Jim's opening remarks at the AAUW forum

[Hear the entire night's speeches & Q&A on KMUN Sunday at 7:00 pm]

Good Evening, and thanks for being here tonight.

My family and I moved to Seaside in 1979 where I worked for 5 years at the Seaside General hospital.

We built a farm and solar home on Clatsop Plains
And I worked in Portland hospitals till I retired about a month ago.

As many of you know, in my career as a nurse anesthetist
I was responsible for finding pulses and safely shepherding a vulnerable human life through a perilous journey.

Safety has been my primary mission and safety will again be my primary responsibility to this community as your county commissioner.

LNG Plants and Pipelines planned through parks, farms, rivers, and homes represent a current abdication of responsibility for public safety.

What I told Northern Star’s representatives and will repeat to you is
“I’m going to be the best dam watchdog on LNG that money CAN’T BUY.”

Of course, we all expect commissioners to help us find and keep family wage jobs.  We need to encourage and foster the local start-up businesses that really have created most of the existing jobs here now.

To find the pulse of this community, I have been the chair of
4 separate non-profit groups working with hundreds of volunteers.

We roll up our sleeves and work together to craft community solutions and build them.  We don’t use eminent domain and only work with willing landowners and respect for private property rights.

Nothing could be more fun than being in the park with a hundred Girl and Boy Scouts planting trees with their parents.

I have years of experience working cooperatively with a board of directors for the North Coast Watershed Assn, that includes members from Weyerhaeuser, Hampton Industries, State Dept of Forestry,
The North Coast Land Conservancy,
CREST, and the Watershed Councils in this county. 

Together we have planned and constructed millions of $$$ worth of salmon & habitat restoration projects utilizing local contractors.  

In this process, trust and diplomacy are paramount. 

I will work to reestablish trust with the citizens of this county in an open and transparent process.

I have and will continue to reach out to people because I truly believe in what I call the BIG OPEN TENT approach to governance.

That means we reach out and that no group is excluded or disrespected
in the PUBLIC PROCESS necessary to find common ground and craft
a citizen’s agenda, for change, growth and a manageable future.

Without cooperative planning, this beautiful place may, in the years ahead, become unrecognizable to us as the home we love. 

We are blessed with a talented, caring group of people who volunteer and readily participate on committees and commissions
crafting a shared vision.

Too often, we now see this vision expressed in documents that are sometimes adopted but then left on the shelf and disregarded.

Like you, I am unwilling to accept the disaffection that results from little or no support or respect for the citizen’s agenda, professional planning and expert legal council.

It is time for a change!  I believe we will see the people decide that they want a change from the White House to our county seat.

We have much neglected work to do.  With unfinished disaster planning, broken rail lines, unaffordable housing and childcare, we must leverage our recourses as I have always done and create partnerships for success.

We earnestly look forward to January 09 when we sweep the apathy from our streets and get to work on the citizen’s needs in a very public forum.

You have my pledge to work hard.  But make no mistake.

No one does this alone.  Please join me.  Let’s roll up our sleeves
And get busy!

Thank you for your support and thank you to the AAUW for hosting this forum.