Notes from the Mayor’s Debate

Bremerton’s five mayoral candidates met at the Cloverleaf this morning to explain their plans and views.

It’s from these that I’ll go back and write the story, which you’ll see later.

I don’t know if providing notes will be helpful or not, or whether I’ll do it again. I happened to have it work out this time and wasn’t interrupted during the debate, so for this one here you go. If there are any swear words in here, they’re accidental. No one said any.

Opening statements

Mike Shepherd – be campaigning for six months, been listening, espressed what’s important to them, lived here 20 years, rais, retired from epa, was with doenergy and donavy, in navy and general contractor

i have a passion for this commty and the people who live here, their needs and their desires are the most important to me

Will Maupin — moved here in 1970, during 31 career at shipyard it went from asset to liability, during 80s sailors didn’t want to be here, saw bremerton as empty unattractive place with nothing to do, late 80s made it mission to make it a beter place, worked on gatway project, shipyard fence, worked with louis mentor on design of boardwalk, created vision for shipyard to make it more efficient better for homeporting sailors, make it more attractive for community,

retired, ran for city council, council was in dissarray, made great progress, but still have a long way to go, goal was never to be mayor, but to bimprove bremerton,

Patty Lent – been in city for 2 years, career path, served as cert. mortgage banker, sales, pr person, spokes for airline, cc, small biz owner for 10 years, county commissioner, wsac, served on boards throughout county, my top priorities, cont momentum started 7 years ago, strecthc out to all nine districts, need

work with all citz, fisc responsibility, spend money curently have without adding anything new to it, promise as mayor

carlos jara – sm biz owner, dba, civil service, as only active small biz owner, strength of listening to all parties, integrative negotiations

daryl daugs — grew up here, background is in biz, org mgmt, 15 years ago, wife worked with homeless youth, became foster parents over years fp to 54 boys, began working with social services non profits, dev’d foster recrutivement for state, director for community for youth, works with seattle public schools, focus to bring members of biz trades and mil as mentors , econ deve, neighborhoods, better more interactive form of gov

i think we need to focus on the sm bizzes we have nad nurturing sma bizzes,

chamber question one – encourage biz development and expansion

will maupin – we need to suppt small businesses, would staff econ dev position, work with keda, work on biz ret and expansion program, in the long run new development is the best answer

patty lent – mayor has to watch bizzes, if biz needs to expand or shrink , we need to work with our chamber of commerce, work with cted, bills in leg helping with permitting, to be vital and be vibrant, want to meet with them

Carlos Jara – that’s the main reason why i’m runniing, need to work on exemption, band o tax, create bremerttion inp org, work with small bizzes to work on properties, get funding for improvements

Daryl Daugs — most have owned small bizzes in commty, more than just econ deve, it’s community deve, the small biz owner cares about thte community, they really are concerned about what they can get out of the commty , will have small biz liasion,

Mike Shepherd — commty has lost populaton and bizzes, part is b&o, part is lost pop that has discretionary income to spend, kids struggling to succ in commty, new famlies

first priority and how achieve it – bg

patty lent – first priority is budget, hope to achieve fisc responsibility and taking current revenue we currently have and stay within that, beaut can work with volunteer groups, send paid staff, work with citz and keep budget in tact

carlos jara – budget, a lot of what was done in 2009 to accom budget gap cannot be done in 2010, flex time , emps take more time off

daryl daugs — city is signed on mayor’s init for clean cities, that’s an area where we can immed see cost savings, the right light bulbs

mike shepherd — budget, these aren’t new issues, we’re not going to be hiring a liasion or new people in the next year, will still struggle, energy conservation, spending money on contracts that could be reduced with vey little impact, diamond parking, some of the tickets ,

will maupin — budg not first prio – first would be to cont projex in downtown,

skia your role in getting that developed

carlos — with skia prime oppty to build light industrial, type of industry to increase long-term jobs

daryl — econ dev. , need to be looking at small trade alliance, moving green development, trade commty knowlege comtty already working in small biz

mike shep – one reason was city planning and admin could suppt development they wanted to do, spec added 200k budget item for planning, some money was lost, still have staff ready to do it, to help them with that effort

will maupin — have 100k this year and 100k next year, will lay out program, have funding for a road goes to airport, we have to get more funding for that, work with states and other agencies to get grants for that, work with port to market those lots

patty lent — was comm when skia was , 9k jobs, need to take adv of fed funds, won’t be able to dev or plan without fed and state funds,

why gov spending money for biz

daryl daugs – when using pub dollars for projex need to make sure econ dev with return, that we really are building the commty, money is to be spent suppting the commons

mike shepherd – most money is to build infra to support bizzes

will maupin — the whole purp of gove is to create a syst for bizzes to be successful and to , to dev system where we can have good quality of life

patty lent – funds is for infra, not for private development

carlos jara – role of gov is to create oppty by providing infrast, have to rely on country as a whole

chamber question 2 – car tabs

ms – opposes it, i don’t believe we’ve explored other funding opps for funding the streets, don’t believe car tab concept for raising rev will work, we already have a problem with people not being able to afford their car tabs now, so raising them won’t work

wm – i disagree, been looking for years, there just is no funding there, do believe councilmanic actions, the backlash causes other things to fail, i think the only solution is to let the people vote

patty lent – regional car tabs were dedicated to local juris, then went to gf, i think we need to rededicate those funds, don’t want to raise that until we dedicate those funds, the citz, i think now is not the time

carlos jara — all for user fees , willing to pay a little bit more, dn’t think 20 car tab generate much for commuty, my stret alone hasn’t been paved since 1939, would seek other ways

daryl daugs — basic prob that we have to raise revenue to do something we haven’t been chartered to do, primary purp is not to make, if we are not provided out of the funds we’ve been allotted then we have things upside down.

larry stokes – honor sewer agreement with PO

will maupin – was point person with city , it was a planning document, had to show that had a way to provide sewer, things have changed since then, city has sewers into gorst, that agreement, to think that we would have our citz, our propty owners, would pay a premium for , the document is not a legal document, we’re not bound by it,

patty lent — would like to use my skills, there has to be a way that there could be a win win win situation, has to be affordable

carlos jara — know it’s a revenue stream , not an agreement with PO , PO allowed to compete, I don’t want to arbitrarily

Daryl Daugs – Maybe, looking at competing interestes, what’s good for brem should be, we need to work together, when it comes to the sewer system, need to look at what is in the best interest

mike shepherd — system is working now, will have to , the alternative must be lowest cost to provide the service for the folks that are out there.

what are each cands to do to bring jobs to community

patty lent — we have olympic college, workforce program, i don’t believe you’re alone, not the only city that has theis problem, to start from existing programs, working together to

carlos jara – need to become more sustainable, so close to seattle, need to evolve commty, creating four year college, OC, workforce training, big key to recruit bizzes here

daryl daugs — once , one out of ten out of work, three out of ten working not making a living wage in this commty, halfof the people employed in county emplloyed by small business,

mike shepherd – many unemp. some because of econ, but some because of loss of small ferry, that’s the key for this commty, when we are losing population . . . then it’s very hard to est small bizzes, reason people leaving is cost to live here and schools seen as a problem

will maupin — need to have more people here to support bizes find way to keep people here and shopping, eastpark, the ferries are a big deal, fast passenger only ferries, i really think that is keey to commty

how to get small bizzes and bring in larger bizzes, how?

carlos – formed downtown schen. improvement association, facade improvement, incubators, promotoed bizzes and brought

daryl daugs – need to look at how we op with econ dev department, walking small bizzes through development process

mike shepherd – work to reduce infrastructrue costs, encourageing biz through personal contact, simple comms about when the road is going to be torn up, larger bizzes need help, too, our auto industry needs help, bando tax

will maupin – est. position , b&o tax made sure we worked on that until we came up with a plan to reduce it, $2 million revenue source, now 3.5, hard to eliminate it but that’s goal, will continue to try to raise exemption

patty lent — need to concentrate on bizzes we currently have,

getting more revenue for city

daryl – what i’m adept at, have to have executive experience, talk to commuty, tough decisions not made in a vacuum

mike shepherd – detailed understanding of what costs are, in detail there are some things we can do right away soon, animal control contract can be reduced in half from 200k to 100k a year

will maupin — there aren’t any silver buillets, you can’t maintain all your svcs when you go through a recession like this, doesn’t believe in accross the board cuts, prioritize , missing flowers, in between times need to be cons. with surplus spend on one-time thigns, but not ongoing

patty lent – tax money for well being of community, police and fire, cameras have made intersections safer and created three PD positions, flowers, go back to volunteer groups, they are more than willing to beautify the city

carlos jara – as someone who has to look at revenues on a daily biz, exp is paramount, priorotiize fire and police,

homeless

mike shepherd — see empty houses, met with bofa to use some of those houses, work with one church one community

will maupin – one reason homeless in bremerton is because we actually have pretty good services, kcr has good support services, work to support existing efforts

patty lent – sits on committee for safety net, cost saving if we can avoid duplication of services trying to reduce homelessness by 20/20

carlos jara — have to do more for the homeless, part for those who want the help, we serve as a magnet to , work on job training to get them back on their feet

daryl daugs — need to do more than operate at 30,000 feet, have to be able to walk with them, done that with foster care and homeless youth, did that with kids in brem, kids involved in gang violence, what family did at katrina,

green jobs, lost golden oppty in NASCAR, if we got oppty that wasn’t quite green, would you support it?

will maupin – would i support nascar, answer is yes, the city of brem woudl have been much more proactive in working with them, thought it curious they offered to build green track and we told them to build elsewhere, non green.

patty lent – there aren’t too many jobs that are totally non-green, wouild support any biz that would come to kitsap

carlos jara – there aren’t many types of biz that i wouldn’t want in bremerton, if it creates local sustainable economy

daryl daugs – green is a buzzword but where the rubber hits the road is how do we help businesses be more green, organization to help do so, bremerton would join in,

mike shepherd – can we find a way to have a biz that is also sustainable for the long range and pay for itself in the short term, existing bizzes doing this, homebuilders assoc. we can make biz more energy efficient, there is an oppty to be not only successful in biz, but green.

Final statements

daryl daugs — five of us have a common interest and distinctly difference of what it means to be a leader in this commty. we need to look at purpose of gov. Not to make people wealthy, is to provide basic services to the community, need someone with actual executive experience

carlos jara – bring small biz backgournd, would be focus, we all bring diff skilss, what i bring is charisma and energy, def want to promote brem as a place to raise a family, the future of washington

patty lent – attendance , if we can get comms. throughout commty, mayor will be successful, i want and invite you to be that voice, be an open door, includes education, youth, homeless, the more that we’re in front of larger crowds the mayor’s job will be successful

will maupin – my mission now is to conintue change in bremerton, need to maintain momentum in moving brem forward, some said brem wasn’t worth it, we are now hearing something we haven’t heard in a long time, and that is pride in our city, knocked on woman’s door, talked, after five minutes realized that we shared pride in commty, she working for campaign, people have said what we’ve wasted on current invest, i disagree, everything we’ve invested in has helped city, need to focus more on schools, we’ve made excell progress but we need to maintain the momentum

mike shepherd — passion for community, been in neighborhoods, been listening to people of diverse backgroudns, it’s not wishful thinking that i would have an open door policy, have expereince, detailed knowledge of city ops, need everybody in commty to work on it, having trouble in neighs and youth, need ev. to work on it,