“Should I vote for Jessica Engleke for the office of Mayor of North Bend?” I helped finance her initial run for city council and was supportive of her positions at that time. I was guided by my observations at that time that she was energetic and enthusiastic and had been a positive force in the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.
Jessica’s facebook page of Wednesday, August 19 speaks of the ratification of the 19th amendment 100 years ago giving women the right to vote. She thanks all the women who 10 decades earlier made possible her chance to run for the office of mayor for the city of North Bend.
Yet, Jessica dishonored the purpose of the 19th amendment by nullifying the public vote of the people. And now she is asking the voters of North Bend, most of whom are women, to vote for her. I suspect Susan B. Anthony would have some harsh words regarding her actions. I clicked on Jessica’s website to see what qualifies her to be mayor. She speaks of strategic thinking and a commonsense approach to managing the city’s budget. She speaks of the need to manage the city’s budget in a way that protects the interests of our citizens while ensuring the basic needs of our community are met. She says her priority is to keep our citizens safe.
In my opinion, Jessica’s actions throughout the last year showed a lack of understanding of the city’s budget and where her priorities lay. She never acknowledged that the sum of revenues directly affecting public safety – property taxes, intergovernmental agreements and the initial public safety fee of $15 exceeded the cost of public safety. She never acknowledged that there was a major error in the calculation of the resources available to the city to provide for continued public safety costs at the level which existed during the last fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.
Did Jessica vote to make you safer? To the very end, her votes continued to give rise to the scare tactics (no service from 11pm-7am, etc.) established by the city’s bureaucracy. Her votes led to a decrease in public safety costs which gave our citizens fewer police positions than existed prior to imposition of the initial public safety fee.
I will not be voting for Jessica. I will be voting for James Rose.
John Briggs