League of Women Voters Questionnaire
The League of Women Voters sent out a questionnaire to the candidates. The responses were limited to 500 characters. This page shows the expanded replies given to those questions.
Q1: What are the greatest challenges facing the county, and how will you address them?
Affordable housing shortage:
Identify county-owned properties that should be sold into the private sector for housing development and liquidate them for the benefit of our families. This will increase affordable housing availability while also increasing County revenues by adding to the property tax rolls.
Identify planning & zoning regulations that artificially increase housing costs, and mitigate them through establishment of local control and according to the will of We the People of Coos County as expressed in a new home rule charter, by ballot measure, and People-approved County ordinance.
Public safety and inadequate jail capacity:
We need more capacity in the County Jail; 49 beds are not enough to support the missions of Coos County’s police agencies, and this endangers everyone – particularly the most vulnerable among us: our children and our elderly. Our people will be made safer when we cut frivolous expenses like our Commissioners traveling far and wide to globalist conventions on the County dime, and instead spend the money to attract qualified jailers. Currently, only violent felonies and DUII offenders are taken to jail; all others go free. With “Broken Windows Policing” New York City showed in the 1990s that when minor offenders like turnstile jumpers are arrested, then armed robberies drop off. This is because the guy jumping the turnstile was often on his way to commit a robbery. Funding is a major hurdle, but we can generate what we need locally, with a return to local control – particularly in the rich areas of better timber management on lands that should be in County control (ex: Coos Bay Wagon Road lands), sound salmon policy that includes hatch boxes on private land, and cutting exorbitant expenses of Commissioners traveling out of the County, as well as other revenue-enhancing and cost-saving measures.
Coos County should be leading the way to provide incentives that attract new businesses to the county to avail more good-paying jobs across all sectors, high-tech and low-tech alike. Reducing the regulatory burden on all businesses, and adding more properties to the market from unproductive County ownership are just two ideas to create a more welcoming environment for new startups as well as established businesses to expand, improving County revenue streams, and thus public safety funding.
Q2: What do you see as the county government’s role in mitigating the impacts of climate change as a cause of wildfires, floods, heat domes, drought, and severe storms?
County government has no role, since incremental changes in climate are historically normal and not anthropogenic in nature – they simply are not caused by man’s activities. Floods, droughts, and severe storms have always happened (and historically with greater frequency,) but have not been tied to a political agenda with such unanimity since the 1970’s “coming ice age” was hyped throughout academia and the media, and ultimately shown to be wrong just as will hand-wringing over the current supposed danger. The mass inundations threatening all of our coastal cities by 2010 2012 2014 2016 2020 have not happened; Al Gore has been shown to be a fraud and a charlatan.
Irrespective of “climate change” disinformation, the county must participate increasingly in forest fire mitigation measures such as selective harvest and understory management. (This is one great way to keep jail inmates productively busy – they should be contributing to the community while incarcerated.)
We must establish intelligent policies to promote a vibrant new influx of high-tech R&D and manufacturing, as this provides solid employment opportunities coupled with the human innovation that has solved so many of the world’s problems in the past. Reduction of regulatory constrictions on businesses across all market sectors is one of the most powerful community-changing strategies we can undertake.
Q3: What steps would you take in order to make mental health and substance abuse services more readily available to all who need them?
Reducing numbers of those in need of these services is the most important aspect of increasing availability. One way to achieve this is to establish local control in Coos County with a new home rule charter specifically designed for that purpose. Physically and psychologically dangerous drugs like methamphetamine, opioids, and fentanyl must be made criminally illegal again, and this is only one rejection of insane state laws that would be accomplished through a home rule charter that is written to fully reflect the will of We the People of Coos County.
There is a lack of cooperation between the County and private-sector faith institutions. I would seek partnerships with those faith organizations as well as other private sector philanthropic interests to find innovative, non-government solutions to support those in need of mental health or substance abuse assistance.
Some homeless in our communities are not from here; they are imported artificially when other localities provide bus transport to areas like ours. We must identify these people and incentivize them to return where they came from, so that our resources are instead spent on those who are from our area. This will enhance every aspect of the life quality We the People of Coos County want for our neighbors, friends, and families.