PORT ORCHARD — The Kitsap County Commissioners have deferred action on approving amendments to the Critical Areas Ordinance because members did not have enough time to read through gathered testimony.

“There was a lot of material that I didn’t anticipate,” said South Kitsap Commissioner Jan Angel. “I needed time to digest this. As it turns out, I have to do a lot of reading before next week.”

The commissioners are scheduled to address the matter as “decision only” (vote and discussion with no further testimony allowed) at their Feb. 21 work study meeting.

During a meeting Wednesday, commissioners Chris Endresen and Josh Brown indicated they were ready to ratify the CAO revision. Angel then demurred, saying she had not yet received the testimony submitted in writing or notes from the Feb. 12 meeting.

Copies of the testimony — about 18 different documents that Angel characterized as “about a foot high” — were brought to her office Wednesday afternoon.

Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners Executive Director Vivian Henderson, who submitted written testimony, said she was “outraged” that the commissioners had not received this information.

“We spent a lot of time working on this testimony,” she said. “If the commissioners aren’t going to read it, then what’s the use?”

The hearings addressed shoreline buffers and small wetlands. After the testimony, the commissioners can vote to accept the changes, deny them or implement something new.

The Kitsap County Department of Community Development (DCD) always maintains the latest draft of the CAO. If the commissioners want to add an aspect of the testimony, they do so through a motion that must be supported by at least two commissioners.

Angel said she had several questions about the testimony and the ordinance.

“I wasn’t expecting that this would go to a vote on Monday,” she said.

Henderson said there is a communication breakdown in the commissioners’ office.

“It seems quite obvious to me that the written testimony we turn in is never read by the commissioners,” she said. “At least at this public hearing, the written testimony received was put in a box and copies were never made and distributed.”

DCD Director Larry Keeton said the material was given to the commissioners in due time, but added the Feb. 21 meeting was already scheduled prior to this week’s meeting.

“We want to give them time to ask questions,” Keeton said.