Candidate for
Supervisor; County of Humboldt; District 3

Economic Development

Economic Development is my passion and primary focus in this campaign. I am particularly interested in the growth of our local "base industries," the businesses that bring in new dollars by selling locally produced goods and services outside of the community.  Retail business primarily circulate money throughout the community and tend to receive too much attention because our tax structure is biased toward sales taxes.  This is a mistake that leads to misplaced emphasis in economic development policy.  Base industries are the foundation of a regional economy, create the best paying jobs, raise our standard of living and will lead to a strong retail (tax generating) economy.

Humboldt County has many untapped opportunities for base industry development, many of which which have low or no growth impact. In order to tap into these opportunities, the county should choose to make investments that work to raise the productivity of the local workforce, these generally take the form of either training or capital investments. I will aggressively support our educational institutions, particularly College of the Redwoods so that it can become a cost effective training resource for local business. I will support vocational programs offered through local unions.  We need to work closely with our local hospitals to secure the future of our health care system.  We also need to invest in  physical infrastructure like a redundant fiber optic cable, transportation improvements and alternative energy.

Investments must also be  made to raise the value of the goods that are produced in our county. The best opportunity here is to learn from places like Napa, Sonoma and Vermont, where they have been successful in creating a reputation for quality within their regions that raises the value of all the products they produce.  As your supervisor I will work to build a strong public/private partnership focused on building the value of the Humboldt County brand.

The opportunities I am most excited about however, are those that  enhance the environmental leadership that is at the core of our values, particularly in the third district.  As supervisor I will push for an aggressive plan for energy independence and work to create a state of the art green building program.  Both of these are opportunities to develop strong industry clusters and take advantage of growing consumer demand for these products globally.  In addition, as energy costs continue to rise, investments in alternative energy today will create future cost advantages  for our local manufacturers who would be less dependent on fossil fuels than their outside competitors.

Objective & Pragmatic Decision Making

In business and politics it is advantageous to remain open to new ideas and information, in order to retain the ability to adjust one's point of view as new information becomes available. Rigid or single-minded thinking can have disastrous consequences with long lasting impacts. Humboldt County is best served by leadership that relies on a well-defined decision-making process, rather than one based on a rigid ideological platform.

Core values which would inform my decisions:

• Economic and environmental priorities are often complementary, not mutually exclusive.
• Short-term benefits rarely justify long-term sacrifices.
• Unintended consequences deserve as much attention as intended outcomes.
• Win-lose solutions are not acceptable. The best solutions are those that are win-win, or at the very least, offer something to everyone.

• Engage of all stakeholders.
• Clear definition of the desired outcome.
• Set standards that are unambiguous, ambitious, and achievable.
• Identify and remove unnecessary barriers.