Kitsap County commissioners serve on three governing boards that affect the local standard of living, according to a presentation before the League of Women Voters.

“The public doesn’t understand everything that a county commissioner does,” said Central Kitsap Commissioner Josh Brown. “We serve on several important boards in addition to our regular duties.”

The meeting took place Tuesday, at McCormick Woods in Port Orchard, and drew LWV members from throughout the county.

The LWV invites the commissioners to address its membership at least once a year, usually to discuss budget issues.

Since budget discussions have taken over almost every public meeting, it was decided to concentrate on three of the most prominent service boards on which the commissioners serve — housing, health and transportation.

While all three commissioners must stay informed on all the issues, they divide the labor. The three topics were addressed respectively by Brown, North Kitsap Commissioner Steve Bauer and South Kitsap Commissioner Charlotte Garrido.

Even if the program was not specifically budget-related, decreasing funds are part of everything.

“When Initiative 695 passed, there was a huge reduction of funds for health coverage,” Garrido said. “We have faced a steady stream of funding cuts, and the current recession has made it worse. There will always be after the fact measures that we have to deal with, but we need to be more involved in prevention.”

According to Garrido, managing healthcare is not an isolated task.

“The most important responsibility of a county commissioner is to make land-use decisions,” she said. “We need to be aware of how those decisions affect health issues.”

Garrido said the Kitsap County Personnel and Human Services Department is the local agency that has the most influence over health policy, after the Health District itself.

“The Personnel Department administers grant money throughout the county,” Garrido said. “They’ve helped residents from an 18-year-old person with disabilities to a 98-year-old woman who wants to stay in her own home.”

Brown said that Kitsap’s transportation issues are more straightforward than in other counties, as there are fewer common destinations: Most locals travel to the Naval Base, the shipyard or the ferries.

“Most places perceive transit as all about buses,” Brown said. “We need to make it all about moving people in the most efficient way. There are a lot of social issues that will be addressed by transportation policy.”

Brown said Kitsap is one of the most densely populated areas in the state, but the designation is misleading. Kitsap may have more people per square mile than some larger, more populated counties due to a higher ratio of developable land.

You cannot, Brown said, develop a mountain range.

Brown also stressed the importance of land use, saying that it was important that local governments work together rather than compete with each other in order to fund transportation projects.

Bauer said that housing policy also demands cooperation between local jurisdictions, saying, “We need to work together to meet the needs of our most at-risk population.” 

Bauer admitted the local housing authority made some bad financial decisions and took credit risks in their effort to provide such services. This practice, he said, has changed along with the necessity of people to scale down their expectations of acceptable housing.

Bauer said the trend toward smaller lots and less extravagant housing is a necessary one, as is the idea of housing construction to be built with the “sweat equity” of those who will eventually live there.