Charlotte Garrido is back.

Our recycled county commissioner from South Kitsap hasn’t even been in office a month yet and she’s already decided the commissioners need some fuzzy-wuzzies, group hugs and “visioning” exercises.

So the consultants are called in and the board spends a day at a retreat in Quilcene — an “…escape into the wilderness” as the press describes it, to get away from “ringing phones and buzzing Blackberrys.”

According to newspaper accounts, the cost of the “off-site meeting” was “undetermined” “…estimated to be in the range of $2,000 to $3,000.”

I can’t believe the county would contract with consultants without knowing the costs involved — especially in these fragile economic times.

As a citizen and taxpayer, I resent the commissioners having such a meeting in the first place without even knowing the cost. In the second place, it was held in a private home in Jefferson County.

I attend most of the commissioners’ public meetings but I’m not going to Quilicene for a meeting that should be held in Kitsap County. And I’m not going into someone’s private home.

If it’s wilderness the commissioners are looking, for heaven knows they buy enough of it right here in Kitsap County. Cell phones and Blackberrys don’t interrupt you when you leave them in the car.

One of the objects of the meeting was for the commissioners to learn to speak “…with a single voice.” They should speak as individuals each with their own perspective not a homogenous body walking in lockstep, repeating in unison some agreed upon dogma.

It’s back to 1997, is it? That was over a decade ago.

Commissioner Garrido got fired after one term, and so did Phil Best.

Charlotte, are you sure you want to repeat history?

VIVIAN HENDERSON

Port Orchard