Part 2 My Role in the City Council
5. What are some ways that the current Council could better represent all of the people of North Bend?
James Rose:
I will work to ensure that our city government is above all else – “Of the people, for the people and by the people.” I will enthusiastically seek to elicit new ideas from a variety of sources, people and places with the primary goal of making people’s lives better and improving our city. Government is meant to be a continuous and open “conversation” with the people we freely choose to represent us.
Jessica Engelke:
I believe the key lies in diversification in representation. The council has lacked significant diversification in age and gender for years. The previous council represented one dimension of our community. Being elected as Mayor I will seek to broaden that reach to ensure that all citizens are represented. I am also committed to looking for opportunities for greater citizen involvement in our local governmental process, and I would implement methods to make sure that all of these voices have an opportunity to have input and contribution to the future of our city.
Eric Gleason:
Our current council, for the most part, are lacking the ability to represent the future of our community. Also, the current city council lacked the understanding that they represent the voice of the community when they overlooked the advisory vote for the public safety fee. While the funding of public safety is of the utmost importance, the way it was handled was not in keeping with the trust of the citizens of North Bend.
Jonathan Vinyard:
The current council could better represent all of the people of North Bend by simply being inclusive. Instead taking the approach of insinuating they know what is best for the people, actually listen to the people and do what they are supposed to do by representing the people’s choice. The perfect example of this “We know best” attitude was when the council implemented the public safety
fee in a vote of 7-0 after the citizens of North Bend directly opposed it.
Pat Goll:
Well ballot measures speak for themselves. I think the lesson learned is listen to the citizens.
Ron Kutch:
I feel like this is getting old, but the City needs to have a conversation. A conversation goes two ways – getting information out, getting responses in, mulling it over and clarifying. This is the 21st century. We know what everybody had for dinner last night – with pictures. Why don’t we know what goes on within the walls of our own City Hall? We should.
Susanna Noordhoff:
Some citizens want to be more involved than others. It’s tough. There are still some civic organizations that have monthly meetings where councilors could speak informally. Before an important decision is made, a town hall meeting would be helpful. Councilors could get the list of organized ‘Neighborhood Watch’ and ask them to set up an informal meeting where several Councilors could hear thoughts and ideas
Timm Slater:
While I have several ideas about that, it is really superfluous as the current council will only be in office two more months.