For most people, life on the island does not revolve around the City of Bainbridge.

If you live here and work in Seattle, for example, likely half of your weekday’s waking hours are focused on a job and getting to and from it.

If you rarely leave the island, the city may have a little more to do with your day, but likely not very much.

The city’s business, however, is much more of an emphasis for those whose job focuses on letting community members know how public dollars are being spent and the direction a municipality is traveling in terms of representation.

With that in mind, one could say that the city – including its staff and council – was up to its proverbial neck in a multitude of trials and tribulations during 2011. Some of the headaches were hangovers from the recent past, including: the fatal police shooting of Douglas Ostling; the Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance lawsuit and the fallout from it; the effect of the Winslow Way reconstruction project on downtown businesses; and dealing with several road emergencies, some of which occurred because of a lack of city maintenance in recent years.

There also were many positives, including: the city reducing the water rates by 45 percent at year’s end for its Winslow users; finishing Winslow Way in late November; signing a 30-year lease with Friends of the Farms; and many, many others – big and small.

The community also voted in four new council members, which could mean that some changes lie ahead since the newly elected officials – Anne Blair, Sarah Blossom, Steve Bonkowski and Dave Ward – campaigned on change to one degree or another. They also promised while campaigning to vet any proposed changes with the community. But that’s for next year.

Positives

The city and the community had many successes, including:

• RePower Bainbridge, which was formed as a result of the city writing three grants that were worth more than $5 million, swung into action by conducting 1,500 free home energy check-ups during a six-month period, with nearly 200 homeowners making energy-saving upgrades. There’s also an added emphasis on having more businesses and nonprofits joining the energy-efficiency movement on the island.

• Island Gateway, the new development at the corner of State Route 305 and Winslow Way, has concluded the back section of the project. Next up: construction of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Artand a retail building that will front the street. Avalara, a growing software company that’s on the island, relocated its more than 100 employees and its headquarters to Island Gateway.

• During the summer, Bainbridge lost its 23rd Legislative District representative to the State Senate when Sen. Phil Rockefeller resigned to join the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Rockefeller was replaced by another islander when Christine Rolfes resigned her position in the State House and was appointed by Kitsap County Democrats in July to move over to the Senate. She was then replaced in the House by Drew Hansen, another island resident who has been involved in county and state politics for several years.

• Bainbridge Island Land Trust met its goal of purchasing the 31-acre Hilltop property, which sits between the east-west portions of the Grand Forest. BILT hopes to complete its $3.6 million fund-raising goal early next year.

• After more than a decade of hard work by its many supporters, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial was dedicated on Aug. 6 during the annual Japanese American picnic at Pritchard Park.

• The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum was honored with a distinguished national award for displaying photograph Ansel Adams’ historic images of Japanese Americans interned in a camp at Manzanar, Calif., during World War II. The museum also held several educational events involving Seattle-area students around the traveling exhibit and the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.

• John Jacobi, a founder of Windermere and an island resident, purchased the unfinished Blossom Hill development at Lynwood Center and renamed it Pleasant Beach Village. His first phase of rescuing the project was to turn Edna’s Café into an events center, which opened earlier this month. The next phase includes filling the first floor of the four unfinished buildings with retail and the second floors with an inn and apartments.

• Initiated by the Bainbridge Island Senior Center, the city’s Commons area was officially deemed a “warming center” when needed during the winter months. Support by Kitsap County Emergency Management, Puget Sound Energy, Department of Homeland Security and the city led to the purchase of a large generator and enough propane to keep it humming when necessary.

Back to the city

But again, many of the Review’s top headlines involved the city and its travails, including two lawsuits.

• The family of Douglas Ostling, a Bainbridge man who suffered from mental illness and was fatally shot by a local police officer during a response to a 911 call in October 2010, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, Police Chief Jon Fehlman and officer Jeff Benkert.

In July, the city asked U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton to remove it and Fehlman from the case, but the judge denied the motion. The case is still in the discovery stage.

• The Bainbridge Rate-payers Alliance (RPA) suit is now more than two years old, but the stalemate continues. Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Russell Hartman ruled in favor of the group in July regarding the city’s Surface and Stormwater Management (SSWM) fees. The city had shorted the SSWM fees it pays to the utility for its property, including roads, by 70 percent during 2008-11.

The judge ruled that the city was liable for the unpaid fees and couldn’t retroactively forgive itself on the basis of the mistake. The RPA said the fees amounted to more than $3 million. Unless the city and the RPA reach a settlement on 10 of the 12 remaining causes of action, the lawsuit would go to trial.

• The city also had legal issues with Bainbridge Island Municipal Court Judge Kathryn Carruthers, who filed a lawsuit after the city decreased the judge’s hours from 0.67 to 0.50 full-time equivalent (FTE).

In October, a King County Superior Court judge ruled in Carruthers’ favor, ordering that the city return her hours and pay to their previous level.

• The Municipal Court was also in the news earlier in the year, when the effort of a task force to move the Bainbridge court to Poulsbo was spurned by Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson.

The council later approved a security upgrade of the Rolling Bay-area building that contains the court, with the owner and members of the community paying for the improvements.

• The city’s Civil Service Commission was also in the news during the last several months of the year after it was decided to remove the independent commission’s secretary/chief examiner in order to have a city employee appointed to the position. The three members of the commission eventually resigned, and the city later expanded the commission to have five members instead of three.

Generally, there weren’t any damaging storms during 2011, other than heavy rains in March that caused mudslides in the area just east of Rolling Bay Walk.

The slides covered much of the lower section of Gertie Johnson Road, which serves five homes on the water side of the road. The residents were evacuated for about two weeks until the city could remove the debris and stabilize the road.