New residents

have a voice too

As a new resident of Ocean Shores I have, for the most part, found my fellow citizens to be friendly and welcoming. On the other hand, the letter to the editor from Patty Lavallee in the Aug. 3 issue of The North Coast News prompts me to write this letter.

There appears to be an attitude from some of the residents of this town that if you are a “newbie” you should just keep your mouth shut, don’t participate in any discussion of community governance, and let the mayor and a select few of the council members run things as they want without any input from the citizens of this community. I am not trying to minimize any of the things that they have done for the city and I certainly realize that we have weathered some hard times. However, this town seems to be stuck in the 70s. Why would we not encourage all residents, even the “newbies” to participate in local issues and bring new ideas and fresh voices so that we can attract people and events to visit our beautiful community? How long do I have to live here until I am “allowed” to have a say in local government? One year? Three years? Ten years? I resent being called ignorant because I haven’t lived here as long as Ms Lavallee.

How about if we try using some modern ideas to increase revenue instead of the “tax and spend” method of governing that the mayor and some of the council members seem to favor? Maybe if there was open and honest sharing of information and inviting citizen participation there wouldn’t be rumors circulating. Perhaps with the help of some of our new residents we will be able to come up with some innovative ideas to move us into the future.

For these reasons I will be supporting Susan Conniry and Shannon Rubin for City Council Positions 1 and 3 this November. Both of these women are intelligent, caring people who are genuinely concerned about the well being of our town and all of its residents. It is time we had some fresh perspective on the City Council!

Maggie Ely

Schroeder backs Rubin,

thanks supporters

I would like to thank everyone who supported me in the recent primary election. I enjoyed being able to share my concerns about the way our City Council and mayor operate and how I hoped to change and improve the process. Honest and open representative government is important to me and I believe as a community we deserve better than what we are getting. I will continue my interest in the process and ask all my supporters and others to join me in supporting Shannon Rubin for City Council.

Shannon has expressed concern for many of the same things I did and has the passion to be effective. She has shown the ability to speak well about the issues and is not likely to be a guaranteed vote for the mayor or other council members. She has proven by her actions that she is willing and able to express reasonable views even as the mayor and other council members show disrespect. She has shown the ability to stand up to the ruling cabal and their cheerleaders with her own views and is able to back her views with fact and reason.

Shannon has demonstrated the ability to openly discuss issues while also showing the backbone to resist being pushed around or overrun. I believe she would vote her beliefs representing the voters/taxpayers, without waiting to look around to see who is voting which way. She is not the type to drink the Kool-Aid that has been offered for so long to so many.

The majority of our City Council are not doing their job. They are elected to set the policies for our community and set the budget to support them. Sadly, they allow a very willful mayor to do their job and sit silently as she berates them and/or the citizens if they disagree. They either lack the will or the ability to say “no.” Our council meetings are more like a version of “a queen and her court” than a representative government in action.

While traveling around the area, I continually see a display of four political signs arranged like a “wall of shame.” These are the candidates who by their own track record will continue to allow the mayor to act outrageously and spend the taxpayers broke. If they are elected, we can expect nothing to change and should be ready to dig deep into our pockets and expect little in return.

If Ocean Shores is to have any chance of moving forward reasonably and affordably, then government by this mayor and her favored minions must be dismantled, one council seat at a time.

Please give careful consideration to voting for Shannon Rubin. She is the reasonable alternative we need.

Thank you,

John Schroeder