The Aug. 20 letter to the editor regarding “letter was damaging to politician” was as full of misinformation as any the author was rebutting.
It is common knowledge that Mac McDowell has holdings all over Island County, but they are under partnership with other people. If you don’t believe this buy a lot from Carl Krieg and see whose name appears on the transfer paperwork.
Mac’s history is using the rezoning laws to his and his partnerships’ own benefit. If he thought one of his developer partners could build a bunch of condos for his wife to sell on your land, your property would be rezoned before the ink on this paper was dry. His history of not holding public hearings before rezoning was never more visible than when all the land around Crockett Lake was changed from rural to residential, quadrupling the tax on the properties, without a single landowner being informed.
Phil Bakke is sitting in his chair because of Mac’s influence at county, and has never voted against Mac in any of Mac’s projects.
Sheilah Crider sits in her position as the auditor because she is a close friend of Mac’s. She was selected over the person who had done the job before, yet with no experience she got the job. When Mac thought nothing of stepping over the line to use a county employee to do his personal business he knew this would not get the penalty he deserved: $14 was the fine. Thanks Sheilah.
To me this is too much power for one person sitting on the county council. He controls two of the three seats of the council plus the auditor. It is time the voters change that.
I would also like to correct the number of accidents the Navy has had during my time here at Whidbey. The Navy lost one A6 bomber on the golf course on base from ingestion of a flock of ducks; one during an airshow rehearsal on the runway; and one EA6B off the beach near Cranberry Lake. All others have been nowhere near the base or Oak Harbor. The rezone is a simple ploy of Mac’s while he has control, because the Navy did not ask for it, simply because they know this is not Virginia beach-front, high cost land. The control of what is built there is a responsibility of the building permit process, why rezone it, causing the land owner to lose value in their property?
Tom Downey
Oak Harbor
