10A | OCTOBER 29, 2020
Candidates from A1
to bring attention to the na-
tion’s state of division and
the need to keep the Cottage
Grove community united.
“I’m mostly running be-
cause I’ve watched politics
go completely mad in the last
year and I want to talk to peo-
ple and say, ‘We need to find a
way to get along,’” he said. “I’m
honestly not really running to
win. I’m voting for Jeff.”
Some of the following top-
ics were discussed during the
forum:
• City Budget and Charter
In general, candidates
spoke favorably of the way the
city’s budget has been handled
considering the year’s uncer-
tainty.
Ervin suggested increasing
community promotions and
investing more in the city’s
image while Gowing pointed
out that the city has failing
streets which should receive
attention.
In reference to the city
charter, DelSol advocated for
rank-choice voting system
such as STAR voting.
“I would like to see more
people on the ballot and not
have single entries in there to
encourage participation,” he
said.
• City support for business
community
|
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Candidates agreed that the
city maintained a supportive
role of the business commu-
nity.
Gowing
and
Roberts
praised the city’s various ef-
forts such the COVID-relief
loan program, options for
parklets and free mask distri-
bution.
While praising the city’s
overall support of local busi-
nesses, DelSol expressed a
need to keep vigilant of the
city’s focus on smaller, local
businesses as opposed to larg-
er corporate giants. He also
thought greater flexibility in
fixing downtown buildings
would be helpful.
Ervin and Savage empha-
sized the importance of keep-
ing dollars local.
“I think it’s important that
the dollars that we earn here
are spent here,” said Savage.
• Housing
Housing projects such as
those associated with DevNW,
Cottage Village and Legion
Cottages received praise from
candidates and there was gen-
eral agreement that the city
was moving in the right di-
rection when it came to pro-
grams such as MUPTE and
the Housing Development
Cost Assistance Program.
“I’d like to see more low-in-
come and affordable housing
come in to balance out our
work force,” said Roberts.
“I think we get an A plus on
housing at this point, but
more is always better.”
Savage made similar points
in that she would like to see all
kinds of housing and the city
must ask itself, “How do we
keep people here?”
• Urban renewal districts
While Savage said she
would like to learn more be-
fore making a decision, both
DelSol and Stinnett said they
believed urban renewal efforts
were worthwhile projects, but
any increased taxation de-
served deeper consideration.
Other candidates were
more cautious about the idea,
expressing a need to consider
projects on a case-by-case ba-
sis.
“It’s got to be a right fit for
the right time for the right
outcomes,” said Ervin.
• Martin v Boise Ninth Cir-
cuit Court Case
Opinions differed on how
to approach the issue of home-
lessness in the area.
“I would like to explore
something that works to es-
tablish a permanent shelter in
Cottage Grove for those who
find themselves unhoused,”
said Stinnett.
DelSol agreed and added
his support for the city’s de-
cision to purchase Pallet Shel-
ters.
Ervin expressed his con-
cern about property crime
and was not in favor of a per-
manent shelter.
“I think the role of tak-
ing care of the poor and the
destitute is incumbent upon
individuals and groups of in-
dividuals banded together,” he
said. “And each of those indi-
viduals is part of that buy-in. I
don’t think it should be placed
on people unwillingly. … But
compassion on an individual
basis and collectively is im-
portant.”
Gowing focused on seeking
out the root causes of home-
lessness.
“I feel that we need to work
on finding out why people
are homeless and help them
to become not homeless,” he
said. “If it’s a drug or alcohol
addiction, we need to help
them some treatment and
help them get back to where
they can hold down a job and
help them get into permanent
housing.”
Roberts said he wanted to
see a permanent shelter with
all the services people need
to get back on their feet under
one roof.
Savage recommended fo-
cusing on housing first so that
people can bootstrap them-
selves through the avenue of
ownership over one’s growth.
• City council relationship
with city manager and com-
munity
Candidates overall agreed
that the council is generally
responsive to community con-
cerns, but that improvements
can always be made.
Special praise was given to
City Manager Richard Meyers
from all candidates as well.
“The city manager is the
CEO of city and the city coun-
cil is the board of directors
basically,” said Gowing. “So
we’re there to implement pol-
icies and procedures, but he’s
the one that runs the city and I
think we have a really good re-
lationship with the city coun-
cil and the city manager.”
• Greatest challenge for the
city
Dealing
with
growth
emerged as candidates’ main
concern among the city’s chal-
lenges.
Ervin said that growth is in-
evitable, so determining how
to create a vision for the fu-
ture deserves careful attention
moving forward.
Meanwhile, Roberts advo-
cated for “balanced growth”
by taking care of housing and
roads, while Savage pointed to
the need for a well-informed
and educated approach in the
face of uncertainty.
Stinnett said that estab-
lishing an identity for the
community was important to
fulfilling any vision of growth
and inviting more voices to
that discussion would aid in
that endeavor.
DelSol, meanwhile, was
mainly concerned with a cul-
tural and political divide.
“The political divide has
people in such a state of mis-
trust,” he said, admonishing
the politicization of issues
such as wearing masks. He
added that the city council can
have a leadership role in estab-
lishing unity.
Finally, Gowing highlight-
ed the financial disruption
of people’s lives caused by
COVID-19 as his main con-
cern.
During the audience call-in
portion of the forum, candi-
dates highlighted the limita-
tions of the city to address
specific rural concerns but
pointed to some solutions.
Stinnett, DelSol and Rob-
erts, for example, advocated
for a rural representative to
communicate with the city
council while Ervin talked
about the importance for ac-
cessibility and transportation
options.
On child abuse and do-
mestic violence in particular,
candidates were supportive of
better partnerships with exist-
ing programs.
Support for services such
as 90by30 and Family Relief
Nursery were raised as imper-
ative to addressing the issue
as well as bringing awareness
of those services to the wider
community.
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