By Jane Valencia
Editor’s Note: For more about The Vashon-Maury Community Council, read our article, “The V-MCC: Get More Involved in Your Chosen Community,” available at vashonloop.com
It’s no secret that we have issues of heated concern on Vashon, and few spaces where we can address their complexities to achieve intelligent solutions.
Fewer yet, it seems, are opportunities to embrace our diverse viewpoints and to glean the essential insights they offer. As described in our July issue, the V-MCC provides a public forum for such conversation.
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“This Council exists to help the people of Vashon-Maury Island address Island issues. The Council operates as a participatory, non-partisan forum, sometimes called “town meeting.” It aims to represent the interests of the Vashon-Maury Island community to King County and other government and non-governmental organizations in lieu of a municipal government.”
V-MCC Council Purpose
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And indeed, V-MCC has the ears of King County (KC). At the August 15, 2024 meeting, KC Dept of Local Services (KCDLS) director Leon Richardson and KCDLS Community Liaison Bong Sto. Domingo attended in-person. And, as the result of a motion passed at the May 16 meeting in relation to the PSE “Tree Wire Project,” staff from KC Roads Services and KC Estate Services presented a briefing on the KC Roads “clear zone” program.
However, the August meeting also revealed V-MCC’s growth edge – and our own as an Island community.
A growth edge is that messy place when you’re making a leap to the next level of your development. As life and business coach, Kim Romain describes it, “They are those places that have fear on one side and change on the other. The edge is the place in the middle.”
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“I was quite surprised by how emotionally charged the meeting became. It felt like a sports game with people cheering for their own team. I did not sense any room for or interest in gathering information regarding what Islanders might expect with a change in zoning laws.”
– New V-MCC Member regarding the 8/15/24 meeting
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Prior to the August meeting, V-MCC experienced a huge leap in membership, so much so that, to accommodate the number of participants (which ended up being around 115 in person, and 355 on Zoom), the usual venue of the Vashon Land Trust Building was changed to the Vashon Center for the Arts.
The increase was largely due to a call made by the local group, Friends of Thunderbird, to Islanders to join V-MCC expressly to vote no on a motion calling for a public forum with the KC Council about zoning “that would allow drug rehab and psychiatric hospitals in any residential neighborhood on Vashon.”
[Note: By the August 15 meeting, this motion had been modified to drop wording related to drug rehab and treatment facilities. Some members argued that the modification represented a significant change of intention to the motion – thus making it invalid. A vote was taken, and the motion was restored to its original form, and then voted down. Results from a revote are still being determined. A new motion was later presented that calls for a public forum on Vashon with the KC Council about the zoning changes. It will be voted upon at the Sept. 19 V-MCC meeting.]
Discussion surrounding the motion devolved quickly into shaming, labeling, and cheering and jeering. With the sudden membership growth, the V-MCC Chair and Board found themselves under-prepared to uphold civility. With so many new members – including some who had joined as late as noon that day, not everyone had familiarity and facility with the rules.
Certainly, confusion exists around the purpose and meaning of this vote – just what is its value? After all, the V-MCC is not an elected representative body, and its votes do not represent anyone beyond the members attending meetings. Even so, a perception seems to exist that the votes are somehow binding, sending a message to KCDLS that, “This is what Vashon-Maury Islanders want/don’t want,” and that KC decisions should flow from this delivered message. For contentious issues, concerns arise that KCDLS will only look to the V-MCC for insight into Island concerns and positions, and that only the majority or “winning” voice will be noted.
The V-MCC Board of Directors met on September 5th regarding these and other issues that surfaced that evening. As they discussed the challenges and possibilities inherent in conducting the next V-MCC meeting, I saw conscious attention to keeping the mission of the V-MCC in mind, and to maintaining an unbiased outlook. It may take more meetings to settle into the care and feeding of what larger “town meetings” require, but the Chair and Board are working to figure things out.
The next Council meeting is on Thursday, Sept. 19, 7-9 pm at the Presbyterian Church and via Zoom. Doors open at 6:30 for networking. The capacity of this venue is 181. If it fills up, people will need to join the meeting by Zoom. For more information, the Zoom link, and to become a member, go to v-mcc.org.
As for us who choose to participate, we can do our part to uphold a positive flow to the meeting. Familiarizing ourselves with the “Democratic Rules of Order” provides both the principles and tools – the “rules of the game,” so to speak – to engage simply and effectively, keep our calm when things get hot, and step in with a “point of order” if needed.
To SIHB and Friends of Thunderbird, there are plenty of Islanders who simply require more information, transparency, and answers to their concerns. And, in relation to the extensive zoning changes proposed in KC’s Comprehensive Plan, there truly are a series of issues and potential ramifications we need to sort through.
Antagonistic tactics are destructive of public discourse and don’t help one’s cause. Whether at V-MCC or elsewhere, let all of us remember: We’re dealing with friends and neighbors. We’re fellow Islanders, and when this particular issue is resolved, we’re going to remain fellow Islanders. In order to have a healthy community, we need to solve our problems in ways that don’t divide us.
No matter our perspective on any issue, let’s meet our Island growth edge, and reclaim and hone the ability and skills to have productive conversations on complex issues. Let’s make the V-MCC a place where we can grow our “community intelligence,” and make a positive difference for our Island and beyond. The results are bound to surprise us – in the best of ways.
