Chamber of Commerce questions

How does consensus building meet with your experience and philosophy?

I worked for the City of Newport for thirty years and saw consensus building in decision making up front. There are several different groups in Newport and people with differing views on how the city should be run. The city faces many problems that are interdependent upon everyone working together. If we do not use the consensus building model, then some groups and people will become disenfranchised and may in turn spoil any decisions made.

Consensus building offers a mechanism for individual citizens and organizations to work together on solving complex issues in ways that are acceptable to all. The city council is not made up of different political parties and it needs to work together for the betterment of all the citizens of Newport. In national politics if one political party has 51% of the vote they feel they have a mandate to do things their way but they forget that there are another 49% out there as well. The City Council needs to serve 100% of the people in Newport.

How would you assign priorities to City services?

We need to concentrate on the core services such as sewer, quality water, police and fire services. Unfortunately the city has gone beyond the core services and due to budget constraints and dwindling tax revenues we need to get back to the basic services and wait until the economy turns around before we start adding to other matters.

Of course everyone wants more and more services from the city but we need to be realistic and work hard to stay within our budget and be honest with the citizens and say we can’t do additional services until the economy turns around. I will work very hard to get the city reserve fund back up to a level where we can be confident that we can cover the expenses that always come up as an emergency expenditure. Just like every family in Newport tries to have an emergency fund to cover things that come up from time to time that they didn’t plan for. 

I have worked hard to increase volunteerism in Newport. We need to build a ‘sense of community'. During lean times, people help others. Why couldn't we foster that now so it reduces the loss of 'extra services' we don't have the money for?

We need to look at the ‘Must Do’, ‘Should Do’, and ‘Nice To Do’ model when looking at city services. In this age of limited funding we need to stay closer to the ‘Must Do’ list.

Quality of life issues should be at the top of the priority list. We need clean drinking water, an efficient waste water system, and being safe in our homes by having highly effective police and fire services.

If elected, how will you represent your constituents including those who didn't vote for you or have a different opinion than you?

This is an interesting question as I will not know who votes against me unless they specifically tell me that they will not vote for me. Since we do not have political parties at the city level, the members of the city council represents ALL the citizens of Newport regardless of who votes for or against the council members. I will represent all the constituents the same with the goal of more sustainable and accountable city services.