The Wright Blend: Oak Harbor mayor chats with community over coffee

Friday morning, community members met with Oak Harbor Mayor Ronnie Wright at Mad Batter Bakehouse.

Friday morning, community members met with Oak Harbor Mayor Ronnie Wright at Mad Batter Bakehouse on Pioneer Way for a casual conversation about the city’s pressing issues.

Treats, chess, candles, roses and gothic portraits surrounded the conversation for Mad Batter’s theme of the month, vampires. As Wright talked, a barista called out, “blood macchiato.”

The mayor, however, stuck with his vanilla latte.

The idea behind the informal community meeting was that there is a different kind of impact having a one-on-one conversation rather than a public meeting setting. It’s an opportunity for frequent online complainers to voice their concerns in a constructive way, he said.

“It’s hard right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of negatives. One of the best things I did was stop paying attention to what’s online.”

Prior to Friday’s conversation, for example, rumors floated about a possible gun threat at the meeting from a community member on a Facebook page. According to Magi Aguilar, the city’s communications officer, the post was quickly flagged and removed.

For this reason, Detective Sgt. Jeremy Andreano made an appearance.

While no in-person threat came to fruition, it gave community members an opportunity to ask questions of a police officer as well.

The first question Andreano was asked was what police are doing about the increasing visibility of the homeless population in town.

Adreano says that police patrol the SPiN Café, a nonprofit day shelter for homeless and low-income individuals, daily with social workers from Island County.

Oak Harborites sometimes get a skewed view of the issue, he said.

“You end up getting panic based on a lot of social media stuff,” he said.

By following the conversation online, one might believe that Whidbey is the most dangerous place ever, he said. Comparatively, this is far from the truth.

Wright considers it a mental health epidemic, not a homelessness epidemic, he said.

Last week Wright had the first meeting of the “Pathways to Stability” task force to identify the long-term needs of the homeless population. On Friday he addressed a shorter-term solution: finding better locations for those who are trespassed from SPiN to dwell.

As soon as three months, Wright said, he wants to see substantial improvements to “lower the temperament.”

“We need to be a little more understanding and show people grace,” he said.

Andreano had some questions of his own. To Wright, he said the police department has seven positions to fill, and the current facility will not be able to hold them all.

Wright said he is looking toward new facilities. Perhaps it will be one big facility holding city hall, the police department and a recreation center.

More details will come after a feasibility study, he said.

Marina upgrades also arose, which will come up at a council workshop later this month. Wright envisions hotels and restaurants on the pier connecting the marina with downtown.

He sees these upgrades as both a tourist attraction and an improvement to the lives of locals. Recently, he toured the Vancouver waterfront as a model, he said.

“I know it happens in an hour on TV, but it doesn’t happen like that in real life,” he said. “It takes time.”

The city has already made strides in addressing the 2025 priority list and is working to improve relationships both inward, among staff, and outward, among the community.

Many new programs are coming this year from the parks and recreation department, for both youth and adults. Eventually, Wright said they will launch a pickleball league.

“Tennis is a little hard on the knees,” he said.

Despite some adversarial comments from community members in the past, Wright was not worried about Friday’s conversation, he said.

“You rest in the peace of knowing who you are,” he said. “You know who you are and what you stand for.”

Wright said his efforts come from deep care for the community.

“I really didn’t need to do this,” he said. “I’m a successful business owner. I have a successful business. I was happy. Who in their right mind would be subjected to the things I’ve been subjected to in the past year?”

“The Wright Blend” will recur every third Friday of the month at Mad Batter. More information will be provided at oakharbor.gov.