The Kitsap County commissioners will hear a staff report this morning that discusses the financial impact of the county’s membership in the Puget Sound Regional Council. But even though the report has yet to be presented or discussed, it has already drawn fire from the property rights group that requested in the first place.

County staffer Eric Baker, who prepared the report, said Monday he was aware of a letter submitted by Vivian Henderson, executive director of the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners, that said the report did not go far enough.

“The county tried to take an independent look at all the transportation elements,’ Baker said. “We were charged with examining the funding possibilities of other organizations and how they would affect the county.

“KAPO was looking for a longer discussion of the social engineering component,” he said, “and how these policies will affect transportation and other funding. With the (PSRC report) 2040 not yet finished, we could only make generalizations in that area, which is not what we were asked to do.”

In a written statement, Henderson said the report “eliminates any realistic means for a member of the public to review that work or to prepare any type of meaningful comment on the staff work behind the results offered. Once again we are getting a product that certainly appears to say ‘Trust us – we know what is best and there is no need for you to be bothered by fact and detail.’”

Henderson said KAPO feared that a real discussion of the implications and impacts of PSRC will not be conducted and the elected county commissioners will deny the public an open review and debate of the matter.

Angie Silva, who with Baker prepared the report, responded to Henderson saying the vagueness was not deliberate, saying, “We tried to stick to things that could be quantified or clearly required. With so many unknowns about the final content of Vision 2040, it is very hard to make assumptions with certainty.”