New board needs to collaborate

Published 12:37 pm Tuesday, October 20, 2015

We need new commissioners who will bring a totally different mindset to the Vashon Park District.

I’ve been to many VPD commission meetings during the past five years. In my experience, some current and recently past board members have shown little interest in, and a fair amount of disdain for, being collaborative with, or even influenced by, just about anyone including VPD staff, the public, stakeholders, the school district, state, county and other commissioners with different points of view.

All the candidates at the recent forum seemed to agree on the need for a VPD strategic plan. However, strategic planning is more than just the one survey everyone seemed to be talking about. Done well, it’s an ongoing collaborative process in which a lot of folks get to influence the final plan. This means a lot more than commissioners simply sitting quietly while a stakeholder speaks, although sadly even that would have been a huge leap for some. Being influential means even though a suggestion may not turn out to be the final decision, or appear in a final plan, it will be clear to all how the suggestion factored into the outcome.

Over the past five years, and particularly in regard to the VES Fields project, some current and previous commissioners have repeatedly demonstrated their total failure, and possibly even disinterest, at leading this sort of collaborative process. Anyone with the endurance to watch the meeting videos will see how even being civil seemed too much to expect at times.

We have some very good candidates for open positions. I realize VPD commissioner is a volunteer position, and I think anyone who has held this position for a very long time should be thanked for his or her service and the opportunity given to someone else with a very different vision and style. Please vote to bring an end to business as usual.

— Steve Sussman