With regard to the Anacortes City Council election:

Bill and I have lived on Fidalgo Island since 1977, first on Wildwood Land and then Campbell Lake Road— Anacortes addresses in rural Skagit County. Because of our location, our children attended schools in the Anacortes School District. Bill is also a member and past president of the Fidalgo Island Rotary Club. We have always had close ties to Anacortes. In September of 2004, we purchased a residence within the City of Anacortes on Anaco Beach road. We chose to remodel the house before we moved in and continued to live at the Campbell Lake property until it was completed.

A position came open on Anacortes City Council for the term commencing January 2006, and Bill decided to run. He filed for office. After filing, Bill was advised that a residency requirement might apply to the Council position. He consulted the auditor’s office, and explained the timing of the purchase of the residence and the fact that he had not actually moved into it within a year of the commencement of the city council term. He was told that he was not in violation of any campaign laws. This advice was confirmed through a lawyer who checked with the Secretary of the State. The Secretary of the State’s office told us simply that if no one objected, it was OK to run. No one objected. Bill won by 70%.

With regard to the Campbell Lake Property:

I have a close friend, Dr. Mary Rose, who lives on six acres adjacent to the property. She is one of the State’s foremost native plant experts. In November of 2005, I had been working with her in maintaining her native plant collection and preserve. I had romantic notions of buying the property next door to her and joining with her in that work. It had been up for sale for some time, and I talked Bill into purchasing it.

The property was 26.9 acres and had been held in separate ownership before by three different families. Because of the separate ownership, each lot was allowed a residence. (Because of the inclusion of the portion of the property within the Lake Erie critical area buffer, no further development is allowed.) The lot closest to the road included a house and was 2.5 acres. The two lots behind were raw land and comprised approximately 5 acres and 18.5 acres respectively. I called John Lunsford with the City of Anacortes Parks Department and started the process of creating a preservation or conservation easement because of its proximity to Anacortes Forest lands and Dr. Rose’s native plant preserve. The City was also interested because of the well-used trail that runs through the property up to Mt. Erie.

Lot certification was completed in March of this year, and the lots were listed for sale in April. The front 2.5 acres with the house has sold. The 5.9 acres in back is for sale, as well as the 18.5 acres, which will be burdened by the 12-acre conservation easement.

Regarding supposed liquidation of assets:

Building houses, developing lots and buying and selling real estate is how we make our living. We are proud of our record and believe we are a model of responsible building and development. We believe in conservation easements as effective means of assuring the preservation of natural areas with little cost to government and have used them. With the inclusion of this easement, we will have given away over 22 acres for preservation in easement form, 10 acres in the City and the remaining adjacent to Mt. Erie, a local treasure.

Of the six lots in the neighborhood (The Breeze) that includes our residence, we have two lots left. And as indicated above, of the three lots in the Campbell Lake property, we have two left. Of the eleven original lots at Castilleja Bluff, four (one developed) remain. These remaining six lots are up for sale and have been since their purchase and/or creation. If this constitutes “liquidation,” so be it

We have been able to run our business working with building and development regulations, government officials, clients, real estate agents, subcontractors and suppliers, while raising and supporting our children and dealing with the joys and tragedies of life we all face. Our financial books are in the black, and we have left a legacy of beautiful homes, environmentally sensitive and restrained development and community goodwill. We have done this while giving our workers paid vacation, medical insurance benefits, 6 paid holidays a year, and giving the public over twenty-two acres of undisturbed nature in prime locations. Our lives and work are consistent with the deeply held values we advocate.

Regarding contract provisions for mediation and arbitration:

The contract used with our clients is a form contract from the national architects group (the AIA), not builders. Ask any lawyer, judge, builder or client—they all would choose mediation and arbitration over litigation due to the substantial savings in cost and time. It’s good for us and it’s good for our customers. It’s not about hiding our disputes. In 26 years of business, no liens have been filed against our company, and we have been involved in only one contractual dispute that resolved quickly through mediation.

As for "Builders Boards," we are not part of any. People who know our values understand our decision not to join the BIAW or similar groups because of their political activism against standards relating to energy efficiency, environmental impact and growth management.

Conclusion:

The cruel irony for us is that Bill and I have been active and outspoken proponents of growth management and the protection of South Fidalgo’s rural character. We have donated generously of our voice, time and money towards those goals. Bill was a board member of Friends of Skagit when Friends tirelessly resisted the County’s repeated violations of the Growth Management Act. These efforts were successfull, and Bill and I are proud to have helped implement the GMA, a powerful tool to save farmland and rural areas, protect the environment, and prevent sprawl. The protections Fidalgo residents presently have can be directly traced to that work. Bill also spent time and money, actively working on campaigns Barbara Rudge and John Doyle, candidates for public office who ran on growth management and environmental platforms. Bill was a member of the South Fidalgo Citizen’s Advisory Committee specifically because he did not trust the County to consider the community’s wishes, and he articulated his concerns clearly when he was on that Committee.

We are hurt and dismayed by your mischaracterizations, false claims and innuendos. I ask you: If my husband does not represent the interests of South Fidalgo, who does?

Sincerely,
Sally Turner
Wife of Bill Turner
Candidate for Skagit County Commissioner
Dist. 1, Democrat