Addendum, Part 2, to Tacoma City Council District 4
In the spirit of fairness I wanted to provide the answers from Marty Campbell to the questions posed to the campaigns. Below are the versions of the questions I sent him in regular text, with his answers in italics, and my comments in red as before.
What do you consider to be the #1 issue within the District? (And yes, am looking for a singular issue) While there are many issues through-out the district, but #1 would be economic recovery. I can’t say that I disagree, but I don’t completely agree. As an end result, yes…this area has kinda been the ugly stepchild of Tacoma for years, and economic redevelopment is a part of that. But even in the answer below, it is dependent on several things.
How do you propose the answer to the above be addressed? I would lead efforts to develop and implement an economic development strategy for our district. This plan would focus on 1) Reduction of crime and blight. By putting more Officers on the streets, working in unison with code enforcement and by adding more detectives to follow up on crimes we can a make meaningful gains in crime and blight reduction. 2) Working with commercial property owners to develop visions for each district and creating neighborhood centers out of our business districts again. 3) Creating a ‘culture of entrepreneurship’ with-in the city that removes barriers to success and encourages new employers to create local jobs. 4) Bringing the City and our neighborhoods to the conversation about education, and working with schools and communities to address gang, health and other safety issues, where we can. I’m not entirely comfortable with than answer. Again, not that it is a bad answer, but it seems way too all-encompassing, with the exception of the kitchen sink.
What do you see as the role of the Councilman (and yes, I realize that may not be politically-correct, but is meant in the generic, non-gender sense)?
Advocacy and communication. I will approach the job the way I have approached many of my other community leadership responsibilities. Being a strong advocate for my constituent needs and keeping an open dialog about those needs. I am committed to continue attending neighborhood meetings and keeping citizens more informed and engaged. Nothing to really comment on with this one. Decent answer.
And now, for a situational question…one that has happened multiple times over the 10.5 years we’ve been in our house in the District: I wake up in the morning to find that one of our vehicles has been the victim of a hit-and-run during the night. Call TPD, but they will not send an officer to make a report or collect any possible evidence, and seem unwilling to do anything. I contact you…what do you do? (Once you reply, I’ll give the answer of what Rick did and how effective it was…and the intrinsic problem with it)
I have actually had similar things happen to me (someone threw a rock through a window) and it can be very frustrating. While I understand that there are many pressing needs for our officers, the need for an officer to respond is important, and at that moment is very important to you.
I would contact the sector lieutenant on your behalf and find out why there has been a lack of response, but more importantly how soon could you expect an officer to come by to assist. This underscores the need for more officers on our streets and more detectives to follow up on crimes.
Further more if this has happened multiple times, then we need to look at the road and see what we can do to improve safety. Bulb out curbs and speed humps may slow down traffic and keep drivers more alert and reduce accidents.
I am sorry to hear of your accidents and hope you were able to have an officer respond and that everything worked out OK. My example was one of many things that have happened to our property in the 10+ years we have lived here. So many, in fact, that we’ve begun not bothering to report them (please realize that those stats that local politicians like to cite aren’t necessarily the whole picture…a reduction in crime may only be a reduction in reporting…). But as to his answer, and this is going to begin to sound like a broken record, it is a decent answer. All the elements are there…it’s just that…well, I’ll get to that in the conclusion.
It may be a plus or a minus in your book, but am honored to have Rick Talbert endorse me and I would be interested in hearing how council member Talbert responded, and to see if it met your needs. It is a plus, but not a definitive swaying plus. We have the utmost respect for Rick…the times we contacted him, he was noting but responsive, helpful, and efficient. But I do not vote by endorsement. Personally, most of them seem like a continuation of the good ol’ boy system, where only those on the “in” are, well, in. And frankly, many endorsements will completely turn me away from a candidate, in particular those whose ideologies are polar opposites of mine or who have been completely unimpressive. Unfortunately, Rick’s endorsement is balanced out by a few like that.
As for Rick’s previous responses, please see the initial post.
In conclusion, Marty Campbell’s answers were good. They were well-thought-out. But they were uninspiring to me…nothing really jumped out and made me say “Yeah…I really like that idea!”, whereas Roxanne’s did that for me.
In the spirit of fairness I wanted to provide the answers from Marty Campbell to the questions posed to the campaigns. Below are the versions of the questions I sent him in regular text, with his answers in italics, and my comments in red as before. What do you consider to be the #1 issue…