As I understand it, my collaborative style while serving on the North Bend Budget Committee as a citizen member, 2019-2022, motivated a few city councilors and leaders asked me to consider running.
So here I am.
These past three years on that committee, I have developed a deep respect for our city leaders, those “unelected bureaucrats” who manage to run the city on our shoestring budget.
Consider how North Bend’s $40 million to keep roads, water, sewer, police, fire and other functions that support our lives compare to the likely yearly sales of our local Walmart — approximately $50 million based on Walmart's 2020 Annual Report.
Corporate entities like Walmart rely on municipal infrastructure for their brisk business and, at the same time, outstrip our city’s annual resources while managing significantly less. That says a lot about our city's public servants.
While on the budget committee, I asked a lot of questions. Our city leaders welcomed them with a thoughtfulness I’d never experienced from any of the investors, CEOs or other executives I’d come in contact with in my startup work life.
In these discussions, I experienced a hint of the process the city council and the city leaders go through to move North Bend forward: an intellectual tetris performed by a collective of invested fellow citizens.
I respect and appreciate this process of expressing individual viewpoints alongside collectively deciding. It would an honor to participate more and with support of my neighbors. We are in this together!
If you would like to read about other candidates, Vote411.org from the League of Women Voters has an excellent non-partisan sight that invites all candidates on the ballot to answer some questions.