Island County Commissioners again denied a proposed ordinance to change the allocation process for distributing money from the Conservation Futures Fund.

Commissioner Bill Byrd brought the proposal to the board, recommending that with regard to funding, the county should be divided into three areas following school district boundaries. A barrage of e-mails made it abundantly clear that over time, each area would receive a third of the funding, Commissioner Mac McDowell said. The regions, however, are not equal by assessed values.

McDowell submitted a revised version of the amendment on Monday during a public hearing at the regular board of commissioners meeting. He suggested postponing the hearing until Sept. 18, at which point the public could submit input on Byrd’s ordinance and McDowell’s revised document. Given the number of citizens who turned up for the hearing, Commissioner Mike Shelton said denying them testimony would be unfair.

Community members speaking at the hearing were firmly against either ordinance, although McDowell’s was more perplexing, many said.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand it,” said Diane Kendy of Langley.

Kendy added that the proposed ordinance would hinder the decision-making process. The county’s Citizen’s Advisory Board (CAB) had already submitted recommendations, which she said were simple and straight-forward. The amendment stated that applications from all areas of the county would be accepted to allow the commissioners to choose from “projects with the best conservation values.”

“It’s simple and you can work with that,” Kendy said. “It doesn’t hamper you.”

She again appealed to the commissioners to follow CAB’s lead rather than employ arbitrary division.

She described the proposal as “an example of divisive politics of the worst kind and we sure don’t need any more of that right now,” Kendy said.

The consensus among the public representatives was that opportunities would be lost if the proposal was accepted. Steve Erickson of Whidbey Environmental Action Network said balkanization of funds would remove the ability to “jump on” opportunities. A majority of the past acquisitions have been opportunistic, he added, including the heron rookery on Camano Island and the Hoypus Hill project north of Oak Harbor.

“It’s not good planning,” he said. “It’s not even good politics in the long run.”

Larry Kwarsick, CAB chairman, supported continuing the hearing at a later date, but with the addition of his board’s provisions addressing “out of cycle” applications.

“We would like to see that included in the proposal and the continuation of the hearing is an opportunity to include that as part of the proposal,” he said.

Kwarsick questioned how the commissioners could even consider establishing a process that removes their discretionary abilities.

The overwhelming sentiment was that both commissioners’ proposals would be counter-productive and ultimately result in properties with high conservation value being sold and developed.

CAB member Stan Stanley said the commissioners were moving toward tax distribution issues rather than conservation issues. He advocated judicious use of the funds.

McDowell agreed that placing CAB’s “out of cycle” proposal on the table was reasonable, although a staff session meeting would be necessary to examine the language and put it in ordinance form.

In stark contrast to McDowell, Shelton said the commissioners already possess the ability to achieve parity.

“It simply is inconceivable to me why you would put into ordinance something that we already have the ability to do,” he said. “I just remind my two fellow commissioners that this code is only as good when you have two commissioners who will continue to support it.”

Byrd acknowledged the shortcomings of his proposal, the second unsuccessful attempt by commissioners to draft an amenable plan.

“I think there’s many ways we can slice the pie, but I’m not sure any of them are going to be satisfactory to everybody,” he said.

The commissioners voted to deny the proposed code and start fresh with a new public hearing in early October, after the CAB’s recommendations can be studied and incorporated.