The Bremerton Beat

Our friend The Bremelogger hosted a debate for Maupin and Lent last night, following a Monday League of Women Voters event for the Bremerton mayoral hopefuls.

No slight at the LWV, since they’ve been in the business of promoting elections for years and have covered the county with forums this season, but when phrases like “pool of blood” and a question about urban chickens* become part of the debate, you know it’s not the typical candidates forum. Which is a good thing, given a primary turnout that clearly showed many voters aren’t being reached. So the candidates were good sports to participate in something a bit out of the ordinary.

Host Chris Kornelis played it glib (joking about those turnout numbers, former Mayor Bozeman, and his daily ferry commute), let audience members take the mic for their own questions and follow ups, and finished at least one can of Pabst Blue Ribbon during his hour of interviewing. Wednesday’s gig also boasted better attendance than Monday’s, with maybe 50 in a standing-room only at the cramped back room at the Hi-Fidelity Lounge on Sixth Street just off Wycoff**. (The LWV forum played to a 3/4 empty council chambers at the Government Center, though it will be replayed on BKAT three more times, including this morning at 10 a.m.)

That was the third public forum between these two I’ve watched, not including two editorial board interviews***. So I’m a little fatigued on listening to how downtown can improve or what the budget strategy should be next year****. A lot of the viewpoints have been very similar, and the tone, for the most part, has been cordial. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always paint a clear picture to help voters decide. The two butted heads just a bit in our interview last week, when Maupin scoffed at Lent’s suggestion to save money on future street repairs by including the work with stormwater projects funded by the state. Other than that, the gloves stayed on.

Wednesday’s most aggressive statement came again from the sitting city councilman, asked to name a different between the two. Maupin had played on his working-class Aberdeen roots and shipyard background early in the interview, and concluded with this: “She’s a politician, I’m not.” (Lent was a county commissioner for one term, before losing in the 2006 primary.) Lent wasn’t baited by the comment, and stuck to her guns by simply reiterating her passion for the city, business background and “fresh” perspective.

Lent’s best point of the evening, which also came up in our interview and seems to be one of the campaign’s really good ideas, was her promise to aggressively court small manufacturing businesses here from the Kent Valley, where they are in pretty serious danger of being flooded by the Green River due to a leaking dam in the Cascades.

But she missed one with the crowd when she passed on giving an opinion on state issue R-71, saying she hadn’t yet made up her mind. Maupin said he’s in favor of keeping the domestic partnership law on the books. (To be fair, Maupin drew his own eye-roll, when an opening joke about being “born at a very early age” fell flat.)

The other state issue, Tim Eyeman’s I-1033, came up Monday. Both Lent and Maupin said they disagreed with initiative, as presently worded.

Both answered the “pool of blood” question with assurances that law enforcement, and cleaning up blighted neighborhoods that harm Bremerton’s reputation, will be a priority. And then they walked out onto those very streets in the Callow neighborhood, letting the kids stay and listen to Boise rockers Finn Riggins*****. The opening act had done its job.

— David Nelson

*City Councilman Roy Runyon is hosting a district meeting at 5:30 tonight at Cora’s Diner on 4th Street. On the agenda? Yup. Urban chickens.

**Maupin’s father-in-law, former Bremerton Mayor Whitey Domstad, owned a tavern at that site until the mid-1950s, called “Whitey’s.”

***Endorsements begin this weekend and run through next week, if you want to hold your ballot a few days to see our opinion.

****Believe it or not, there’s at least two more coming up. Monday from 5-8 p.m., Mike Siegel of KITZ radio will interview the two at the Comfort Inn, and then Tuesday they’ll be at the Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs and Issues breakfast (also, incidentally, held at a bar).

*****Kornelis told me he used to be in Finn Riggins. But having two drummers is awkward in a rock band, and that was that.

Deborah Jackson, who wants Bremerton residents to write in her name for mayor in November, plans to hold a meeting Thursday in which she will discuss:

A. A warrant for her arrest in Oklahoma;
B. Another misdemeanor;
C. What is going on with the Bremerton School District;
D. Anything else we might ask about her run for mayor.

That’s the information I received by telephone. She plans to send an e-mail out with the details. I don’t know if this is technically a public event or invite-only. I’ll update you when I know. The event is at 2 p.m. Thursday at 853 Sixth St. in Bremerton, the Kitsap Business Center.

UPDATE: I received the e-mail and it had less information than what I had above, except for the name.

You are invited to a mayoral facts; Disclosure Forum!

Date: Thursday, 10/8/2009
Time: 2:00pm
Place: Kitsap Business Center 853 6th Street Bremerton Washington 98337

That U.S. Postal Service building at Sixth and Pacific has a buyer, a postal service spokesman said Tuesday. The deal, however, is still in the works. Under the current terms the post office would maintain a smaller presence in the building.

The spokesman did not know who the potential buyer is or what else is planned.

Gardner here.

Angela Dice, the Kitsap Sun’s Web know-it-all, sent me a link to what is a really cool visual of Bremerton’s waterfront potential. The videos adorn you with a virtual jet pack as you hover over the new marina and whisk by condos, many of which have not been built, or purchased.

The second video, though, made me wonder how respect for the law was envisioned as part of Bremerton’s future culture. Once the most violent city per capita in the state, (You weren’t far behind, Port Orchard, so stop snickering.) the new developments and resulting bustle of law abiding citizens were bound to change the personality of the city. However, it appears the designers envisioned a new form of lawlessness in which bus drivers consider traditional lane direction rules to be optional.

Tuesday afternoon our editorial board will host the Bremerton candidates for mayor, Patty Lent and Will Maupin. That’s the first of three forums the two will attend in subsequent weeks*, so hopefully this race is about to develop in earnest. Steve Gardner is working on profiles of the candidates and the race for coming stories in the Sun, so watch for that as well.

Our interview begins at 4 p.m. (office jockeys, tell your boss it’s a work-related “webinar” you’re watching). There will be a link to the live video at kitsapsun.com when we get started, and the archived video will go up in the evening at kitsapsun.com/2009/editorial-videos. Our other election interviews are there now, and our editorial board endorsements will start rolling out next week.

I’ve got some questions in mind for the interview, but I’m open to any suggestions you might have. The likely topics include ferry service, diversity in the city’s tax base, neighborhood improvement plans and what’s to be done about the growth in hot dog vendors downtown (ok, we’ll get to three of those). But if there’s something you’d like to hear about, throw it in the comments below or email me at dnelson(at)kitsapsun.com.

— David Nelson

*Oct. 14, The Bremelog is sponsoring a debate, 7 p.m. at the Hi-Fidelity Lounge in West Bremerton, and Oct. 20 is the early morning Eggs and Issues bash sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce at the Cloverleaf.

Gardner here.

I admit I’ve been going soft on Port Orchard lately and have been urged by at least one of you to improve my game. If you don’t do something like this enough, people begin to think you’re serious when you do lob a bomb. In a Twitter exchange in which some faux slogans we made up for Port Orchard, Bremerton and Poulsbo were shared, we were challenged as being a little rough. Again, it’s probably because we don’t do it enough. So, to make sure we can continue to strike when the muse appears, here’s a new offering.

An interview with four others doesn’t give any candidate much room to stretch his or her legs, so with Will Maupin and Patty Lent advancing in the mayor’s race I’m ready to see what separates them. (Especially since we heard from readers in the primary essentially saying, “not much.”)

This afternoon about 100 business people got an early evaluation, at a Bremerton Area Chamber of Commerce forum. There’s still some pushing to be done on the issues, and a few more public forums to allow it, including another editorial board interview we’ll broadcast on kitsapsun.com. But quickly, today’s highlights (or at least a sample of some areas where the two differ):

Parking: Maupin will fix the parking problem downtown, he said, and early in the administration. He’d like to do it with meters, of the automated variety they use in Seattle, which “are the answer.” Lent agreed there’s a problem, and said the planned downtown lot will help ease the strain. (Maupin also referenced the lot, which could be part of a public/private project on the corner of Burwell and Park, as a parking solution and economic driver.)

Economic Development: Lent trotted out an idea “that hasn’t been mentioned before,” as she put it: Attracting the scientific manufacturer DuPont to the SKIA property. Right now the company has offices in the East and South, as well as around the world. Maupin said he’d expand “Community Empowerment Zones” to boost neighborhoods and small business, and look for tax exemptions or other incentives to encourage growth.

Tourism: Here was the first real split in opinion. Lent said the Admiral Theatre should be “weaned” from the help it gets through the Lodging Tax, with money being spent promoting tourism instead. Maupin maintained the Admiral’s support should continue, but come from new tax monies.

Passenger-only ferries: For Maupin, those should be part of a long-range state plan that current service should start conforming to now. For Lent, passenger-only should be operated by the private sector.

— David Nelson

Seattle Weekly’s take on Monday’s town hall (from the SW employee who commutes from our fair city):

First the reporting, then the commentary.

Liar! (Sorry, got caught up in the moment.)

-David Nelson

The Bremerton Chamber of Commerce just dropped a press release for the first forum featuring the two mayoral candidates left standing.

Patty Lent and Will Maupin will rumble Tuesday, Sept. 8 (actually, they’ll be the speaking and taking questions, respectfully, at the Chamber’s September membership luncheon). It’s the first chance the public will have to hear from them since the primary.

Lunch starts at 11:30 at the Sons of Norway Lodge in Bremerton; $22 at the door, $18 if you RSVP by Sept. 3.

The Chamber is at (360) 479-3580 or chamber@bremertonchamber.org.

— David Nelson

We took a jab at the eligible voters who couldn’t be bothered to walk to the mailbox in an editorial today, and Chris Henry and her blog followers have some theories on the low turnout for a “pointless primary” here. But the indignant (and spot on) comment of the day comes from councilman Nick Wofford: “We’ve got people in other countries risking their lives to vote and we can’t get off our duffs to put a stamp on an envelope.”

Finishing first in the witty rejoinder division is commentor paradyne64: “Don’t worry Mr. Wofford, the voters will turn out to vote down your $30 car tab increase.”

Today’s updated totals are out and it’s still Maupin-Lent-Shepherd. And the turnout is still embarrassingly low.

— David Nelson