BREMERTON — The Bremerton City Council will vote whether to remain in the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council May 20.

The city has campaigned for a change to the organization’s voting structure since for months, calling for a reduction of power to the county commissioners.

Under current rules, two of the three commissioners are required to agree on a vote. If one commissioner is absent or abstains and then the other two disagree, the motion fails. This is seen by many as veto power.

Bremerton’s request for a change to the voting structure was rejected by the KRCC May 5 as the majority of the members preferred the current system.

“There is a ‘us vs them’ struggle that’s going on here that shouldn’t exist in a council of peers,” said Councilman Dino Davis. “The status quo favors everybody in the county except Bremerton.”

Because of this perceived inequality, the city feels their time and resources could be better spent elsewhere.

“How we use our time, where we spend our time is very important,” said Greg Wheeler, Bremerton city council president. “And right now I’d like to see our resources devoted toward things that are really important to us. And this is a complex urban environment, a manufacturing industrial center and defense workers.”

Membership costs Bremerton about $25,000, but if the KRCC hires an executive director and a staff, as has been discussed, that fee could be much higher.

“The KRCC clearly wants to expand their operation,” Wheeler said. He said how much it increases depends on just how far it expands.

The case for staying with the KRCC centers around transportation funding.

The KRCC gets transportation and infrastructure funding from a state body called the Puget Sound Regional Council. The idea is that going as a Kitsap County group will secure more funds than if cities went alone.

“Partnerships, from my perspective, that’s the way to move issues forward,” said Chal Martin, Bremerton public works director.

Bremerton would still have a seat at PSRC regardless of its membership with KRCC because it’s the metropolitan center of Kitsap County, Wheeler said.

Leaving the KRCC could also cost Bremerton some influence at the county, even though state law requires its participation in countywide planning.

“My guess is we will continue to use the mechanisms that are in place now — the planning forums, the public works directors forums,,” said Andrea Spencer, Bremerton director of community development. “The relationships between staffs at the county and staff with the other jurisdictions is gonna be a little bit more rough.”

If Bremerton does leave, the impact of the decision might not be quantifiable for a few years.

“I think it would probably take years to figure out after we tally up — especially on the transportation projects — could we have gotten more money in this particular instance had we been part of KRCC,” Martin said.

And if Bremerton leaves and doesn’t like it? They’d have to be voted back in by the KRCC, said Ken Bagwell, the city’s attorney on the matter.