You Wrote to the Commissioners. Have They Responded to You?

This page is dedicated to you and created in the spirit of open and responsive government. If you haven't yet, be sure to visit the Open Government page of the Washington State Attorney General. It's worth a browse and you can find links and people to write to.

We at beep4bumps have this crazy notion that when you write a letter to your Kitsap County Commissioner, you actually deserve a reply. We're just silly that way.

We've decided to publish letters that we know went to the Kitsap County Commissioners.  We're guessing that they represent just a fraction of the actual letters that went to them. We'll then periodically ask the authors of those letters if they ever got a reply.

We already know that Commissioner Steve Bauer has his personal conditions that preclude him from interacting with Kitsap County residents who don't work through his Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council (GHAAC), so we have no expectations of him. We've also stopped writing and phoning him because why bother, he doesn't respond.

But we are curious about the other two commissioners -- Jan Angel and Josh Brown. They ALSO represent you, the Kitsap County Taxpayer.  We don't want Mr. Bauer to think that they should keep "hands off Hansville" when, in fact, we NEED representation on the county besides him, right?

If you would like your letter to your commissioners (all three) published here -- send a letter to them and send us a copy.  Then let us know if they've responded.

Thanks!  Let's find out if we have open and responsive government in Kitsap County!

Misuse of Our Tax Funds?

From Angelina Jenson, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Nov. 3, 2007 [Response Unknown]

Why do we waste our money on these speed bumps when we should fix or resurface Cliff Side Drive. Isn't this a misuse of our Tax Funds? The speed bumps don't slow anyone down anyway, just makes it more dangerous for the walkers along that street as people are having problem going over them, or spueing asphalt from the new construction that gets chewed away as use continues.

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How Were Stastics Collected?

From Mark Barabasz, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Nov. 4, 2007 [No Response as of Dec. 6, 2007]

I moved to Driftwood Key in March and commute to Poulsbo. I read the letter from Greater Hansville Road Safety Advisory Committee to Commissioner Endresen with some interest. I would like to see how those statistics were collected. Hearsay is not evidence. I would also like to see all the transcripts from the hearings which have been held prior to deciding on the traffic calming solution.

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Like to See 'Notices of Public Hearing'

From Scott Carlson, Kingston, to all three commissioners on Nov. 4, 2007 [Response Unknown]

I would like to see the "notices of public hearing", along with any other data in regards to what you call "speed tables" in the Hansville area. As a resident of the Hansville area I find it very disappointing that I am "trapped" from driving several of my vehicles on "public" roadways that MY tax dollars pay for because the "Bumps are too tall" When will the county be sending me a check to refund my license plate fees? Or would the county and state rather pay for new floor pans on theses cars? Do you have "speed tables" in front of your house? Doubt not! Please try to find it in your civic duty that we citizens of whom voted for you, to supply us with the appropriate information regarding the above issue. Thanks for the headaches!

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Selective Polling Perhaps?

From Debby Replogle, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Nov. 6, 2007 [Response Unknown]

I have serious doubts of the statistical accuracy of this survey. Who was contacted? Selective polling perhaps?

 "Our committee members have recently canvassed the Cliffside and Hansville neighborhoods with a petition asking the residents for their signature if they support the proposed speed tables or other physical calming devices. We are pleased but not surprised at the unanimity of the residents' support for our proposal.
The results are that in the Cliffside neighborhood 79% of all residences were contacted. Of those contacted, 98% signed the petition. In the Hansville neighborhood approximately 65% of households and businesses have been contacted and of those, 97% signed the petition (survey in process, will have additional results by mid Oct.)"

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Dear Mr. Bauer, Please Provide Documentation

From Terry McCauley, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Nov. 13, 2007 [Response Unknown]

dear mr. bauer, and or staff, we are very interested in how many contributions you and or your office, may have received, and from who, to make the manipulative decision to approve the "traffic calming" in the greater hansville area? please provide, as well as all founded public surveyed documentation to corroborate this act of spending $30,000 of tax payers money on the shoddily constructed nuisance's placed on our county roads. we certainly believe the local public residents in this area would be greatly interested in reviewing this documentation. as a consensus, we as the public and interested parties request this information from our publicly elected official, paid by tax payer dollars to inquire and review all actions of our elected officials'. as of yet, your office has not supplied in any venue the information requested by others,that we now request. WHY? is one to assume, that no response,no public documentation, no public acknowledgement, is simply part of a contributional agreement? simply put, the consensus, your actions in this matter were factually unfounded. please supply all pertinent documentation in this matter as requested. we have had very positive results with the governor (http://www.governor.wa.gov/) in past state/county, office/department, state to state litigation. we need conclusive answers to questions asked that at this point in time are not being publicly disclosed. please provide.

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Shoddy Solution to Fabricated Problem

From Jennifer Moon, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Nov. 30, 2007 [Response Unknown]

The Speed Bumps have got to go. I've driven many roads in my 54 years and have never seen these anywhere other than parking lots and dead end streets. Why are the Bumps on Bridge View smoother than Hood Canal Drive? Why were they advertised as Speed Tables to deceive? Why is the Hood Canal Drive speed limit so slow? Why is there so much anger regarding these Bumps? Who in the world would approve such a shoddy solution to a problem that seems fabricated by residents living on Hood Canal Drive? We just moved to Hansville in July so we weren't aware of the Speed Bump plan till after we moved in and we are angry about their installation. We will continue to support their removal. This type of governmental answer to an over blown problem is an embarrassment to Kitsap County.

I am a homeowner in Driftwood Key and a taxpayer in your district. You work for us, your constituents. So what's with your latest letter concerning the speed bumps that you will only work with people who agree with you? How long have you been in politics? Have you noticed that the policy of only working with constituents who agree with them hasn't worked well for Bush-Cheney?

The GHAAC is NOT a government agency. It is not a legal representative of the citizens of Hansville. They were not voted to represent Hansville citizens. It is simply a group of neighbors who got together and formed an interest group. To give them official status and honor their requests for bumps without a vote of all of Hansville is to give special treatment to a single lobby group ---that sort of cronyism has the whole country mad at the Republicans. "Regime change" is on the minds of the U.S. voters, and also on the minds of Driftwood Key voters.

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Proof of Notification?  Research?  Where is it?

From Joyce Hart, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Dec. 1, 2007 [No Response from Commissioners as of Dec. 7; however see note below]

I would appreciate seeing proof of notification of community announcements for the meetings concerning the speed bumps on Hood Canal road. I would also like to receive research that shows speed bumps were necessary. I would also like to know who voted in favor of these bumps. In other words, please send me transcripts of the meeting.

Thank you.

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Let's Talk Speed Limits

From Douglas Leibrant, Hansville, to all three commissioners on Dec. 4, 2007 [Response unknown]

Kitsap County Commissioners It seems to be pretty obvious that there wasn't much research done on this subject of the implementation of these speed tables in the North Kitsap area before they were installed. I would like to offer my opinion on the subject as I am feeling quite violated by the dictatorial nature of this whole scenario and the way these were snuck in here on our roads. I also don't feel that I need to defend myself against ridiculously low speed limit signs. Are these 30 mph signs legal now, or did some scoundrel install these too? What was the suggested speed limit by our professionals? Are we paying them so we can just ignore their professional input? These supporters of the bumps keep bringing up speeding as the reasoning for putting in the bumps. If the speed limits would have been reasonable in the first place there would have been very few speeders. I don't need to tell you, we'll always have a few. If you have speed limits too low, you'll have a lot of speeders. As studies have shown ( beep4bumps.com has posted some results of those ) when you try to force low limits it makes some people respond with extra high speeds. The bumps create similar responses. If the majority of people are driving the roads at 45 mph, we should set the suggested limit at that. If the majority of people were not reasonable safe drivers, they'd be crashing everywhere and that simply is not the case. Don't try to dictate some ridiculous low limit on people. The result will be resentment and defiance. Set the speed at a reasonable limit and the majority will be legal. You don't need to create more resentment for the law. Traffic calming devices for those waterfront people should be hedges or trees just as normal people. Stop supporting their dictatorial control over the general public. Do what's right for the majority and get those inverted pot holes out of our roads so we can quit subjecting our vehicles to unnecessary abuse and damage. If you think there is nothing else I've said here that makes any sense, the emergency vehicles need to have fast unobstructed access to our area and that is not debatable. Let us have our safe roads back. Doug Leibrant