Executive calls for PRCAC hiatus

County executive Satpal Sidhu is recommending the Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee (PRCAC) take some time off while the county works with the committee and the community to revisit its mission and makeup.

In a January 27 memo to county council members, PRCAC and residents of Point Roberts, Sidhu suggested changes to the committee he believes will “improve the committee’s ability to effectively provide advice and recommendations to my office and the county council regarding needs and issues specific to the Point Roberts community.”

Sidhu wrote that, from his experience “the voices of individual residents of Point Roberts have often been louder than that of the PRCAC.” The county continues to receive emails and messages indicating some residents are not supportive or not aware of PRCAC’s work.

“We are not hearing a joint, shared vision for the future of Point Roberts, from PRCAC or any of the other voices. There are many varying and somewhat contradictory visions from different organized groups. In addition, we come up against underlying distrust, conflicting ideas, and local politics.”

He suggested the committee take 2021 off from “business as usual” to “devote its efforts to generating ideas to make PRCAC more effective and balanced.”

Sidhu is proposing a three step revitalization process leading to the relaunch of PRCAC at the beginning of 2022.

The first step would be to establish the legitimacy of the three currently PRCAC –recognized organizations: the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce, Point Roberts’ Taxpayers Association and Point Roberts Registered Voters’ Association – while at the same time establishing “a blueprint for new organizations to emerge, become recognized and participate.”

Participating organizations would be asked to demonstrate they have at least 30 dues-paying members “in Point Roberts”, written bylaws, a board with at least three members, at least six board meetings and one general membership meeting a year, records of meetings and action taken, and conduct open public meetings.

In step two, organizations that met these requirements would nominate “more than one but not more than three” candidates which would be forwarded to county council by the executive. Council would select one candidate from each organization for appointment to PRCAC. The executive would receive applications for four at-large positions and would make those appointments, with one position being a “Canadian citizen living in Point Roberts.”

“Additional improvements” as a result of community input and county council deliberations would be codified in an amendment to the 2010 ordinance which established PRCAC as an advisory body to the county executive and/or in PRCAC’s bylaws.

In an interview, Sidhu said he expected the matter to be taken up by Ccounty council at their February 9 meeting and fully expected his proposal to evolve as council and community members weighed in. “This is not cast in stone,” he said. “PRCAC has lost community confidence because of the members it has and how they get there. What we need is for the impression to go away that these appointments are arbitrary.”

PRCAC member and Voter’s Association president Allison Calder suggested Sidhu had not asked the organizations in question whether they had already met his criteria, and that for the most they do. All three have bylaws, are registered with the secretary of state’s office, have elected boards, regular board and general meetings, and keep records of their proceedings. Except for the chamber of commerce, their meetings are open to the public. While all three organizations charge annual dues, the taxpayers’ and voters’ associations waived those fees for 2020/2021 in response to the Covid pandemic.

Mark Robbins, president of the taxpayers association, sent a preemptive email to Sidhu the day the memo was released with the association’s board structure and roster, information about bylaws and meeting schedule. The association has approximately 75 family memberships and memberships through homeowners associations. The organization represents not only Point Roberts residents but property owners, mostly Canadian, who do not reside full-time on the Point.

Speaking as an individual and not for the organization, Robbins said he felt “there is an issue of PRCAC members not having sufficient legitimacy, from the organization representatives as well as the at-large members. The only system that exists to define legitimacy is an election.” Robbins suggested the county look at funding PRCAC as well as other advisory committees in unincorporated areas to allow for election of members as well as a per-meeting stipend. “There ought to be an interest in giving unincorporated areas more of a voice,” he said.

Calder said in the last three months, responding to concerns voiced by the executive and council members PRCAC had worked to address issues of legitimacy, developing and adopting bylaws, adding detail to agendas and minutes, and increasing public participation at their monthly meetings, currently being held online due to Covid restrictions.

“As a group, we’ve made huge strides doing what the executive has been asking us for. Why spank us now?” she said. With two new at-large members awaiting appointment by the executive and council approval for two additional at-large positions to be added in March, Calder said the committee was moving closer to goals of more transparency and better community representation. “We have work to do,” she said, from big jobs like revising the subarea plan and getting an economic strategy developed to smaller items brought forward by members of the community like a dog park and eagle protection. “This is not the time to shut us down.”