EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of three reports on Saturday’s voters forum at the Elwha Heritage Center in Port Angeles.
PORT ANGELES — Incumbent Clallam County Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller came under sharp criticism over the weekend for the implementation of a new state law that legalizes recreational marijuana and allows entrepreneurs to set up growing, processing and retail facilities for the drug.
Roark Miller, completing her first term, and her opponent, Winborn Architects owner Mary Ellen Winborn, are running in the Nov. 4 general election for the nonpartisan position, the only elected DCD director post in the nation.
The two appeared together Saturday at the Elwha Heritage Center for an hour-long voters forum sponsored by the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, moderated by Sequim Gazette columnist Bertha Cooper and observed by about 70 audience members.
Questioners trained their sights on Roark Miller, who will be 56 as of Election Day, and her handling of the new marijuana law, approved statewide in November 2012 as Initiative 502.
Brad Schaefer, a Lake Farm resident, took Roark Miller to task for policies allowing “marijuana factories in residential neighborhoods.”
Another asked how Roark Miller could allow “industrial” marijuana facilities in 1-acre and 5-acre residential zones.
Roark Miller said county commissioners today are scheduled to call for a 10:30 a.m. Sept. 23 hearing that would establish interim zoning controls for production, processing and retail sales of legalized recreational marijuana.
Her Department of Community Development, after consulting with the county Planning Commission earlier this year, made a rule stating that because the marijuana facilities are not specifically allowed or disallowed in residential areas, applications for the operations must go to the county hearing examiner and be applied for under a conditional use permit.
The facilities are automatically approved in commercial and light industrial areas.
The hearing examiner process is “for things that don’t quite fit” in residential areas, with permits decided on a case-by-case basis, Roark Miller said.
“It’s not just my decisions nor my thoughts, but the board of county commissioners,” she said.
“I don’t know exactly what she’s talking about,” responded Winborn, who will be 54 as of Election Day.
Winborn said she had identified 16 non-residential zones in which retail, growing and processing facilities for marijuana would be allowed.
She said conditional-use permits are used to “enhance” areas, such as Agnew Grocery & Feed does on Old Olympic Highway east of Port Angeles, “not for uses that are going to line someone’s pocket.”
She likened the marijuana facilities to a “moderate hazard factory.”
Both candidates also were asked if they supported continuing to have the DCD director be an elected position, a topic some Charter Review Commission candidates have said they will broach if they are elected Nov. 4.
Winborn had favored making it appointed but then decided having it elected allowed for endless and exciting possibilities.
“I think it’s a good thing, actually,” Winborn said.
Roark Miller said voters must be relied upon to be informed.
“It gives you a more immediate response back from an elected official if they are involved,” she said.
“It was unfortunate that they were not satisfied with the administration at that time [the decision was made to make the position elected].
“That’s the way the cookie crumbles, and we just go from there.”
Bob Martin, who headed the DCD before the job became an elected position, also asked a question at the forum related to an employee’s February 2013 whistleblower complaint against Roark Miller.
Martin, now the county’s public works administrative director who sometimes fills in for county Administrator Jim Jones, asked about department morale.
Morale was described as low in a report on the complaint, which did not result in criminal charges over Roark Miller’s admitted backdating of a January 2013 mushroom farm building permit to December 2012.
“None of the comments were good,” Martin said of employee interviews contained in the 515-page report.
“Most of them were scathing.
“What are you prepared to do to fix it?”
Winborn said she expected “to have a lot of trust issues I will have to deal with” that will take a period of time to resolve if she is elected to the position, which pays a $74,521 salary for 2014.
The department has 18 full-time-equivalent employees and a 2014 budget of 2.2 million.
Roark Miller, noting that Martin headed the department before his job became an elected position, acknowledged morale is low and attributed it to 10 vacancies in the department not being filled in the last four years.
“Morale is low because there have been so many positions that have been cut to balance the budget,” she said.
She added that she backdated the permit, which also involved changing the date for a check for the permit, to correct a mistake that could have resulted in a lawsuit against the county.
“That’s the role of a leader, to take the bullet when something happens in the department.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.