I am a grateful transplant who landed here by couch surfing at a generous friend’s Christmas  after a  wild and crazy roller coaster ride in the Boston Software World behind me.  I appreciated the experience, but despite the good paying jobs, I always felt a bit like a transient until I landed here.

I've never felt at home anywhere else.

Through the kind eyes of the Universe, I also met my partner within a few weeks of arriving -- much to my surprise and probably his, too!  Our good life together affords me the opportunity to volunteer in city government and serve on city council.

Volunteering Experiences (fun and deeply gratifying):

• Coos Head Coop Food & Nutrition Group: Because of what I learned on a multi-year federal grant with SWOCC, I had an inkling of what I knew was possible concerning an $80,000 grant Advanced Health put forth in 2021.  As the very first step in the process, I met and shook the right hands that led to awarding the coop that grant. The coop now spear-heads a community coalition on improving wellness in our region. The grant money was instrumental in the coop's participation in Double Up Food Bucks program for EBT shoppers, as well as potentially for sponsored memberships in the future. 

• Neighborhood Works Umpqua Tax Service: My highlights were assisting a newly married couple in their 70's file jointly for the first time, as well as walking through filing for the first time with a formerly homeless, newly fully employed young man.

• Coos Bay Library: With the research librarian, I helped people put together resumes (some for the first time!) and  jointly ran a few computer and tablet workshops, helping people get setup. 

• ORCCA: I enjoyed stacking and sorting large food donations in the warehouse my first weeks here.

• Master Gardeners: I very much enjoyed volunteering at the extension office in Myrtle Point after graduating, although I am disappointing gardener at best. My apologies to my peers and mentors ...

• Master Bee Keepers: I completed the apprenticeship program with much joy as well as a harrowing 12-sting reckoning with the righteously angry Sisters flying into my poorly velcro'd hood when I continued taking photos instead of closing up the hive, as I should have. (I very much deserved the stings and I still love bees. They warned me after all.)

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.

I am your neighbor and I have much the same dreams and concerns that you do:

• Employment opportunities, housing and services to be the family-supporting kind. 

• Economic growth that supports diverse industries & business opportunities, especially for unique regional features like our beaches, rocky shores, fishing, and beautiful public lands. Our DIY culture is fertile soil for micro producers, start ups,  and small businesses. Anything I/we can do to support those benefits our community in many ways.

• Tourism that grows beyond summer months so those jobs can actually support people living here.

• Recreational opportunities for working and middle class families - we should all get to enjoy what we have.

• Public services that protect interests and ensure meeting basic needs for all citizens and residents.

• Vacant properties create higher public safety costs than  properties with residents and active businesses. If the owners don't choose to move here, rent here, or spend their dollars in our community, they should contribute a fair share to watch over their possessions.

Because of my work background, I believe I can contribute to the complex navigation involved in council decisions of the day while keeping an eye on a bigger picture.

Collaboration centered on transparency is not simply an ethic I deeply invest in. It is also the heart of many business experiences I've had that led to the best outcomes.  

Rather than experiencing questions, concerns and limitations -- a.k.a. "opposing" viewpoints --  as blockers with no compromise, those ideas can usually be integrated and actually improve outcomes. 

Experience making decisions this way is what I can bring to the table.

Like everyone, I have some ideas. But without successful collaboration, no one's ideas see the light of day.  Because of this, my personal agenda does not include specific programs or policies, rather a vision of how to use change as opportunity for bettering our community.

If elected, my intent is to continue to:

• collect questions and concerns of my fellow neighbors and bring those ideas to the council

• learn, listen, and inquire during council as the best team player I can be, even through disagreement

• strengthen ties with our regional, state and national representatives who can bring resources to our city for our projects.

My Master's in Math opened doors in software engineering and data analysis, way back in 1994. Earning my MBA as a night student in the early 2000's helped me navigate the challenges of running teams -- large and small, local and remote, from newbies to people with decades more experience than I had and all the combinations in between.  

My career in the Boston software startup world afforded me deep experience with strategic decision making — a flow of events that intellectually mirrors steering a boat across a stormy ocean rather than a well-planned road trip, as I imagined it, naively, before actually doing it. 

This kind of activity is centered on listening closely, clarifying questions and discussions, then making very uncertain choices that are reviewed later and often changed. While one might imagine that understanding came with my management experience, the roots of it came from being on teams doing what's never been done before.

This is how I participate in making collective decisions.