LopezRocks - Item

Get up to speed for the Tuesday, August 2nd, Council Meeting on the Land Bank completed acquisition of Glenwood Inn property on Orcas Island and the potential disciplinary action of Lincoln Bormann, director of the Land Bank.

June 14th council meeting on the SJPT conservation easement discussion with Counsel Vera and Lincoln Bormann
Watch from 1:00 hour in recording. It gets into the back and forth with the council on the resolution of keeping the 2 parcels and for the county to develop into county worker housing. Watch through to 1:47.

https://media.avcaptureall.cloud/meeting/6510f7d8-702c-4caa-95c3-81efff144ec1

June 17th Land Bank Meeting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBma8rnXodY

Listen to Sandi Friel starting at 1:01. Excellent overview of the Glenwood Inn acquisition, process, and challenges.

Listen to Amanda Azousâ€™ public statement at hour 2:27, great suggestion for making improvements in communications going forward.

July 19th, Council Meeting

Start at 2:27 presentation on timeline til 2:43
Amy Vera reviews the timeline of what has happened by the facts.

https://media.avcaptureall.cloud/meeting/c1b550a4-af7a-4f86-86bb-e65194214428

Amy Vera recommends that the Council revises the resolution at a future meeting. Clarifies that what was reworked in the June 14th meeting is just a recital, to put into writing what everyone is thinking.

Please consider speaking during the public comment period at Tuesdayâ€™s council meeting - to comment:

https://apps2.sanjuanco.com/Council/CouncilMeetingCommunitySignUp/signup.php

or write to the Council at [email protected] before noon on Monday with positive comments supporting Lincoln. Thank you for your support of the Land Bank.

Additional Information:

With Permission from Brian Wiese to share his Op Ed letter:

"
Friends and supporters of the Land Bank-

On next Tuesdayâ€™s County Council agenda, the Council has planned an executive session disciplinary hearing at which they may consider firing Land Bank Director Lincoln Bormann. Ironically, this action comes as we celebrate the Land Bankâ€™s successful acquisition of the 58-acre former Glenwood Inn property, giving us 2/3 mile of long-desired shoreline access on Orcas. Why is Council taking this action? The answer is that the Land Bank and our conservation partner, the San Juan Preservation Trust did not accommodate a request by Councilmember Cindy Wolf to reserve a â€œdevelopment rightâ€ on the property for potential County worker housing. To be clear, this request was never made by Council, just by one councilmember in comments to Lincoln, and it came late in the game, after negotiations were well underway. The Land Bank Commission was never even aware of the request.

Acquiring land for development or for any purpose other than conservation is contrary to the Land Bankâ€™s statutory mandate and, I believe, contrary to the reason San Juan County citizens have supported it in three elections. Although the Land Bank could work in partnership with another entity to acquire land for housing if that entity had a plan for partnership and funding from the beginning, the Land Bankâ€™s mission is to preserve natural land for conservation and public access, and cannot use its REET funding for any other purpose. Lincoln has pursued that mission with outstanding success over the past years, acquiring more than 5,000 acres of public open space, with recent successes such as Mt. Grant, the Beaverton Marsh and Zylstra preserves on San Juan Island, Lopez Hill and the Higgins addition to the Watmough Bay Preserve on Lopez, and the Coho Preserve and Glenwood property on Orcas. There is no reason to punish him for his success in carrying out the Land Bank mandate. We in the Commission are looking forward to his continued leadership in new initiatives for forest preserve management and climate resilience and his continuing coordination of the inter-agency Terrestrial Managers Group.

Please consider speaking during the public comment period at Tuesdayâ€™s council meeting (to comment:

https://apps2.sanjuanco.com/Council/CouncilMeetingCommunitySignUp/signup.php)

or write to the Council at [email protected] before noon on Monday with positive comments supporting Lincoln. And, once again, thank you for your support of the Land Bank.

Brian Wiese
Land Bank Commission
"