County candidates talk issues, solutions

Kramer: Our county road department is one of the best and I’ll say that until I’m gone. These guys bend over backwards to keep our roads in great shape with limited funding. We are constantly talking with our state representatives, our state senators, our congressmen and our big senators about this issue, every chance we get. I do sit on the transportation committee down at AOC.

This is a big deal. We just heard that the transportation committee is going to come back.

We’re going to have a transportation package discussed at the state level so we’re very hopeful that through that maybe we can do some of our local control through the state, take care of our roads and not count so much on the feds, although we will still keep applying and trying and working those folks to come up with a solution because we’re not the only state in the nation that has this issue.

The other piece to this is our forest collaborative efforts that we’re making right now.

We’re one meeting away from having a letter of recommendation to the forest service to start our NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process so that we can get in on a project to start a restoration stewardship program.

Those programs don’t send any money back to our roads or our schools but they open the door to move us forward with new collaborative efforts.

This one is building the relationships that we need with all of the stakeholders at the table. We’re making great progress. I probably won’t see it in my tenure because this project that we’re working on is probably two, maybe three years from ground work but once we get that up and rolling, we feel we can start the other ones.

Once we have that NEPA process finished and we start making the plans for the ground then there’s other pieces out there that we can commercially log instead of doing the restoration and stewardship so that we have those dollars coming back into our community.

Nichols: I don’t have a magic bullet answer. We have a problem because of the lack of the timber money. Remember, the reason the timber money is there is because the federal government owns 70 percent of the land in the county and they pay no taxes. Well, 100 years ago, they said, we will give you 25 percent of the revenue we get from the timber cutting on federal lands.

Well, when the northern spotted owl came in and environmentalists groups started going, hey, let’s not log old growth forests, that timber harvest went south. The revenue went south with it and they had some help from Sen. [Ron] Wyden for a number of years on that, but that is dwindling every year. So the real impact to the roads is we’ve lost half of the people that were there five or eight years ago.

I think they were on the right track when they looked at a taxing district and also rightfully they pulled away when the city would not get involved with it because that would stick the whole thing on the county and the people who live in the city also live in the county.

They had hearing after hearing and most of the people who turned up to the hearing were against it because it was a tax. But what else are you going to do? Win the lottery? You can’t do it with Google money, there isn’t enough of it. I wish I knew, but you can do the best you can.

• What traits do you think make a good leader and why?

Kramer: Open, honest, transparent. I never critique myself and I know that’s one of my weaknesses. I’m out there to listen. I’m out there to hear what it is that concerns you, what excites you. What does our new relationship, how can we build on that to make our community better? I think it’s just second nature to me. I just go. I just do. I don’t sit around and try to think about how it all works and what are the pieces I use to make it work? I just go, I just do it and if there’s a road block, I try to find the way around it with the help of others to get us where you and I want us to go.

I came into this as a volunteer, eight years with the city council, with parks and recreation and with the port, all those were volunteer positions, the coaching pieces I did with the kids, the fire department and the ambulance group, that was all volunteer. I feel I’m still a volunteer. Even though I get paid halftime, I still consider myself volunteer and I want to be part of that volunteer team we have in this county and this community that makes up what we are.

Nichols: Willingness to listen to people, number one. I’m an award winning journalist, I know how to listen very well and put my thoughts together. Also, I love research and learning about things. And I have an enormous amount of experience covering the county for many, many years so I’m familiar with many of the issues.

Journalists are allowed to attend executive sessions, which gets me behind the scenes information that no person who wasn’t a member of the media could have, so I feel pretty comfortable about being able to step into the role right away.

• Contrast yourself with your opponent—why should people vote for you instead of him?

Kramer: I’m going to do my job. Rodger is going to do his. You should cast your ballot for me because I care. At the end of the day, I want you to have the best experience you can possibly have, no matter where you are within the county structure and I feel that that’s what we’ve been building.

Our team is moving in that direction and I want to continue to be part of that community that makes this community great.

Nichols: Both of us have families that have been here a long, long time; that’s important to small town people. Fifty years ago this October, as a 17 year old kid, that’s the first time I opened a microphone.

I spent 21 years in the newspaper biz along the way, worked for a number of different stations as well, so I’ve got a lot of media background. And that’s about listening to people. I’m also active in the community, I’ve served on the board of the Original Wasco County Courthouse, I was outstanding young man of the Jaycees, I’ve been former president of the chamber of commerce. I used to announce the Rotary air show as well. I created the newsletter for the Fort Dalles Museum, I currently serve on the Columbia River Gorge Commission, where I was appointed by the current members of the county commission, not once, but twice, the most recent one was last June, after I had announced my candidacy, so they apparently like the way I represent the county.

Also, I’m endorsed by the four previous county commissioners: Sherry Holliday; Scott McKay, who has never endorsed anybody before for this office; Dan Ericksen; and Bill Lennox. I also have a degree in political science. I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat. I call myself a militant moderate. I despise both extremes of the parties.

I have registered as non-aligned for decades now. Steve, last January very publicly switched his affiliation from the Democrats to the Republican Party at the Beef and Burgundy fundraiser, so there is a distinction as well. I probably have been to more commission meetings than he has over the years, which means nothing really, one way or another, but I have, actually, more experience.

Now, it’s different experience in the audience, I will absolutely grant you that. I’m even tempered. I am not involved with what I think is sometimes a little disregard for the public meeting laws that this current commission has had in the past. I’m all about transparency and I will go the extra mile on that.