Get the Facts!

I bring sound management practices and deliberate decision making to the office. I will make a difference in the legislative process by asking the hard questions and helping to achieve the best answers and solutions possible for my constituents. I firmly believe my record reflects that kind of leadership and I am confident that I am the best person to represent District 23 in Salem. Please continue reading for my response to some tough questions.

What problems do you believe exist within our schools? How do you plan on addressing those problems?

A huge lack of career and technical education programs (CTE) that can prepare high school graduates for the workforce in Oregon.

A huge lack of qualified teachers to meet the needs of CTE requirements under the New Oregon Diploma.

Top heavy management and administration statewide that fail to recognize and implement solutions to education problems that has already driven Oregon’s businesses to seek alternate solutions outside of public school systems.

A way to address the public school system problem can be; Review, test, or create curriculum for programs in K-12 that have no or poorly implemented benchmarks for success, and reinforce methods of accountability on teachers and administrators to achieve and exceed those benchmarks. Using a non-public third party review process at the state level that seeks input from the business community instead of the academic community may add credibility to any reform movement.

Another process of problem solving used a lot by the business community is one of seeking out other systems that have shown success, and borrowing or adapting those systems to improve the performance of your own. It is impossible for me to believe that Oregon has to be a “pioneer” on every front we address.

Do you support higher taxes? How do you plan on prioritizing spending/ addressing budget shortfalls?

I support intelligent fiscal management. If your expenses are exceeding your income, you simply have two choices. Either reduce costs in areas that can be considered non-essential so that you can balance your budget, or raise your price to increase income. In a business world, the latter isn’t always the first choice, which I believe is the reason most business owners are typically not in favor of tax increases to balance a government budget.

I truly believe we have significant mismanagement of spending and a productivity challenge in a wide range of state government. I would like to see more accountability from state department heads to manage spending. Again in the business community there is always a chain of accountability that is spread throughout the management team to maintain costs and productivity. If a manager does not do their job adequately there are consequences for the shortfall.

What can you do, as a Legislator, to stimulate the economy? Incentivize Oregon’s existing business community?

Education reform and accountability to improve development of the workforce pipeline that provides quality workers and keeps Oregon business in Oregon.

Communicate better with Oregon’s business community about their needs, and deliver those messages to Oregon’s legislature. Follow up with solutions that are achievable and measurable, and monitor successes or failures.

Do a better job of using resources that are currently available for business stimulation on a localized level. I believe we put too much stock into large regional business communities and do a very substandard job of assisting small business in Oregon. Resources are commonly consumed entirely by the larger businesses that have a lobby to address those resources, and there are few avenues for small companies in Oregon to access information about possible stimulation or improvement resources, let alone retain said resources.

What can be done to increase public safety in our communities? Our schools?

Properly fund a State Police program and make them visible in every community or county every day and night.

Encourage courts to enforce current law and punish offenders in a manner relative to the crime.

Better support lower income communities or counties in need of assistance with gang, drug and violent crime enforcement.

Prohibit gang behavior, enforce anti-drug policies, and better limit sex offender proximity to all schools.

What are the three most important issues facing your district? Facing Oregon?

In District 23 I think it is, in no particular order; Water for domestic use. Land use regulation or limits (M37/49). Loss of timber tax revenues.

In Oregon I think it is, in no particular order; Water for irrigation and domestic use. Immigration reforms. Responsible management of state revenues.

What is your position on illegal immigrants?

My message is clear on this one. First, if you are willingly hire them, prepare for the state and federal consequences that follow the laws already in place. We need to force all jurisdictions to follow the law on this first. If we stop attracting the nuisance with a livelihood, we can start to mitigate the problem. Second, the noise needs to continue to get louder directed at the governor of this state. As witnessed by his recent "about face" on drivers licenses to illegals, he does understand that his legacy may be about his willingness to break the state and federal laws regarding this subject.

Creating a system of accountability toward those persons that come to Oregon looking for a free haven in medical care, food supplements, and housing is a key factor in reducing the appeal of Oregon to illegals. If we are recognizing a documented citizen and incorporating them into assistance programs, we must provide a set of tools that encourage those citizens to become a part of a contributing society. There is an appearance in Oregon that virtually anyone can apply for assistance without consequences of redemption.

Conservative values and morals are prevailing slowly but surely on this matter, but have to be kept at a fervent pace for some time to come. We must not let this issue blend into the background of Democratic politics in a way similar to that of the marriage doctrine in this state.

What is your position on the state of the economy?

 I am a business owner as I am sure you have seen by now. I am animate against Governors junkets to far away lands that promote an invitation to bring their businesses to Oregon. We give away too much in this state as incentives to bring in new business to compete with those of us that may have started here from grass roots. I have one of those grass roots businesses that started from dirt, and have struggled for 20 years to be competitive in a world market. This state needs to spend more of those dollars on assisting small business that already exists here to be more competitive in the world market. We need to do a better job of improving vocational skills training in K-12 schools so that Oregon businesses can hire competent skilled workers to fill the jobs that are vacant today. There is more business in this state than we have skilled workers to fill, which depresses the state economy as well.