If you would like to watch the Forum hosted and moderated by the Headlight Herald, here is the info:

link and passcode you will need to access the recorded Zoom video. https://us06web.zoom.us/…/NrcAA9BJfv5x4zVq…

Many of the questions that were sent by the Pioneer included commentary and opinion framed as “context”, not just questions. For those questions I have pulled out the actual question without the commentary and just answered the questions here along with the good, straight up questions.

1 – Give us a SWOT analysis of Rockaway Beach – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

Wow, great question – haven’t done one in a a number of years. This should be a living document with continual improvement. I will add this when I can spend a little time to do it right. Hard one to write off the top of your head. Adding all of the candidates together probably will create a great SWOT analysis.

2 – How can Rockaway Beach manage the impacts of climate change – loss of beachfront, buildable lands – rising sea levels, erosion? What is your view of adding rip or armoring the beachfront?

As with any city or person for that mater, the city should do their part. It’s a tough one, though, as we are in more of a reactive position at this point. I certainly don’t have a silver bullet. As specific issues arise such as rising sea levels, erosion, etc. we will need to assess and adapt for sure. That’s a continual process as things change. As for rip along the beach front, I don’t know enough technically to say it’s good or bad. I would definitely rely on experts for that decision – we should not be allowing rip on one property if it is going to affect other properties and need to understand the chain reaction of any decision. Need to balance people losing their homes as well. It is definitely complicated. I don’t think there is one simple answer to the question that fits every situation.

3 – What is or should Rockaway Beach doing to prepare for the Cascadia event?

I believe our Fire Department and Emergency Preparedness group are doing great things to start that process and get us ready for an emergency. One of the biggest concerns I have is what to do about folks that don’t have the mobility to leave. My understanding is that Rockaway has done a neighborhood mapping exercise multiple times over the years (before my time) and has just been let die when new leadership comes in. I really think this is critical for there to be an understanding of of who lives where, who is here full-time, who might need help evacuating, etc. I do think that the city should be looking at what we could do to arrange for help for those folks during an evacuation.

4 – Do you or your family members own an STR or work for an STR management company?

Yes, we own two STRs. We manage them ourselves and have never had an issue with a guest. I cover my views on STRs extensively on my page above.

5 – STR licensing fees are a barrier to some residents. They allow the rich to get richer while cutting off an opportunity for others. What will you do to create a more equitable situation here?

That is a great question. I guess the first thing is to figure out the STR Cap situation. I have an extensive writeup above on STRs. I agree with you, the fees are pretty steep. That was intended by the current council to discourage people from getting an STR license, but what it accomplished was discouraging people that can’t afford to pay $500 every year just to keep an STR license active to keep their property value. The cap definitely created a have/have not situation. I’m not sure I have a perfect answer for that question, this is where we NEED an STR committee made up of people who don’t want STRs, business owners, STR owners, etc. to look at all sides of this issues (licensing, rules, fees, pros of STRs, issues created by STRs, actual real numbers, etc.) and come up with solutions/recommendations.

6 – A lot of businesses reported that this year was “just okay” – we had lots of visitors, but not a lot of “spenders.” What can Rockaway Beach do to support our businesses?

If that is actually true (people are spending less per visit, which is the implication) I suspect it’s largely due to the cost of things. I think we have all felt that, an avg hamburger is $15-18. Rockaway is a destination because it’s a great staycation location. I really believe there are opportunities for our Chamber, city, and businesses working together to drive not only visitors to the city but visiting our businesses. First step is getting people here, so that’s great (can’t spend money if there isn’t anyone in town) that it was busy. I think there are some cool opportunities to give incentives to visitors (and locals for that matter) to frequent our businesses. Visit a business and get a stamp. Some prizes or discount if you get x stamps. Just throwing one thought that comes to mind – but it will take our community working together to make something like that happen. I do think the city should be looking at how to get people here year-round. More year-round events. Right now businesses rely on a few months to make up for losses during the winter (or some just close up shop and go on vacation during the winter) – that’s not a great recipe for success. If we can get more visitors year-round, businesses can even out their income, and keep people employed.

7 – There are lots of “for sale” signs along 101 – What is being done to encourage more businesses in Rockaway Beach?

While the city doesn’t have a lot of ways to be directly involved in getting businesses into those storefronts, it won’t happen if we aren’t business friendly. It really is something that I would like to help facilitate if at all possible. It definitely makes our town look sad with empty storefronts. First and foremost the city being business friendly and supporting visitors year-round is key to encouraging businesses to come to Rockaway.

8 – The City of Rockaway Beach is modestly small, yet it has to contend with two unharmonious business associations. The lack of communication, and willingness to communicate, across these associations cannot be good for the city. It also resulted in a rather confusing situation of having two Santa’s appearing at last year’s Christmas Tree Lighting.  As mayor what could you do to try to bring back harmony and balance to a single united business association?

I would meet with both and try as hard as I can to get a coordinated effort on behalf of Rockaway Beach. I don’t have the background or history to understand where this all comes from, it seems really strange to me, but if the businesses, chamber, and city work together it’s a force multiplier!  I would start by listening to both sides and try to bring them together by finding the common ground. I really believe businesses would be more successful working together along with the chamber and the other way around. The goals are so much aligned, the chamber promotes tourism and the businesses absolutely rely on tourists to make a living.  I will be honest, it feels like at some point there was a disagreement on an idea or plan and one group said I’m taking my toy to this other sandbox and things have just spiraled. I firmly believe it’s never too late to reconcile and do what’s best for everyone!

9 – What are the pluses and minuses of reintroducing the Parks and Recreation Department and/or the Rockaway Beach Police Department that were previously eliminated.

I cover both of these on my page above, but to sum it up we currently have TRT funds dedicated (as I understand it it is actually done so in an ordinance) to Parks and Rec. That money should only be used for Parks and Rec. To say we don’t have budget for it is misleading, and I question if Rockaway is legally using those dedicated funds as it is.

As for the police department, we were told when it was moved to the county we would get better service cheaper. No one can legitimately say we even have close to the coverage we had previously and I find it hard to believe we could have the same coverage cheaper by outsourcing. I have hired many many contractors over the years for my business, and there are advantages but cost is never one of them. The only way you could argue it’s cheaper is including coverage that the Sherriff’s Department already provided to Rockaway because it’s covered in their jurisdiction. They need to cover their costs for dedicated resources to Rockaway, so we are going to pay that cost.

10 – How would you respond to the statement “Current city government excludes or does not listen to all citizens, that ALL citizens do not receive equal treatment, and that “genuine citizen engagement” is missing from the current administration. Can you give an example of one of these instances in which ALL voices may not have been heard?

I left this question even though it was directly targeted at a couple candidates. How I would respond is that just go watch the September City Council meeting. The council passed 2 ordinances, the first comment period was a few minutes before the ordinances got voted on and then the mayor read the ordinance twice back to back (by name only, meaning he just read the name of the ordinance twice) and then voted on it. I find it hard to believe anyone believes they are genuinely considering that public input given minutes before voting, and that they don’t already know how they are going to vote before anyone testifies. You can see it here

If they really care about community input, where are community committees? What’s the process for applying to a committee? How do they evaluate applications and select candidates?

I will commit that to work to create committees for important Rockaway issues and topics, have an application process that is 100% transparent, and have a defined selection process by the whole council (not just me selecting people that agree with me or I like – that defeats the whole point). Some obvious places I think committees are warranted; STRs, Parks and Rec, City Appeal (maybe not best name). I am sure there are many other areas where a committee will make sense. Most importantly, taking that input and using it! Committees will not be just for lip service, their suggestions and input will be used as primary input to policy if I have any say in it.

11 – Several opponents of incumbents have stated that part of their platform is to promote ADUs as a solution to the lack of adequate housing in Rockaway. In fact, the city already permits ADUs, and ADUs are being encouraged throughout the county. All jurisdictions have claimed that our utility services (water, electric) are too small to be able to afford to waive system development charges (SDC) charges for ADUs, like Portland has done. Do you envision any other ways to incentivize and facilitate building of ADUs in Rockaway?

I would say that a statement that it is impossible isn’t true. Rockaway has one, if not the highest, SDCs on the North Coast. That statement would just be an excuse as to why nothing has been done to date. The city needs to INVEST in policy that encourages the desired outcomes (investment is not free). This is one such case. You can add onto your house a couple bathrooms and kitchen, no problem, with no new SDCs since you are on the same service. There is no difference between that and adding an ADU.  You can have one huge 5 bath house, and next door a 1 bath house and both pay the same SDC fees. This is not about money, it’s about policy. The reason this hasn’t been done yet is to continue discouraging ADUs.

What other incentives make up for an additional $15K+ to build an ADU on top of the cost to build it? Good luck. At $1,000 a month you would need to rent that ADU for over a year just to recoup the SDC fee, not covering any of the actual cost to build it or any return. It’s not financially a good move for anyone. They could rent for $2k a month and only take 6 months to pay the SDC fee back so they start paying back building the ADU, but that pretty much eliminates the point of ADUs as affordable housing.  People need to be able to make it an investment.

I also have other ideas (above) on ways to encourage more affordable housing as well.

12 – In campaign literature, social media, and websites, it would appear that most of candidates’ goals are either identical or very similar to goals of the current incumbents. These all sound great—but what distinguishes you from your opponent(s)?

I suppose the difference is my passion around housing, and dedication to getting the community meaningfully involved in solving problems and making decisions for US. It is not about what I want, or my friends want, it’s about what Rockaway Beach wants and what’s best for the city. As someone said the other night, which I really like, if no one is 100% happy then it’s probably a good sign. It means there has been compromise to get to good policy and decisions.

Thank you for checking out this blog. This is an opportunity to post questions for me to answer. Below are questions that were asked to me at the Meet and Greet on 10/5, most of which there wasn’t time to answer, so I am answering them here. Please ask questions in a comment and I will answer those questions. I think it’s important for folks to be able to ask questions and find out more about my thoughts.

Question 1: Address the fact that the Mayor is a non-partisan position and share your thoughts on how you believe your own personal “partisan” beliefs vs your role as Mayor in a non-partisan position?

First, I believe that the issues confronting Rockaway Beach are non-partisan in nature to begin with. I don’t think it matters what party you belong to, Rockaway Beach issues are our own and have Rockaway solutions.  To me it’s all about getting the community, with different backgrounds and viewpoints, working together to come up with solutions that make sense. I truly believe you get a group of people working together that have different beliefs, backgrounds, viewpoints and opinions you get creative solutions that land somewhere in the middle. It’s no longer an us vs them, but we need to come up with ideas and solutions that we can all live with. I spent a couple decades working on cross-organizational teams (across offices, states, and countries) where the only way to get things done was to work together to come to common solutions. All that said, I don’t fit nicely in any party – I always consider each issue on its merits not what any party platform says makes sense.

Question 2: Please speak to the issue raised in our community’s social media that married couples both serving city government should “be a concern”?

I can certainly see why this question would come up, of course I’ve asked myself does it make sense. The one thing I can say is while we both have the best for Rockaway Beach at heart, we don’t always agree with each other and certainly will challenge each other when we don’t. Since the Mayor position does not have a vote, I do not think it poses a risk of the ability to push forward any particular action even if that was a concern. I guess I would ask you to look at what we both stand for and make your decision based on that. If you feel like only one of us should be in city government, I can also respect that and would suggest you seriously consider the most qualified candidate – Stephanie Winchester for City Council.

Question 3: Do you believe limiting STRs will help with the need for affordable housing? Why? OR why not?

This is an area I am passionate about. I cover this pretty thoroughly above, but to answer the question, I am certain that limiting STRs will make no difference in availability and certainly the cost of long-term housing. The cost of long-term rentals is a reflection of the cost of real estate and the cost to build. I do believe there are policy decisions that can result in more affordable housing options, and the city council has done nothing toward that end. Most importantly, by not doing anything it is exacerbating the housing crisis as there will be a lag in seeing results from policy changes – it’s not like any change will all of a sudden result in more housing,

Question 4: What is your stance on seat #s vs block voting? And why?

I am absolutely opposed to numbers on seats for the city council. I think this is terrible for the voters of Rockaway – no councilor should get elected unopposed because of a number on a seat while other councilors run against several candidates. Seats were added after almost 70 years of n seats with no vote or any other official action, and it is to the detriment to US the voters. I will work to make sure this gets put in front of voters to choose, what do they want! There are several areas of our city charter that I believe need updating and the voters need a say in that.

Question 5: What differentiates you from our current Mayor?

The thing that differentiate me from the current Mayor is that I will represent all stakeholders in Rockaway Beach, not my like-minded circle. My job as mayor isn’t to get what I want, it’s to LISTEN to the people of Rockaway Beach and push for win-win solutions. I am dedicated to getting more committees formed to address key Rockaway Beach issues with community members that have opinions on all sides of the issues. They will not be hand picked people on the committees with the same viewpoints, it defeats the purpose. People will apply and be selected based on what they bring to the discussion, one of those things is their differing opinions. You don’t get good solutions by having people that agree on a committee – you get the suggestions you want which again would not be my job as Mayor.

Secondarily, I will 100% support keeping our Fireworks show on the 4th of July, which the current Mayor has told people he would like to eliminate. I believe this is a great Rockaway Beach tradition – it’s great for our businesses, it’s great for second homeowners who come down with family and friends, and it’s great for the many residents that we watch bring down generations of family members and friends every year for the 4th of July to share their beach town (us included).

Update 10/8: the Mayor today has professed his love of fireworks shows and would never consider cutting the fireworks in Rockaway Beach. Well, fact is the council absolutely considered it (enough to directed the city to look into drone or laser light show as an alternative to fireworks in the October workshop reporting back in the November workshop). While the Mayor being a fan of our fireworks show is contrary to what I have heard from multiple sources, I stand corrected, and I say GREAT!  If he gets re-elected, hold him to his word that’s now in print and keep our Rockaway fireworks tradition alive. There were a couple councilors who made the practical point at the Nov workshop that there would be a lot of blowback if the fireworks went away and businesses have said it’s critical to them. They basically decided to table it to a future discussion. The Mayor did, however, say “virtually all the towns up and down the coast are shutting down their fireworks displays, we are one of the few cities that.[hard to understand but basically still has one]….” not in the context that it’s great for Rockaway that we are one of the last towns keeping the tradition alive.  What it comes down to, I will say I stand corrected and be happy that regardless of the election outcome our fireworks show seems to be safe.