During my first term I served with eight different councilors and three different mayors. After having one city manager from 1996 to 2016, Manzanita has had three since. And through all this turnover, the work of the city continued. Challenges were met, and progress was made.
As a councilor, I’m one of about thirty volunteers that make our citizen-driven local government work. We serve on the Planning Commission, Budget Committee, STR Committee, Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, and City Council. We have a variety of backgrounds and represent a diversity of perspectives. We attend a whole lot of meetings, read a load of reports, and do plenty of independent research on behalf of the residents of Manzanita, as well as its many non-voter stakeholders.
We collaborate with our outstanding city staff to address an array of issues, not just for today but often with impacts well into the future. We are constantly building on the work of our predecessors, and planning for the work of our successors.
Manzanita is in the early stages of revising its Comprehensive Plan, and we need to reach a workable consensus on what kind of community we want to be. We have far more houses than residents, and with that come more complexities to address than in a typical town of 600. We need our revised plan to reflect how we see ourselves now, and moving forward. Our revised plan will drive policy decisions in the years ahead impacting our finances, housing stock, environment, commercial development, demographics and more.
Local governments can at times be short-sighted or reactive, but I see little risk of that here, particularly under the leadership of an exemplary mayor and an extraordinary city manager. It’s an honor to serve with them, and with the other volunteers and staff that make our city work. From where I sit, we are blessed to have so many committed people offering their talent and effort to enhance our community. I appreciate the calm, deliberative, and measured approach regularly on display at both the volunteer and staff levels, and I believe Manzanita voters can support the current team with confidence.
