs be allowed to park, and in what numbers, so as not to negatively impact adjacent neighborhoods?
No, The Council proposal lacks a mechanism to prevent Seattle-style “RV Ranching” from destroying our neighborhoods.
Q. How do you answer the concerns expressed by the Fire Department over the potential use of RVs as permanent housing?
I agree with them.
Q. Given the problems Seattle has over the use of RVs as housing and the impacts on neighborhoods and business areas, why do you think RVs for Bainbridge may be a good idea?
No.
Social Services
Q. What do you propose to combat drug abuse, depression and suicides for young teens and high schoolers?
The City has some budget for service organizations such as Helpline. We should continue to provide this funding.
Our leaders also need to demand that Kitsap Co Human Services provide services here locally on the island, not just in Pt. Orchard.
Q. Please detail how you would address these issues. Consider this a two-part question, allowing 250 words per part.
Transportation
The city has had a transportation concurrency update on its “to-do” list for two or more years.
Q. What is your understanding of concurrency?
Developers need to pay for their project’s impact on our roads.
Q. Why hasn’t an update been prioritized and completed?
Ask the current Council, starting with Kol Medina.
Q. What do you hope to see as a result of a transportation concurrency update?
More funding needs to be spent on pedestrian and bicycle road shoulders.
Q. Concurrency and Level of Service is based on traffic counts that date citywide to 2012-14. Do you think this is appropriate?
No.
Water
There is conflicting information and opinion on the state of the island’s water resource. Some research says there’s plenty and enough for future growth, while other water experts strongly disagree and point to the fact that the island is a sole-source aquifer and with finite capacity, especially given risks posed by climate change.
Q. What’s your position on our island’s water capacity and quality? Please provide facts and research to support your views.
Monitor the aquifers and forecast the replenishment rate. If the aquifers take a turn for the worse, impose water conservation and halt development.
Q. Do you believe there should be a building moratorium until a consensus understanding on water aquifer viability is reached and a determination is made whether there is a long-term problem?
The aquifer monitoring program needs to proceed post-haste, but no more moratoriums. The City Staff just need to move faster.
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