Incumbents in general minimized problems
Incumbents in general minimized problems
Some thoughts after the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum last night at the Municipal Court building at Girard and C Street. 7 to 8 pm, all 11 city council candidates. 8 to 9 pm, the 5 to 7 mayo
Some thoughts after the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum last night at the Municipal Court building at Girard and C Street. 7 to 8 pm, all 11 city council candidates. 8 to 9 pm, the 5 to 7 mayoral candidates. This is the first real forum of this campaign season. It was video taped by the city and will run on BTV10 today at 12 noon, Friday at 9 pm and next Monday at 6 pm. The forum had an overflow audience of 200 or more citizens. Tanya Baumgarten was excellent as the MC and the league put a lot of work into this forum. It would be nice if the city would tape and broadcast other forums.
Council candidates:
All the candidates cited their experiences in many civic projects over the years. All love the community. Their priorities pretty much matched with growth, Lake Whatcom, economic development and waterfront development - in that order. Only Ham Hayes said something different. He criticized the planning department for encouraging the neighborhood associations to have restrictive membership requirements, thus excluding many homeowners from the neighborhood planning process. You can read his statement on another page.
During the question time, Bill Geyer stood out as having the best grasp of solutions to issues, in my opinion. My enviro friends are leery of him but I encourage them to give him a fresh look. Bill had by far the best understanding and solution for preserving the gems of Chuckanut Ridge. I now know that Bill Geyer would do more for our environment and neighborhoods than Terry, the liberal, ever has. Bill also spoke strongly for a charter review commission. Terry has spoken in the past as being against a commission as he does not trust the citizens. He ranted against this again this evening - literally flailing his arms.
All candidates said they are for respecting neighborhoods. Terry is for infill - a loaded code word for overbuilding. Geyer said the present codes do not allow for the more creative and charming infill residences, such as townhouses and said we need revised codes or will just be cramming density onto nice neighborhoods. Louise spoke of growth in different areas. Ham cited uncertainty feelings by homeowners over changing planning processes. Michael spoke to neighborhoods taking more power in planning process to get the kind of growth we want.
Mayoral candidates:
Seth was born here. McShane hikes a lot as a geologist. Ryan was a fisherman. Don worked for the past mayor. All candidates love the city. All have many experiences of community involvement. All want to work better with county government. Mayoral candidates are all on the same page with their priorities and top issues. Growth, economic development (growth) and Lake Whatcom (clean water). The waterfront was a third or fourth priority. The only new idea was from Dan McShane who said we need to prioritize how we as a city spend our tax dollars. The question for us voters is which one do we trust to actually work on the common priorities with the solutions promised.
How to protect our water from Lake Whatcom was asked. Dan McShane repeated his idea from a previous forum to create a single or joint agency to look at the entire watershed. Other candidates agreed with this idea. Even Seth agreed with this. Enforcement need was cited. Don Keenan noted the city only owns 3% of watershed. Sweep the streets was a mentioned solution by Don.
Downtown was discussed with only Dan Pike supporting foot patrols. Subsidizing businesses was recommended with code words. None offered any support for other viable commercial areas.
Neighborhood planning was addressed in generalities and platitudes. None seemed to grasp the nitty-gritty aspect of how planning is going about its business. None mentioned the odd fact that after 6 years of not doing any neighborhood planning at all, the city is this year alone revising the plans of 18 of our 23 neighborhoods. Bob Ryan said planning is overdue. (Bob has been on the council for 8 years.) Seth would "empower" neighbors. Don would empower neighborhoods. None showed much understanding of the fear many homeowners have about the unpredictable planning process city hall is currently pushing. One proposed the idea of an Office of Neighborhoods.
Bob Ryan and Don Keenan generally refused to acknowledge some of the problems other candidates spoke to. Incumbents in general minimized problems the challengers brought up. Is Lake Whatcom - our drinking water - a serious problem or one that the city has made great progress on?
In general, the candidates are promising all the normal things and citizens will have a real problem differentiating them on this basis. Citizens have concerns the candidates see only in broad terms - growth, economic development - and not the nitty-gritty problems of spot rezones in residential neighborhoods for politically connected big businesses or special development interests. Future forums may see some of the positions modified as candidates try to emerge as leaders.
Council candidates:
All the candidates cited their experiences in many civic projects over the years. All love the community. Their priorities pretty much matched with growth, Lake Whatcom, economic development and waterfront development - in that order. Only Ham Hayes said something different. He criticized the planning department for encouraging the neighborhood associations to have restrictive membership requirements, thus excluding many homeowners from the neighborhood planning process. You can read his statement on another page.
During the question time, Bill Geyer stood out as having the best grasp of solutions to issues, in my opinion. My enviro friends are leery of him but I encourage them to give him a fresh look. Bill had by far the best understanding and solution for preserving the gems of Chuckanut Ridge. I now know that Bill Geyer would do more for our environment and neighborhoods than Terry, the liberal, ever has. Bill also spoke strongly for a charter review commission. Terry has spoken in the past as being against a commission as he does not trust the citizens. He ranted against this again this evening - literally flailing his arms.
All candidates said they are for respecting neighborhoods. Terry is for infill - a loaded code word for overbuilding. Geyer said the present codes do not allow for the more creative and charming infill residences, such as townhouses and said we need revised codes or will just be cramming density onto nice neighborhoods. Louise spoke of growth in different areas. Ham cited uncertainty feelings by homeowners over changing planning processes. Michael spoke to neighborhoods taking more power in planning process to get the kind of growth we want.
Mayoral candidates:
Seth was born here. McShane hikes a lot as a geologist. Ryan was a fisherman. Don worked for the past mayor. All candidates love the city. All have many experiences of community involvement. All want to work better with county government. Mayoral candidates are all on the same page with their priorities and top issues. Growth, economic development (growth) and Lake Whatcom (clean water). The waterfront was a third or fourth priority. The only new idea was from Dan McShane who said we need to prioritize how we as a city spend our tax dollars. The question for us voters is which one do we trust to actually work on the common priorities with the solutions promised.
How to protect our water from Lake Whatcom was asked. Dan McShane repeated his idea from a previous forum to create a single or joint agency to look at the entire watershed. Other candidates agreed with this idea. Even Seth agreed with this. Enforcement need was cited. Don Keenan noted the city only owns 3% of watershed. Sweep the streets was a mentioned solution by Don.
Downtown was discussed with only Dan Pike supporting foot patrols. Subsidizing businesses was recommended with code words. None offered any support for other viable commercial areas.
Neighborhood planning was addressed in generalities and platitudes. None seemed to grasp the nitty-gritty aspect of how planning is going about its business. None mentioned the odd fact that after 6 years of not doing any neighborhood planning at all, the city is this year alone revising the plans of 18 of our 23 neighborhoods. Bob Ryan said planning is overdue. (Bob has been on the council for 8 years.) Seth would "empower" neighbors. Don would empower neighborhoods. None showed much understanding of the fear many homeowners have about the unpredictable planning process city hall is currently pushing. One proposed the idea of an Office of Neighborhoods.
Bob Ryan and Don Keenan generally refused to acknowledge some of the problems other candidates spoke to. Incumbents in general minimized problems the challengers brought up. Is Lake Whatcom - our drinking water - a serious problem or one that the city has made great progress on?
In general, the candidates are promising all the normal things and citizens will have a real problem differentiating them on this basis. Citizens have concerns the candidates see only in broad terms - growth, economic development - and not the nitty-gritty problems of spot rezones in residential neighborhoods for politically connected big businesses or special development interests. Future forums may see some of the positions modified as candidates try to emerge as leaders.
