Warrenton City Candidates Speak at Warrenton Business Association Forum

Candidates for Warrenton city positions answered voter questions in a Warrenton Business Association Candidates Forum last (Wednesday) night at Warrenton  City Hall.  Two candidates are running for Mayor: incumbent Mark Kujala and current position 4 commissioner Mark Baldwin.  The candidates for the now open city commission position 4 are Pamela Ackley, David Goldthorpe, Richard Newton and Richard Frisbee.

Last year, Warrenton voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to make the Mayor elected at large by the voters directly instead of by appointment to the office by the city commission.

An audience of about 50 packed the City Commission chamber. Their questions focused on livability and economic vitality of the city.  

Both mayoral candidates stated Public Safety as the first priority of the city commission.  Incumbent Mayor Mark Kujala summarized the current status of police officer staffing.

“We were looking at the true possibility that we might only have eight police officers in 2014.  We had a levy that was on the ballot in November in order to extend one position, we also made a decision during the budget that year to take away from the police vehicle replacement policy and take money from patrol cars and put it into personnel, take money from the WBA (Warrenton Business Association) which was so generous, to give money toward funding a new position in the police department, and then we just received money from the federal government from the Department of Justice to fund three quarters of another position in the police department.  So we’re actually looking at eleven officers in 2015.  That is three officers more than we were looking at about sixteen months ago, so that’s a tremendous improvement.”  

Kujala added the next focus should be on the fire department, and the addition of a ladder truck.

Candidate Mark Baldwin also said public safety is the number one goal, and illustrated the needs of the fire department:

Baldwin.wav:   “With working class families, which the vast majority of us are, comes children, and schools, and in a small community lots of kids walking to and from school, and at the parks and so on and so forth, and I think it’s probably our largest goal is to protect those children.  The fire: I’ll touch a little on that.  I was down on Warrenton Mills property, Hampton Mills property, when that fire started, and that could have been so much worse without a ladder truck.  If it hadn’t have been for the ladder truck coming and the efforts of Hampton Mill employees turning on their pumps at their water pond and hooking up almost all of the hoses if not all of them – I believe was five hoses coming off of that pond and that pump, who knows what could have happened.  That mill could be gone today.  So with the additions we’ve made in the police department I believe we’re moving in the right direction, but we do need to work a little harder on the fire department. I think we’re going to lose our rating if we don’t make some infrastructure improvements and some position improvements.”

When asked about negative impacts of Warrenton trails on businesses, access and view sheds, both candidates spoke in favor of the trails.  Baldwin said the trails on the dikes and railroad right of ways should be part of the parks system.  Kujala said if the master plan is in conflict with development, the plan could be amended.  

When asked about drug problems at the public park in the city center,  Kujala emphasized existing cooperative programs between the schools, granting agencies, Clatsop Behavioral Health and Clatsop Memorial and Providence hospitals in promoting healthy lifestyles for youth.  Baldwin said the drug problem is a long standing one, with no immediate solution, but park improvements should focus on infrastructure measures such as improving drainage at the downtown park, plus using available Quincy Robinson Park Trust Fund money for improvements at the Ridge Road property.

When asked about the city commission’s role with public schools, both candidates said the commission and the schools should work as a team.  Baldwin praised the current school board.  Kujala said that with the Warrenton Grade School now the largest school in Clatsop County, that city government should work in conjunction with the schools to encourage healthy lifestyles for youth.   

When asked about the city’s economic forecast for the next four years, Mark Kujala said the current outlook is good.

 “Warrenton is open for business.  The reason is: is because we have low taxes, we’ve budgeted conservatively, we have reasonable development codes, we have affordable system development charges and utility rates, and most importantly – we have the land.  We have the potential for growth.  Since my election, which is ten years ago now,  the valuation of the City of Warrenton has grown by $213 million.  That’s 77 percent which is staggering really, and we have new businesses, we have new residences of course new subdivisions.  We’ve grown in population by almost one thousand people so that’s almost a 25 percent increase in population. I think we’ve solidified our place as the emerging center of activity.  We also have healthcare and social services coming to this area.  We have the regional food bank, the Senior and Disability Services offices, the urgent care facilities, brand new memory care facility opening next spring and recently I think we have a mental health facility that’s going to open here.  This I think is going to continue into 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.  There really needs to be a responsible way to move forward and that means the city commission needs to take an active role in providing the essential services and making sure that we’re not extending too far, but we have set up the framework for this – and this is not something that’s happened overnight. I think Young’s Bay Plaza was uh, 1975, that’s forty years really, and that was the first of many of the developments to come.  It’s taken time but it’s certainly going to continue.”   

Baldwin’s answer was not so optimistic:

 “Unless we come up with a way to solidify Pacific Coast Seafoods coming back into the community, and we work with Nygaards down at Tansy Point, Warrenton Fiber, and we work with Hampton at the Warrenton Mill, I don’t know that my outlook is as rosy as Mark’s.  I’m not a pessimist I’m an optimist – but at the same time without solutions for industry, we’ll lose it.  Westport I believe, is making ah, they have grand schemes of Pac Coast going there.  I’ve talked to a few of the fishing boat captains that I know, and they’re really fearful of that.  I think we have some plans in place.  It’s a matter of implementing them, and we really need them here in the community.  We can all see what its done to our water budget and our water department.  I voted for two rate increases since I’ve been a commissioner for four years.  The first one I had no idea what I was doing.  The second one was this year, and we didn’t have a choice.  Five percent I heard one commissioner say and I won’t mention his name – ‘Well that’s just a cup of coffee at Starbucks’.  There’s lot of people in this community who don’t drink coffee at Starbucks.  They can’t afford it.  I know that.  Like I said I’ve raised four children here, and lived here my entire life.  It’s important to me to make it a community you can afford to live in.  I don’t want my folks costed out of their own home, or anybody else’s for that matter.  And I want the young people to stay and go to work at these places.  So although I think right now we’re in pretty good shape, I’m not going to count my chickens.”

Four candidates are vying for the position 4 seat on the Warrenton City Commission:  Pam Ackley, a real estate agent with a background in charter fishing, Richard Frisbee, a disabled Navy veteran with a background in computer software, David Goldthorpe, currently a Clatsop County deputy district attorney, and Richard Newton, owner of NAPA Auto Parts in Warrenton, with experience on the city’s Budget and Urban Renewal Advisory Committees. 

When asked about their ideas for supporting and enhancing public safety, Goldthorpe stressed the need for adequate staffing including a full time detective, specifically for addressing abuse issues.

Goldthorpe1.wav”  “The serious crimes, the more serious crimes, some of the crimes that people don’t like to talk  about, are the crimes that go under investigated and under prosecuted in Warrenton because we don’t have a detective, and I think that’s a terrible thing.  People that are being abused and victimized repeatedly continue to be so because the police are in no position to dedicate the time necessary to build a case and stop them.”

Pam Ackley agreed more staffing plus a detective will help with substance abuse and hard drug issues, but added education is also necessary.

“By working together with local law enforcement and the schools on prevention of substance abuse, we can look into programs that better educate our children, vocational programs the indoor sports arena, the parks – moving those out to Ridge Road, I sat in on that workshop.  I think it’s very vital that we educate our kids because they are our future here.”  

Rick Newton said he had added outdoor lights at his own business to cut down drug dealing on the premises, and is glad of the increased staffing and addition of a detective, but was not optimistic about beating the problem.

 “I’m sorry that Warrenton has a drug problem, but Warrenton has a drug problem.  All the city council can do is put consistent pressure and provide the police with anything ,  pretty much anything that they ask for that they think will work within reason.” 

Richard Frisbee said that living in the Marina he has observed the drug problem, but said strategies such as lighting and security cameras could help.  

A few modern technology like maybe some cameras around a park or around some of these places set up at the police department so even the dispatcher, who’s sitting there, can say – ‘wait a minute, there they are’ , and when she sends police in, they can know where those people go.”

All candidates approved of Warrenton’s moratorium on recreational marijuana sales.  Newton said he is not an advocate for legalization.  Ackley and Frisbee said when legal sales become possible in 2016 a tax should be added to help pay for services.  Goldthorpe added revenue should go to aid those with problems and that THC infused products resembling their traditional drug free counterparts are a danger to children.  

The final question of the night was:  In light of some of your public comments that the availability of jobs in Warrenton is important in combatting crime and drug abuse,  how important is job creation to you when making a city commission decision regarding permitting  and welcoming business to Warrenton?

Richard Newton said full time family wage jobs help combat the drug problem, and he would welcome businesses that bring such jobs with welcome arms.  

Pam Ackley said she has witnessed how poverty affects children in the area through her committee work, but charitable work has limited effectiveness:

  “We can throw band-aids at that all day long, and that’s what we’re doing.  Until we provide their parents, their guardians – whomever the adult is that they’re living with  - a living wage job with benefits, a package, that will support those children, we just going to keep throwing band-aids at it."

Ackley said appropriate businesses should be approached and recruited to locate in Warrenton.

Goldthorpe said creation of any kind of job is a positive step:

 “I see business expansion and businesses coming to the community as a way for people who don’t have an income now or who struggle to have an income to be able to have one – whatever that job may be, full time, part time, seasonal.  Anything that allows a person to work, to provide for themselves and their own families is a good thing in my opinion."

Frisbee said the city should attract appropriate businesses to the area, taking into consideration noise and pollution factors, but said the right kind of employees must be available for businesses to locate in Warrenton.

 “I don’t know how to get adults  who have already decided that they don’t want to work, or something like that to do that.  I don’t know why these  people don’t want to do a forty hour work week.  I went into the military when I was seventeen and eighteen hour days was normal for us.  I think the education and stuff that most of us are talking is probably the best to get that sort of stuff and have wages that show up here when you have people who are trained you have the better jobs coming in.  You have the better industries coming in.”

Complete audio from last (Wednesday) night’s Warrenton city candidates forum is available on our website: coast radio dot org.  Click on the city council audio files link on the left hand side of the home page.