The candidate forum at the Brinnon Booster Club July 9 settled on a hyper-local focus straight away, as the four candidates for the Jefferson County District 3 commissioner were asked what they would do with the currently vacant upstairs spaces in the same building where the forum was hosted.

Brinnon resident Ryan Mc Allister was the first to reply, noting that he’s utilized the downstairs of the Brinnon Booster Club building for his commercial kitchen business, but adding that the upstairs is “wasted” and has asbestos.

“I’d love to see that space used as a job training or internet hub, but it’s going to take our community pulling together to make it happen,” Mc Allister said, while pointing out the building is owned by the county, but managed by OlyCAP. “I’m sure it’ll require an expensive hazardous materials removal, but it could make for a nice hotel or business space.”

Jon Cooke recalled an inspection and attempted cleanup of the space uncovering black mold, and when a bill was submitted to the county’s Board of Commissioners for a full cleanup, “They decided it wasn’t worth it. Even now, it’s probably well toward the bottom of their list of priorities, and as they would ask, if we were to repair it, where would we take the money from?”

Craig Durgan advocated in favor of allowing Brinnon residents to choose what to do with the space, describing Jefferson County as an “absentee landlord” that, in his opinion, does poorly in managing property assets such as the Penny Creek Pit in Quilcene, which the county is considering selling off.

Greg Brotherton noted the number of shuttered houses in the Brinnon area, and proposed septic system solutions ranging from composting toilets to gray water irrigation to help make more area housing affordable and livable.

One attendee asked the county commissioner candidates what Jefferson County would look like in 2028 if each of them were elected.

Mc Allister forecast a future in which Brinnon had a sewer, a drive toward economic development, and a population of young people living and working there.

“We’re not just a retirement and resort community,” Mc Allister said. “We need to maintain the health of Hood Canal, to preserve our rural character and for our marine trade.”

Cooke intends to bring “not just small businesses, but a variety of business types and sizes” to Brinnon over the course of the next 10 years, if elected.

“There needs to be stores here where people can actually buy clothes,” Cooke said. “There needs to be grocery stores in Quilcene and Brinnon, not big box stores like Walmart.”

Cooke believes Brinnon and Port Hadlock can become business centers for South County.

While Brotherton sounded some of the same notes, he also offered a correction to one of Cooke’s statements.

“We have a grocery store in Quilcene,” Brotherton said. “I built it, and my brother runs it now.”

Brotherton predicted the big box stores “are already dying,” and touted measures such as Amazon’s online sales tax as yielding revenue for the county.

“A robust internet is going to yield new industries that we don’t even understand yet,” Brotherton said. “I’d like to see 50 percent of our food produced right here in the county.”

Durgan warned against attempting to “dictate” which businesses would emerge in Brinnon, in favor of “allowing” businesses to develop in town, but to facilitate that process, he called for an Urban Growth Area designation.

“We need the infrastructure to support businesses here, from water and sewer to fire flow for hydrants,” Durgan said.

When asked about the possibility of Jefferson County declaring itself a “Sanctuary County,” in much the same way that Port Townsend declared itself a “Welcoming City” last year, the candidates varied as to whether they favored or were disinclined toward such a measure, but all four agreed the issue was largely irrelevant.

“The sheriff’s office has already pledged not to cooperate with the Border Patrol or ICE, so there’s no reason for such a declaration,” Mc Allister said. “There’s no benefit to it.”

Cooke dismissed the issue entirely, and instead called for the county to generate more revenue, which could go toward its law enforcement in turn.

“It’s a mostly symbolic act,” Brotherton said, even as he supported such a declaration on the principle of “standing up for our ideals as a nation,” with one of them being immigration in his eyes.

Durgan deemed himself a “conservative Democrat” as he stated his lack of support for such a declaration, although he hastened to add that he favors overhauls of the system to allow for more legal immigration.

“We’re past the stage where we can open our doors to everyone, because there are criminals and terrorists out there,” Durgan said. “But my first wife was from Peru, and she came to this country legally, and when she wanted to bring her mother here, I helped her become a citizen so she could do so. I do not favor a flood of illegal immigration, but I also do not support separating families at the border.”

A question about the Brinnon Master Planned Resort allowed all four candidates to reiterate the positions they stated during the June 24 Honesty Forum in Port Ludlow, with Mc Allister leading by saying, “I’m the only one up here who opposes it, and I’m the only one who lives in Brinnon.”

In addition to his previously expressed concerns about the proposed resort’s potential impacts on the environment and traffic, as well as its lack of livable wage jobs, Mc Allister cited his work at the Jefferson Healthcare hospital to resort that its primary care is already “maxed out,” and runs the risk of being overtaxed by additional elderly tourists.

Brotherton touted the length of the permit approval process, as well as the breadth of public approval that was solicited, as his reason why “I believe in the process.”

While he agreed with the need to follow the project’s progress with “continued scrutiny,” Brotherton already sees the Brinnon MPR as more effectively implemented than the development of Port Ludlow.

While Durgan didn’t necessarily disapprove of the MPR, he sympathized with local residents who felt “left out” of the decision-making process, and reiterated his call for them to incorporate, to gain greater autonomy over such measures.

“It’s zoned for an MPR,” Cooke said. “They’ve jumped through every hoop that was required.”

When asked how they might increase the county’s revenue, Mc Allister suggested abbreviating DCD’s permitting process, but Durgan defended DCD as doing well for how understaffed it is, and instead proposed more construction, including a sewer system in Port Hadlock, to bring in more money.

Brotherton and Cooke agreed with the calls for a sewer, with Cooke seconding the streamlining of DCD, while Brotherton repeated his advocacy for composting toilets and “a robust rural internet.”