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Candidates for Douglas County commissioner, Position 1, today answer the second in a series of five weekly questions. The answers and those from the Position 3 candidates, which appeared in Tuesday’s paper, are also available online at http://politics.newsreview.info.
<b>This week’s question:</b>
What is your plan for moving Douglas County past reliance on the timber safety net?
<b>Susan Morgan</b>
First, aggressively pursue a short-term strategy to work with our allies across the region and rural school districts across the nation to extend the safety net. Second, move quickly to a long-term strategy to develop a permanent solution around the O&C lands that has a reasonable timber harvest component. We must continue to forge alliances within Oregon and nationally. It is critical that we speak with one voice in D.C.
We need to nurture more economic development projects like the cargo container port proposed for Coos Bay. These family-wage jobs will stabilize our future and give our children, and their children, a reason to stay and raise their families here.
Looking for efficiencies in service delivery is an ongoing opportunity in all organizations. Our county government is no different. I will work with our county employees and our state and federal partners for innovative and efficient ways to deliver services, like combining mental and physical health delivery.
County residents need to agree on the kind of county government services we want. If there is a shared vision for Douglas County’s future, we can plot a course toward that goal. I pledge to lead that effort.
<b>Patrick Starnes</b>
I am the only county commissioner candidate who has a realistic plan to increase logging on our federal forests.
I am also the only candidate who has a plan to secure a revenue stream that can fund the safety net and help America’s wood products compete on the global market.
I have developed a 30-year thinning plan that can be embraced by both environmentalists and the timber industry to avoid lawsuits and gridlock. My plan would provide a steady, predictable 100-million board feet a year off the federal forests for over 30 years.
As your next county commissioner, I will work with Rep. DeFazio and Sen. Wyden to put a tariff on two-by-fours and plywood imported from China, Russia and Canada. These imports are a major reason for local layoffs in our area. With the building boom over and the housing market suffering, this is the worst time to have imports dumped on our markets. A federal tariff on these imports can fund the safety net indefinitely and protect local jobs.
We need to change politics as usual, end the gridlock, and create a healthy, sustainable future for Douglas County.
<b>Marilyn Kittelman (incumbent)</b>
It’s time to face the facts — congressmen from New Hampshire, Iowa, or Colorado can’t find room in their hearts, or in the national budget, for funding Douglas County government. The Secure Rural Schools Act, or “safety net,” may have served a needed purpose: give us time to regroup, but guess what, time’s up and we didn’t.
The 1937 O&C Act guaranteed us 75 percent of revenues from O&C Forests. In the 1950s, we agreed to give the BLM 25 percent more of our share. They agreed to invest it for future harvests. We have $2.4 billion invested in this plowback fund. The feds can’t or won’t let us recapture our investment through timber harvests. This amounts to a simple breach of contract. We must demand they return our investment or we will settle for management of the O&C lands.
In the meantime — time to tighten our fiscal belt. I have fought consistently to stop nonessential spending like the half-million for the dog pound and quarter-million for a kitchen in Winston. I did stop the $157 oil changes for county rigs. Time to manage the county budget they way we do our own family budgets, don’t spend what we don’t have.
There’s a hole in the safety net. In the past two weeks, local papers have featured front-page stories on the current health of our county, or lack thereof. County unemployment is just under 10 percent, considerably above the state average of 6.4 percent and nearly double the national average!
The number of county children living in poverty is 5,736, according to a report from Children First for Oregon, again among the highest in the state. Long-term solutions must be our top priority — more boots in the woods, more family-wage jobs and the pride and independence that come with those!
<b>This week’s question:</b>
What is your plan for moving Douglas County past reliance on the timber safety net?
<b>Susan Morgan</b>
First, aggressively pursue a short-term strategy to work with our allies across the region and rural school districts across the nation to extend the safety net. Second, move quickly to a long-term strategy to develop a permanent solution around the O&C lands that has a reasonable timber harvest component. We must continue to forge alliances within Oregon and nationally. It is critical that we speak with one voice in D.C.
We need to nurture more economic development projects like the cargo container port proposed for Coos Bay. These family-wage jobs will stabilize our future and give our children, and their children, a reason to stay and raise their families here.
Looking for efficiencies in service delivery is an ongoing opportunity in all organizations. Our county government is no different. I will work with our county employees and our state and federal partners for innovative and efficient ways to deliver services, like combining mental and physical health delivery.
County residents need to agree on the kind of county government services we want. If there is a shared vision for Douglas County’s future, we can plot a course toward that goal. I pledge to lead that effort.
<b>Patrick Starnes</b>
I am the only county commissioner candidate who has a realistic plan to increase logging on our federal forests.
I am also the only candidate who has a plan to secure a revenue stream that can fund the safety net and help America’s wood products compete on the global market.
I have developed a 30-year thinning plan that can be embraced by both environmentalists and the timber industry to avoid lawsuits and gridlock. My plan would provide a steady, predictable 100-million board feet a year off the federal forests for over 30 years.
As your next county commissioner, I will work with Rep. DeFazio and Sen. Wyden to put a tariff on two-by-fours and plywood imported from China, Russia and Canada. These imports are a major reason for local layoffs in our area. With the building boom over and the housing market suffering, this is the worst time to have imports dumped on our markets. A federal tariff on these imports can fund the safety net indefinitely and protect local jobs.
We need to change politics as usual, end the gridlock, and create a healthy, sustainable future for Douglas County.
<b>Marilyn Kittelman (incumbent)</b>
It’s time to face the facts — congressmen from New Hampshire, Iowa, or Colorado can’t find room in their hearts, or in the national budget, for funding Douglas County government. The Secure Rural Schools Act, or “safety net,” may have served a needed purpose: give us time to regroup, but guess what, time’s up and we didn’t.
The 1937 O&C Act guaranteed us 75 percent of revenues from O&C Forests. In the 1950s, we agreed to give the BLM 25 percent more of our share. They agreed to invest it for future harvests. We have $2.4 billion invested in this plowback fund. The feds can’t or won’t let us recapture our investment through timber harvests. This amounts to a simple breach of contract. We must demand they return our investment or we will settle for management of the O&C lands.
In the meantime — time to tighten our fiscal belt. I have fought consistently to stop nonessential spending like the half-million for the dog pound and quarter-million for a kitchen in Winston. I did stop the $157 oil changes for county rigs. Time to manage the county budget they way we do our own family budgets, don’t spend what we don’t have.
There’s a hole in the safety net. In the past two weeks, local papers have featured front-page stories on the current health of our county, or lack thereof. County unemployment is just under 10 percent, considerably above the state average of 6.4 percent and nearly double the national average!
The number of county children living in poverty is 5,736, according to a report from Children First for Oregon, again among the highest in the state. Long-term solutions must be our top priority — more boots in the woods, more family-wage jobs and the pride and independence that come with those!
