I am running for this position because I offer a fresh perspective and strategic community thinking.
As a market researcher and active community member, serving as both as an elected official for Si View Metro Parks Commission and City of North Bend Planning Commission, I understand what it takes to collect data and insights from multiple sources and synthesize them into effective strategies – attributes our City Council desperately needs.
Overview of My Plan
Instead of looking behind, I prefer to look ahead. I see every obstacle as opportunity. And when the community is involved with this process, Council’s achievements are the community’s achievements. In fact, there is no better small town success story, than one where all members are united under one banner to overcome giant obstacles.
At the highest level, my plan consists of three parts:
- Re-engage – The communication from council to the community needs improvement. Council must reengage with the public to make sure the needs, wants, and desires are heard. Council must also ensure that the public is informed about solutions being put into action.
- Re-fresh – Once the public is heard, Council can refresh its priorities and create effective solutions that begin today; not 5, 7, or 10 years from now when all the developable land is gone.
- Re-vitalize – Creating actionable strategies based on enhanced public outreach is the only way to truly begin revitalizing North Bend. Every action council makes will have better focus because of this process.
Outline of My Plan
I have been going door-to-door for a few months now, listening to people’s concerns and point-of-view about the current state of the City; of which, there are many. I am often asked, of the many priorities facing us, which one is the most important: traffic, managing new development, sewer, downtown corridor, etc.?
The answer is they all are important, but before we can effect smart change, we must shift our focus to how we can improve our state during both the short and long term with the current resources we have, and with community support.
I do not agree with the current council position that we should wait 5 to 7 years to collect new development fees to pay for the changes that need to happen today. There are many potential pitfalls to this level of complacency. For one example, if the economy turns up or down, we may not have enough money for improvements at that later date and will yet again be scrambling to figure things out.
Most importantly though, is that our community is suffering now, so we need to act now.
In order to bring about more immediate change, I propose a 90-day emergency session to develop solutions for managing real-time demands as well as future growth. During this time, I recommend that new collect data, process it, and construct real plans with clear objectives, measurable goals, and achievable timelines.
We must have effective strategies in place to solve problems before we add more stress and complications to the existing problems.
My Timeline
The First 30 Days – This is the upfront data collection period. During this time, we will conduct a massive public outreach initiative so that we can accurately learn public needs, wants, and desires. We will also conduct an intensive audit of our community’s assets, resources, histories, and other pertinent data.
The Second 30 Days – With the data collection completed, we will start identifying and classifying our priorities. These priorities will be ranked by level of impact, available resources, and ease of execution. Outreach to other agencies, organizations, clubs, both public and private, will also conducted during this period so that we can take inventory of potential partnerships and resources that may be available to us.
The Third 30 Days – Once we create an accurate list of priorities, we will establish plans to resolve them. These plans will be strategic, in that they will have measurable goals, clear objectives to achieve said goals, and realistic timelines to realize those goals. We will start a new business plan built from our branding effort to make North Bend an Investor Friendly City. This is important as we need to supplement our financial resources build upon our existing sources of revenue.
Once our due diligence is complete, we will have multiple open houses to share with the public, gather input and support, and make any final touch adjustments that need to be made. Final public hearings will be conducted to ensure public sign-off of our new plans.
By developing intelligent strategies with the public, we can effect smart change today; change that will also pave the way for the growth of our future.
This is why I humbly ask for your vote for North Bend City Council, Position #5.
If you or anyone else you know would like to meet to discuss our community’s future, your point of view, or learn more about my perspective, please feel free to me via email: Elwood.4.NB.council@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Brenden Elwood