This guest article and announcement is from Clayton Petree.
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Bellingham residents deserve “bold new ideas from a new generation of leadership” local environmental and business writer Jack “Clayton” Petree announced today. He is launching a bid to become Bellingham’s new mayor.

I want this election to answer one question: Can bold new ideas put forward by a new generation of leadership overcome the power and money of the old political machine in an election?

Conventional wisdom says the big money and old style power politics will always win out over an underfunded candidate with a forward looking, progressive, and optimistic view of the future grounded in a belief we must pursue fiscal sustainability.

So I’m going with UNconventional wisdom. I believe the voters of Bellingham are actually interested in bold new ideas for confronting the challenges we face as a community. I believe the community is eager to change course but the only core difference between the two candidates who have offered themselves so far is gender. Both are part of the traditional power structure and each want to perpetuate the failed approaches that have gotten us into the mess we face today as a city. I offer the people of Bellingham something they’ve never had before; bold and exciting new ideas soundly grounded in fiscal responsibility.

I am deeply concerned not everyone in Bellingham feels welcome to participate in their government. City Hall used to be a vibrant place with people walking in and out all the time. Now City Hall feels like Fort Bellingham with a checkpoint at the door. City Hall belongs to the people of Bellingham. If they don’t feel welcome there, where will they? I intend to make the people of Bellingham a welcome part of open government.

I want to work on:

•  Increasing employment opportunity in Bellingham. We must stop exporting our jobs to Ferndale, Blaine, or Skagit County. Bellingham can become business friendly and retain its unique character as a city. New development must pay its own way but we should not bleed new or expanding business dry as a condition of doing business in our town;

•  Improvements to an impact fee and permit system that discourages the recycling and reuse of old buildings, especially in the downtown area;

•  An active, working, transfer of development rights program able to shift development away from the Lake Whatcom Watershed and into Bellingham. This is the fiscally responsible thing to do and it holds the most promise for protecting lake water quality;

•  Increasing awareness that for environmental, economic and quality of life reasons, people who work in Bellingham must have real opportunities to live in Bellingham. We must address our decreasing level of diversity as a people. We can begin that by supporting a broad range of choice in housing.

•  Better ways to utilize funds like the $22 million plus dollars we’ve spent buying land in the Lake Whatcom Watershed over the past ten years;

•  A fresh look at how we want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the Bellingham waterfront and if we need to adjust questionable assumptions in that plan;

•  Ensuring neighborhoods have a strong voice in preserving neighborhood character. We must also ensure that neighborhoods accommodating growth receive a fair share of the parks, roads, fire and police facilities and other infrastructure and amenities required to accommodate growth well established neighborhoods are not willing or able to accept.

•  Fully exploring the purchase of Galbraith that would protect over 1,000 acres of Lake Whatcom Watershed and the headwaters of pristine Chuckanut Creek.

•  Repairing the relationship between Bellingham, the small cities, and Whatcom County. Relations between Bellingham and Whatcom County have been characterized by waspish bickering. It is the mayor’s duty to protect the interests of Bellingham. Picking fights just to pick a fight does not help the mayor fulfill his obligations. The mayor must also have the independence needed to stand up to the county when needed. I am concerned that one candidate is too prickly to build good relationships with the rest of the county while the other is too cozy with the power structure to effectively look after the needs of Bellingham.

For both practical and philosophical reasons my campaign will be unconventional. For example:

•  I will not use yard signs. They are a visual and environmental pollution. Instead, I am providing files to the public that will allow those who believe bold new ideas are needed for the future of Bellingham to print their own un-sign, tape it to their window and announce to the world they are pleased not to be contributing to the mess we all see along the roads during campaign season. In fact, I challenge the other candidates to join us in this effort;

•  I will not be hounding people for money. I will gratefully accept contributions but they will be contributions citizens choose to make because they feel good about my campaign;

•  I will not be making endless phone calls night and day to people who would really rather be left alone;

•  I ask the press to make plentiful opportunities for dialogue between candidates and the people available. If the press doesn’t work hard to assure citizens are informed what chance do we have to preserve those things all of us, on all sides of the political spectrum, value in common as citizens of our community?

My sites will be up and running soon. You are encouraged to contact me at claytonformayor@gmail.com and to interact with me on my upcoming Facebook page.