Candidates agree change is needed

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The three candidates running for Oak Harbor City Council Position 1 saw that change is needed in city politics.

They each promise to deliver that change, but in different ways.

Clairann Haney is a unique candidate. She isn’t running on an issue, she isn’t asking for donations and don’t expect to see her splatter the city with her campaign signs. Her vision of Oak Harbor is colored by what she sees on her route as a rural postal carrier — families that can’t afford decent housing. She wants the city to stop development and growth, reevaluate and take care of what it has.

Bob Morrison is a former councilman and a former mayoral candidate who has become frustrated watching the council from the outside over the last four years. He feels the city needs to communicate better with the citizens, council members need to ask better questions, and most of all, the city needs to move forward with a project — perhaps improving Pioneer Way downtown.

Jim Palmer is the newcomer to city politics, but he’s perhaps the most well-prepared and hard working of all local candidates. He’s met with department heads, researched statistics and brings along a binder of information when he doorbells neighborhoods. He said that the city council needs to work better together and with his strong business know-how, he feels he can help the elected officials get on the right track. He feels growth and development is a good thing as long as it is adequately planned.

Haney

This is the second time Haney has run for the city council position, having lost to Councilwoman Sue Karahalios four years ago. She’s not making any big changes this time around, but is running a low-key campaign based upon her strength of character and her straightforward views of the issues. She characterized herself as someone who gets things done.

Though she has long been an active member of the Island County Republican Party, her perspective may be a little different than one might expect.

One of the biggest controversies in the city last year was a developer’s request that the city expand its urban growth area so that he could build a large-scale shopping center on the south end of the city. On this issue, Haney is in contrast to her two challengers. She’s against the idea.

“Stop building, stop development and first take stock of what we have already,” she said.

“We should focus on small businesses before bringing in big businesses,” she added.

Haney feels the development, growth and expansion of the city is out of control, not adequately planned and taxes the infrastructure that current residents paid for.

She blames the building and development boom for the lack of affordable housing in the city. On her mail route, she sees a paradoxical situation in which many homes are for sale and many people can’t afford homes.

“What I’m seeing out there is families living together,” she said. “Three of four families living together because they can’s afford their own homes.”

Haney isn’t too excited about the city’s list of $90 million non-enterprise capital projects, which are quality-of-life projects like building a pier or remodeling the marina. She said the city should concentrate time and money on its critical, but ailing, infrastructure.

“You have to look at the necessities instead of the fluff,” she said. “We should take care of the necessities first and practice good stewardship.”

Morrison

When Morrison was on city council, he had a good understanding of the issues and was never afraid to question or oppose city administration or staff.

“I don’t believe in rubber stamps. Period,” he said.

But even when he was criticizing ideas, Morrison remained even-tempered and never engaged in attacks on personalities. At the same time, he admits he didn’t spearhead any significant projects or policies that were ultimately realized, though he worked hard on the effort to build a new, larger library — which voters turned down.

He enjoyed the job, but had to give it up when he ran for mayor against Cohen, and ultimately lost, four years ago.

During his time out of politics, Morrison said he became frustrated with city leaders, particularly the lack of progress in prioritizing non-enterprise projects and getting any of the projects done.

“I think we need to pick a project and complete something. It’s easier to get other things done once you get the momentum rolling,” he said. “People of Oak Harbor want to see something get done. I think that’s very important.”

Morrison said he thinks the Pioneer Way streetscape project should be the top priority, particularly because the city can use utility funds on it. The project would fix the deteriorating water and sewer pipes, create angle-in parking and make the area more pedestrian friendly.

“It’s time to get started or just forget about it,” he said.

When it comes to the controversy over a possible shopping center on the south end of the city, Morrison said he would be in favor of it if he was convinced that the proper infrastructure — particularly adequate highway improvements — were in place. He said the city needs more business.

“We have to do one of two things — we have to develop a bigger tax base, or folks, get out your checkbooks,” he said. “It’s easier to control taxation if we have a bigger tax base to work with.”

Morrison also said he would like to see improvements in how the city does business. While the council needs to work as a team, he said the administration and staff need to work better with the public. He said the city has a good staff, but it’s been “too directed” over the last eight years.

“There’s a lack of communication with the public, but more than that, it’s a lack of caring,” he said.

Palmer

Palmer said he considered running for council for a long time, but he finally threw his hat in because he felt it was time for change.

“The city council needs to work better together,” he said. “There are issues we’re been discussing for a long time, but they’re not moving forward very well.”

Palmer has taken the work of seeking office very seriously. He has a strong base of support and has raised $6,000 from many well-known members of the community. He had his campaign signs up almost immediately. He researched the issues facing the city, particularly the budget. He’s been out knocking on doors and meeting people to gauge what concerns people have.

When it comes to the budget, he feels the city has spent too much on consultants over the years, especially for plans that never were accomplished.

“Have we overused consultants? I think we’re spent a lot of money on them in this town,” he said. “The ideas could have been generated with local talent and saved a lot of money.”

Palmer said the city’s top spending priority should be infrastructure. He wants to ensure that roads, water supply and the sewer systems are maintained and adequate. But he still feels the city can and should pursue the list of non-critical, quality-of-life capital facilities projects, which includes Pioneer Way streetscape, the marina and the pier.

But he’s not in favor of picking a priority among those projects.

“The order of the project priorities really doesn’t matter. It’s going to come down to what can be funded,” he said.

The funding, Palmer suggests, will likely come from the state or federal government and it’s difficult to foresee what project those entities will fund.

On the issue of a shopping center on the south end of the city, Palmer said he would vote in favor of it. He said it would provide more shopping for residents and would be good for the economy.

“Our tax base isn’t increasing fast enough,” he said.

Palmer said development and growth can be a very good think if it’s adequately planned.

“Growth reduces taxes. Growth keeps the taxes under control…” he said. “We are going to have growth. Controlling growth and managing growth is the greatest challenge moving forward.”

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/whidbeynewstimes or call 675-6611.