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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2018)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2018 editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager OUR VIEW Election underscores urban-rural divide T he urban-rural divide is not just a “divide.” It is a widening chasm, one whose fissures were under- scored by this month’s election results. Large cities and suburbs sup- ported Democrats. Rural areas went Republican. The results were that Democrats took over the U.S. House and Republicans expanded control of the Senate. Those results were backed up by research. Based on a survey of more than 115,000 voters and 20,000 non-voters, The Associated Press reported, “Nationally, urban and subur- ban voters preferred Democratic over Republican candidates, while voters in small towns and rural places favored Republicans.” There were exceptions, of course. However, the same split generally held true in Oregon, where the geographi- cally largest part of the state was on the losing side of the governor’s race and high-profile ballot measures concerning immigration and abortion. Democrats also gained supermajorities in the Legislature, in part by ousting suburban Republicans. In Washington state, urban areas ensured passage of statewide ballot measures that restricted firearms and E.J. Harris/East Oregonian A voter drops off a ballot Nov. 6 in Pendleton. enabled more criminal prosecutions of police officers who use deadly force. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell was overwhelming re-elected by Western Washington and Eastern Washington’s Whitman County. But with the exception of King and Jefferson counties, the state’s vot- ers overwhelmingly defeated a pro- posed carbon fee, which should give the Oregon Legislature pause as it con- siders a state carbon cap-and-invest program. In Oregon, Republican Knute Buehler prevailed in 29 of Oregon’s 36 counties but lost by a substantial mar- gin to incumbent Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. In several rural counties, Brown didn’t crack 20 percent of the vote. What does this mean for the rural Northwest? For politicians, they must be wary of treating statewide vote totals as mandates. If they assume other- wise, they will increase the urban-rural chasm. For residents, they figure out how better to convey their story to urban- ites: That they live in rural America out of choice, not because they are eco- nomic or geographic victims of circum- stances. That they value the land and water because they interact with natu- ral resources every day. That although they hold fewer degrees in higher edu- cation, according to state and national data, those statistics are irrelevant as far as rural residents’ intelligence, ingenu- ity and aptitude for solving problems. And that without the daily toil of rural Americans, urbanites would not have the food, electricity, water and nat- ural resources they take for granted. This challenge is not new. Rural Americans have been telling their story for generations. But the 2018 election results give increased urgency. LETTERS WELCOME Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. Letters should be fewer than 250 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar, and, on occa- sion, factual accuracy. Only two letters per writer are allowed each month. Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date the letter was published. Dis- course should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Letters in poor taste will not be printed. Send via email to editor@dai- lyastorian.com, online at dailyasto- rian.com/submit_letters, in person at 949 Exchange St. in Astoria or 1555 North Roosevelt in Seaside, or mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Where does Clatsop County go from here? What we thought years ago needs refreshing A s you read this, we’ve already learned the results of the November general election. Most of us are glad it’s over, whether we “won” or “lost.” Politics is a game of winners and losers, and it’s like con- tact sports, a kind of mixed martial arts. What comes after the political battles is the governing — finding the courage and gener- osity to consider the common good, the common ground, and an equitable distribution of costs and benefits through public policies and programs. Like the rest of our culture, politics has become a game of constant, nev- LIANNE THOMPSON er-ending warfare. We never get to the governing part, the part where we put down our weapons and put our heads together in a pos- itive way. We need to stop butting heads and start using more of our heads for their brains, to generate and execute solutions. It’s not that we’re doing everything wrong. We are definitely doing things right. But there’s a body of challenges that we’re not addressing effectively as a team. We can do better. But we need a process. And we need to be willing to be capable, which means we’re willing to try, make mistakes, learn from them, and then try again. I think we can learn from the last 20 years’ experience with volunteer commissioners, as provided under the home rule charter in effect in Clatsop County. Taxpayers work hard to earn the money that government spends to provide services for the public. Without a dedicated elected governing body that can spend the time and effort to understand what it takes to earn the money and how to wisely spend that money, there is no effective public accountability. In my experience, volunteer commission- ers are usually part-time, especially if they have to earn a living doing some other job. They may be too eager to accept “advice” from a lobbyist or a bureaucrat, neither of whom is elected by the public or accountable to the public. However well-meaning or self-serving the advice, how is a part-time elected official to weigh and sift the truth to arrive at the best path to the common good? How are transpar- ency and accountability served, except with dedicated and capable elected public officials? Dedicated and capable elected public officials need to do planning and evaluation, I think, and they need to do it strategically. Other Clatsop County boards of commission- ers have done real and substantive strategic planning. In 2011, in an open competitive bidding process, my firm won a contract to provide strategic planning facilitation to the sitting board of commissioners in Clatsop County. As a result of that strategic planning, the board committed to follow a new form of clear and empowering accountability and developed board rules to implement the new way of operating. That included a series of listening sessions in 2014. Vision 2030 community input sessions were held in seven locations all over Clatsop County, and people showed up to voice their vision. What was supposed to happen after that was a statement of the board’s mission and measures of effectiveness in achieving prog- ress toward achieving that mission. It didn’t happen. It needs to happen, now more than ever. If a volunteer board cannot achieve the statement of mission that expresses the will of the people in this county and the dimensions along which it should evaluate its employee, the county manager, we’re in trouble. I do see trouble. I see the churn of both elected and appointed leaders, the Clatsop County commissioners and the county man- ager. Our rate of turnover is alarming. It’s a waste of time, talent, and treasure. It’s costly in money spent and opportunities lost. We can and must do better. I hope the new board that takes office in January 2019 will do better. Where do we go from here? Back to listen- ing to the people, and then moving forward to refine and define the county’s mission, what kind of difference we want to make and how we intend to make that difference, for our- selves and for the county manager — whom we both hire and hold accountable. And it is, I think, the board’s job to hold the county manager accountable for results achieved in realizing the county’s mission. The voters, the people, elect their represen- tatives on the governing body and hold those representatives accountable. If staff isn’t held accountable to the mem- bers of the governing body, there is no other way to do it. Voters certainly have no other direct impact than their votes. But the board of county commissioners can, should, and must be accountable to the people. The best way I see to do that is to listen again to the people. What we thought years ago needs refreshing. The housing and opioid crises are much worse now, for example. After listening to the people, the board should define and refine community input into a compelling mission. Then comes another interesting part — translating the mission into focus areas, such as housing, economic development, community physical and mental health, public safety, and the arts. From those focus areas come logical action steps, with analysis and planning to evaluate needs, methods, and results or outcomes. The details remain to be worked out. But the operative word here is “worked.” The time has passed for a board that does not perform the essential work of thoughtfully proceeding to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” Lianne Thompson represents District 5 — South County — on the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners.
