1. Strengths.
What makes you the best
candidate to be Mayor of
The issues in this campaign are easy to identify. The solutions are much more complex,
requiring innovation, experience and skilled leadership. Our city needs a mayor with the skills and
ability to build a diverse coalition that gives a voice to everyone, not just the noisiest or the wealthiest
citizens.
My background is in
business and management. My passion is public
service. I have served on nearly a dozen
non-profit community boards and commissions for over 20 years, including the Beyond
Greenways levy and organizing the NOPE Campaign to prevent a large, unnecessary
power line through the heart of Whatcom County.
Many people have told me how tired they are of “politics as
usual.” As a community, we can continue
with divisive, antagonistic and seemingly endless processes of
decision-making. Or – we can mobilize
our shared intentionality, resources, intelligence, compassion and creativity
toward a common goal of a better city. We need to actively
visualize and plan what we want our community to become, not just react to
problems as they appear.
2. Weaknesses.
Many in our neighborhoods
feel that the choice of Mayor this year will be between vision/leadership and
administrative experience. What do you
perceive as your weakest attribute of the two and how will you address this?
I see my visionary and leadership skills as both equal and necessary to the office of mayor.
I have experience in management, budgeting, marketing and community relations, both professionally, and as a volunteer. No other candidate in this race has all of this experience and skill, and every candidate but myself, is entering this race with a pre-set agenda, political leanings, and special interests that will preclude the interests of our city as a whole.
My personal studies of history, architecture and the design of cities around the world has given me a unique ability to create a vision for a city livable on a human scale. In 1980, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from WWU, and that education taught me that -we need to make what we build fit people, not the other way around. I’ve spent a lot of time learning about what makes a city a place where people want to live, where small, locally owned businesses can thrive, and neighborhoods can be comfortable knowing they have good communications with their City Staff. This is not the usual political background. I am not the usual politician.
With our
current growth rate, we will be grappling with many challenges and the choices
we make will determine if we end up looking like
Growth and Planning:
3. Consistent Development Process and
Neighborhood Input.
The spot
rezone process that was recently used for the Squalicum Lofts proposal created
an unfair situation pitting neighbors against the developer, Planning staff,
and policy makers in an unpredictable process.
Without changes, other neighborhoods and developers will be similarly
affected in the future. What are your
observations of this process and what would you propose as Mayor working with Planning staff to protect the integrity of Comprehensive
Plan goals and policies, neighborhood plan updates, and a meaningful proactive
exchange of ideas with stakeholders?
We find ourselves in a situation where everyone is angry and
suspicious of everyone else.
Neighborhoods, City staff, builders and citizens feel dismissed,
disrespected and ignored. Customer service provided by the city to the
community must improve. This means
more than just moving the furniture around-
it means that the fundamental attitude of city management has to change.
It is the responsibility of city government to cultivate and
insure clean, honest and open communication with its citizens and its
employees, so that procedures are consistent and the law is applied equally and
fairly, no matter whom you know- or who you are.
As mayor, I would immediately undertake a systematic
management revolution, clearly identifying the mission of the city and of each
of the departments, seeking to improve communication by insuring information
consistency with all constituencies, while removing obstacles and
inefficiencies hindering staff from doing their jobs. It is my belief that people will do a good
job when given good leadership and that city of
4. Urban Center Infill.
Do you support the
Comprehensive Plan’s direction of infill housing created through Urban Centers
and if so, how can this method be expedited in order to take pressure off
leap-frogging in inappropriate areas?
Intelligent, appropriate infill housing is one of the critical ways we can end our participation in the American addiction to sprawl. But because the process of planning has become so divisive, this important component of our city comprehensive plan is becoming a stumbling block- not a solution.
We have spent so much time planning to create a plan for our planning, we haven’t actually completed the majority of our neighborhood plans. A wise man gave me this advice about leadership, “Make decisions. If you make a mistake, correct it and keep going. If you hesitate to make decisions, everybody waits and a terrible thing happens… nothing.”
We
have been so seemingly paralyzed by fear, fear of failure, fear of growth, fear
of change that we have ground our confidence down to the last nerve. I believe in the intelligence and wisdom of
the citizens of
5. Watershed Comprehensive Plan.
How will
you move the community to embrace an overriding vision with specific goals for
stormwater management and land acquisition in the
Like so many of the arguments that we find ourselves
involved in Bellingham, people have chosen a side and have never actually
worked together for a common goal. The issue of
6. Funding Choices.
In last
week’s Cascadia Weekly Gristle Column, Tim Johnson declares
It’s not
an either/or proposition.
We do not have the luxury of choosing between these two issues. In both cases, the city of
The
Waterfront
Redevelopment:
7.
Harbor Cleanup.
Describe, briefly, the key features of the cleanup plan
favored by the
The
Department of Natural Resources review of the
Capping
in place the mercury contamination in the waterway and log pond provides a
significant and virtually permanent protection from this contamination. Capping in the log pond needs to be
re-engineered to prevent some of the leaking at the edges to provide complete
and effective protection from recontamination and this is addressed in the
recommendation. The recommended 6 ft is
an additional 3 ft more than has been shown effective in other similar waterway
sites where this type of mitigation has worked.
While dangerous, the mercury levels are relatively low and the stable
physical state is such that once capped a very safe condition will exist. Provision and money are in place to regularly
monitor the safety over time.
The
material in the bottom of the ASB is another matter, this is highly
contaminated sludge and its removal to an upland fill site is important and
prudent. The Port’s plan to then to
reclaim the ASB as a state-of-the-art environmental model boat harbor makes
excellent sense. This plan creates
habitat where none has ever existed, it continues the habitat restoration
undertaken by the city in the Squalicum Creek estuary and creates a new revenue
stream to help pay for this and other cleanup that will be done on the site.
I
have read the Interlocal Agreements and reviewed the supplemental
agreements. I believe in the initial
agreements the economic burden is heavy for the City of
I
agree with the Bellingham Herald’s assessment that as much as is possible, the
redevelopment of the waterfront should be self-financing. I believe this is possible if we are smart,
if we do not underestimate the value of what we have, and if we continue to
seek a win/win partnership with the Port.
Ultimately, if either the Port or the City is forced into an untenable
financial position, neither will win and everyone will suffer. It is in our mutual best interest that the
City and the Port work to assure success for everybody.
8.
Infrastructure:
What is your “back of the envelope”
list of Capital needs and your guess as to the cost? By how much would your list exceed the
borrowing capacity of the COB? At what point would the amount borrowed lead to higher interest
rates? What would be your
priorities?
The
challenge of meeting the infrastructure needs of this city is much larger than
the back of any envelope I know about. I
would not extend
I
will take a more enlightened approach than we have in the recent past. As the Mayor’s Budget Advisory Board pointed
out, the city has tended to underestimate revenue. This can create a host of misinformed
assumptions about how much money the city has, what we
should spend and what things we can do.
Before we can make any decisions we must be confident about what we
have.
That
said, our downtown’s aging infrastructure needs
attention. We have utility lines hanging
around that no longer have any function and should be removed. Some of the sewer and water lines in the
downtown haven’t been touched since they were originally installed. This is not interesting stuff for many
people, but in is critical to our successful development. I’ve been working
with downtown for many years and have
listened to people talk about the problems there. The new development of the
9.
Redevelopment of the Waterfront:
Will the economic benefit exceed the
cost for the average
I
believe the value of our waterfront is greater than we dare to dream. Its redevelopment will create new wealth for
this community, and not just for the waterfront. Downtown, Old Town, the Cultural District,
and in fact, every adjacent neighborhood will become more valuable because of
the new building, businesses, jobs and homes that will be created.
This
does not mean that open space must be sacrificed. In fact, the better job we do insuring the
livability, usability and beauty of what we build, the more valuable it will
be. We have been blessed with a blank
slate from which to create anything we dare to imagine. I believe we must be bold. We are smart, committed people, if we commit,
we can accomplish something great.
How
we move people in and out of this new area is critical to the success of the
waterfront and downtown, and to the impact felt by the surrounding
neighborhoods. We are fortunate that all
three of our transportation systems pass through the middle of town. The transit hub is located there. Our trails all end at the edges of the
downtown and our street grid passes through it.
Mass
transit is working. With some
imagination we can hub the trail system in the downtown by transitioning the
trails to dedicated corridors not used by cars, perhaps by using some of the
alleys. Already the trail from
Automobile
traffic will require more imagination to create a better way to get to and from
I-5, into to the Downtown and Waterfront.
We do not, and should not, allow every new street to be built just for
cars. If we imagine easy access, with
parking hidden in and around the Downtown we then can create streets that are
just for people, bicycles and small transit shuttles.
It
will take the mix of these separate transportation systems working together to
meet the demands and challenges of creating a green and modern life. Our efforts and focus should be to design a
clean and easy way to use city center and waterfront. Easy for busy working families, easy for us
aging baby boomers, easy for people with limited mobility, easy for the new
growing population of residents, easy for everybody.
Recreation:
10.
Parks, Trails, and Open Space.
Besides the dedicated
funding of the Greenways III levy, how would you suggest the City balance its
parks, trails, and open space system so that north
I believe that the northern parts of
The Greenways program has been hugely successful and has
proven to be a popular priority for Bellingham Voters. My wife, Taimi and I participated vigorously
in the Beyond Greenways Campaign, one of the results of which was purchase of
the Fairhaven Village Green property for use as a public park. As I
stated in my answer about Waterfront Development, our trail system is
developing into a significant third transportation system for the city and as
such it should extend everywhere.
Leadership is this case means that the City must be certain the whole community shares the benefit and the burden of Parks an open space equally.
Emergency Response:
11.
Utility lines.
Our neighborhoods
have large industrial high-pressure gas pipelines and high voltage power lines
running through residential areas. There
are houses connected directly to the gas lines, still at high pressure. These were installed to service industries in
the area. They pose tremendous danger in
case of earthquake. The Cascade Natural
Gas franchise agreement will be renegotiated for a new term during your tenure
as Mayor. PSE's agreement can be
reopened after January 31, 2013. What
should new agreements with any utility company provide for to protect our
neighborhoods? How important is this
issue to you? Are you prepared to ask
these companies to reopen the contracts now to provide safe service?
One
of the lessons I learned from my participation in the NOPE Campaign in 1990
that successfully stopped a new High Voltage power corridor from slicing
through Whatcom county is that the new priorities and realities of our city
often conflict with our past. As
quickly as is financially prudent, dangerous conditions should be
rectified. Good leadership seeks to
maintain positive working relationships with all of the companies to which the
City has granted franchises. As Mayor I
will take the responsibility of advocacy for the city and it’s
citizens seriously and in any negotiation fiercely seek to support the cities
self interest first.
I
have learned in the over 20 years of negotiating contracts with many different
businesses in this community, that having an open and honest relationship with
companies you work with, and always seeking a win/win outcome is the best
negotiating position you can create. As
Mayor I seek to meet with each company and build a strong relationship and open
communication. It is in our mutual
interest that homes, families and neighborhoods are safe.
PSE
has already come to the city with an interesting offer to partner in a program
to bury the utilities lines in the downtown and eliminate all of the overhead
lines clutter. This is an offer that
bears consideration and is an example that a franchise renewal is not the only
time that negotiations will take place.
We must build good relationships and be always ready to negotiate
effectively.
Personnel Management:
12.
Finance Director Role.
What is the role you see of an appointed Finance Director in
decisions related to the large financial impacts of the
Our present Finance Director, Therese Holm has done an
excellent job and serves, I believe, as the model for what we should seek from
the candidates that will apply for the new appointed position. Because this person will be the first to fill
the appointed position of Finance Director it is critical to the financial
accreditation of the City and political credibility of the administration that
they perform their duties with the highest ethical and fiduciary standards. As Mayor, I will have the opportunity to
review the finalists for this position and these are the standards I will look
for and the performance I will expect.
As a manager of many years, I have hired dozens of employees
in my line of work, and assisted non-profits in the hiring of staff and
directors. The next mayor needs to have
the experience and qualifications to use objective and rational criteria in
hiring and appointments. They must not
be beholden to political parties, special interests or personal friends.
13. Advisory Committees.
What skill set and geographic balance do you look for as a Mayor in the makeup of the Planning Commission and other advisory boards? Does it concern you that all current members of the Commission live south of Whatcom Creek?
I learned a long time ago the more diverse the ingredients, the more interesting and productive is the
outcome. On the many non-profit boards
on which I have had the opportunity to serve, I have always advocated for
diversity in opinion, ideas and background.
In
does concern me that none of the planning commissioners come from north of
Whatcom Creek. The make-up many
the city advisory boards have tended to leave out some of the voices and
opinions in our community. Our small
business community feels particularly overlooked. This is wrong, and as mayor I would work to
make sure these advisory boards represent advice from all parts of our
community.