Chamber of Commerce Forum

Last night's Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce candidates' forum was the first official event of the campaign season, and ballots were mailed yesterday. Unfortunately, the event was not televised and recorded for replay as planned, so I'll share my opening statement here.

Besides, it requires some documentation, because it was rather blunt -- without, I hope, being negative. Here it is:

I’d like to thank the organizers for this opportunity to speak directly to the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce. One elephant in the room tonight is that both of the people listed as Obie O’Brien’s campaign committee are past Executive Directors of the Ellensburg Chamber. Of course they are both acting as private citizens, and of course they made their commitment some time ago; I understand that once the brochures have been printed, it’s hard to change.

Yet, with the county’s economy and employment in crisis, it’s hard to escape the fact that the opponent chosen for me by Jim¹, Bob², and their party³ has problems with competence⁴, judgment⁵, professionalism⁶, and integrity⁷. He has no real business or higher education experience, only experience as an employee^8,9. He has shown no interest in the part of the county outside Ellensburg¹⁰. He has no experience with farming except as a part-time irrigator, long ago¹¹. He seems hand-picked to continue the policies that got us into this situation¹².

My opponent is running on his government experience, but not his achievements¹³. One phrase he has repeated in earlier appearances with me is that we need to “make a plan, then follow it.” What is his plan? Tonight I hope we hear details of his plan¹⁴; I’ll try to share as many as possible of mine¹⁵.

Footnotes
¹Jim Armstrong, current member of the Ellensburg Chamber Board and past Executive Director; current Director of CWU Alumni Relations
²Bob Hansen, current Executive Director of the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber is in the process of merging with the Economic Development Group). Mr. Hansen also represents the Lamb Family Property at Ellensburg's west I-90 interchange, a development made possible by Obie's actions on the Ellensburg City Council.
³The Kittitas County Republican Party's platform is here.
⁴One example of a competence problem is Obie's role as President of the Board of HopeSource. Given that his area of expertise is city government, "Upper County Housing Plan Hits Snag" was a surprising development.
⁵One example is Obie's statement, during a City Council meeting, that it might be better "just to bulldoze" the Ellensburg train station, rather than protect it by purchasing it.
⁶During the 2007 election campaign, Obie, then Mayor of Ellensburg, endorsed candidates for City Council in a letter to the editor -- writing in his official capacity, not as a private citizen. I remember being stunned by this; all of the candidates he endorsed were defeated.
⁷The action listed in the previous footnote was serious enough to be listed here, too.
⁸Obie's business experience is limited to his work with a cable company in Yakima. In past candidates' forums he has also mentioned that his wife started a business.
⁹Obie's current job is in media services at CWU. In a quick search of CWU's website I was not able to find a relevant page to link to. See "Welcome Back, Central Students" for some information about my activities at CWU.
¹⁰For example, I have organized four outside-of-Ellensburg meetings with voters, and invited Obie. Of the three that have been held so far, he has attended none.
¹¹Obie spoke of this work, which doesn't seem to have been a paying job, at candidates' forums during the primary campaign.
¹²Obie announced his candidacy very early in the campaign season; his list of donors includes donors who were also very active in the 2006 campaign for this position.
¹³Two things I can recall Obie citing as accomplishments are the bicycle helmet requirement (which doesn't seem to be enforced, making it bad legislation) and the West Interchange/Lamb Property development (everyone who voted with him was defeated in the election held the week after the City Council vote, and everyone who voted against the measure was re-elected; Obie was not up for re-election that year).
¹⁴When someone stresses both their experience and the importance of having a plan, it seems reasonable for voters to expect to see a plan.
¹⁵I'll write about my plan in another post very soon.

Some of these items have been on the About Obie page of this blog for months, along with a request for correction if appropriate. I will update this page if any of my statements are unfair or untrue.