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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2010)
community news october12 “Meet the Candidates” Offers Insights Into Campaigns On October 5, 2010, Vernonia candidates for Mayor and City Council joined a large number of interested citi- zens for a political forum at the Vernonia Scout Cabin. “Meet the Candidates,” or- ganized and sponsored by Vernonia’s Voice, included six of the eight candi- dates for the two City Council positions that are up for election, as well as all four mayoral candidates. City Council incumbents, Cindy Ball and Catherine Helmer, were joined by Council candi- dates Willow Burch, Marilyn Nicks, Er- nie Smith and Burt Tschache. Stephen Johnson was unable to attend due to a prior speaking engagement. Candidate Ed Johnson chose to sit in the back of the room and observe as opposed to joining the rest of the candidates in answering questions. Current Mayor Sally Har- rison was joined by candidates Josette Mitchell, Vici Peters, and Emil Rode. Five questions each were pre- sented by two local citizens, Jill Hult and Alison McLeod. Candidates were given sixty seconds to respond to the same question-- after the first question, there was a different set of questions for the Mayoral and Council candidates. All the candidates were initially given one min- ute to introduce themselves and explain their qualifications and background. Candidates were also given a final min- ute at the end of the forum to make any closing remarks. All candidates were asked the same initial question-- “What have you been doing to prepare to run for this po- sition?” Emil Robe responded “Really, not too much of anything. I have looked at the minutes from the City Council meetings and that’s basically it.” Vici Peters said she has begun attending some meetings, begun studying how treatment plants work and talked with a lot of citizens. Josette Mitchell said she has been attending lots of city meetings and watching what City Council does, how they make decisions and what the the Council for the last two months, and has been meeting with city department heads and the fire department to under- stand how they work. When the mayoral candidates were asked to explain what they knew about one of the following projects-- the Rose Avenue Project, the Relocation of Vernonia Schools , FEMA buyouts of Six of the eight Vernonia City Council candidates (from left: Cindy Ball, Willow Burch, Catherine Helmer, Marilyn Nicks, Ernie Smith and Burt Tschache) took part in “Meet the Candidates,” a forum that also included all four candidates for Vernonia Mayor. The vacant seat in the middle was reserved for council candidate Ed Johnson who chose to sit in the back of the room and observe instead of answering questions. Council candidate Steve Johnson had a previous engagement and was unable to attend. rules and responsibilities are. Ernie Smith said he thought his time serving on the School Board has given him an opportunity to understand how a Coun- cil works-- how to run a meeting and how to deal with issues, and has been talking to people to try to understand what people think are the issues and the problems. Both Marilyn Nicks and Willow Burch said they have attended a lot of meetings, including City Coun- cil and Planning Commission meetings. Nicks said she has been reading the City Charter and multiple ordinances and has been involved in the Sign Ordinance process. Helmer has been participating with the Parks Committee, has served on Flooded Homes or the Wastewater Proj- ect-- and explain how they relate to the city, Mitchell showed a good under- standing of the complexities of the Rose Avenue Project and its details, Harrison expressed a comprehensive understand- ing of the wastewater project and how that is expected to move forward and Pe- ters explained how it was important to include local workers in the relocation of the schools project. Robe suggested suggested pumping city sewage to St. Helens as an alternative way to deal with wastewater treatment. When asked about tight budget constraints and what would be their pri- orities in regards to current staff levels, 2010 almost all Council candidates expressed an understanding of the budget con- straints and expressed the need to work more efficiently and creatively and try- ing to do more with less, but that staff should not be cut further. Ball suggested developing policies, proceedures and guidlines to help the city do business more efficiently. Tschache, Nicks and Helmer suggested the use of volunteers to help with the burden. Smith sug- gested that he thought the new schools would bring new business to town, and suggested helping create new businesses in town by contracting out some of the services we need. Burch and Nicks said the city needs to be accountable about how it spends money and Burch empha- sized the need for upper management as essential. The Mayoral candidates also showed an understanding of the budget fiscal restraints which limit the city’s ability to do business. Harrison spoke about necessary services – clean wa- ter, wastewater, and public protection and how they relate to the budget and weighing what citizens want vs. what they need. Harrison also expressed that the work of the Budget Committee this last year has helped the City be better informed of how money is being spent. Rode suggested we may need to con- tract out the Police Department as Banks has done. When asked about the City’s ability to respond to natural disasters, almost all Council candidates praised the volunteer efforts from the 2007 flood and noted the way the community pulled continued on page 19 Re-elec t Our Gal Sal! Sally Harrison for Mayor Keep t he Knowledge Paid for by Supporters of Sally Harrison for Mayor 7
