HomeMy WebLinkAboutBrent Thompson
GE~v~~ P
RE Brent Thompson
P.O. Box 201
Ashland, OR 97520
Monday 23 April 2018
To: the Mayor and Council
Re: Council Position #6
That the application period for City Council Position #6 has been extended
indicates that the Mayor and Council want a broad array or group of candidates.
Therefore, I am submitting an application. I am a resident of Ashland, and I am
registered to vote in the State of Oregon. I have been an Oregon resident since 1983.
Biggest City Issues:
I believe the biggest issues facing the City of Ashland are the following:
*Maintaining community intimacy and a caring, responsive city wide atmosphere in the
face of endless change, population growth pressures, and fiscal challenges;
*Attempting to accommodate growth within the existing city limit while being creative
and innovative in providing a variety of housing options;
*Comprehending the financial handicap city, county, state governments, and school
districts face due to the guaranteed return of 8% in the Public Employees Retirement
System. This means we may have to make difficult fiscally responsive decisions in
order to provide basic services without continuing to raise the tax burden on residents
through utility tax and/or rate increases and property tax increases. I believe this
problem will be acute until 2030. Therefore, the Council must sometimes "say no" to
worthwhile projects or requests.
Motivation for Serving
While individuals can never justifiably claim that their efforts will make things
"better:", I believe I have a track record over the last 34 years of making things "less
worse" in Ashland, Jackson County, and even the State of Oregon. I believe that in the
short tenure offered in this position, i.e. until, 31 December 2018;1 can adapt quickly and
contribute quickly. It is the first time in my memory that two Council positions have been
vacant in such a short time. Thus, experienced candidates with some of what might be
called "institutional memory" seem most desirable. I have that to offer.
Recent Community and Civic Involvement
Since, I left Council Position #6 in January 1997 after 13 years on the Citizens
Planning Advisory Commission, the Planning Commission and the City Council, I served
on the Airport Commission, the first Transportation Commission for almost four years,
and in 20141 was Co-Chair of the ad hoc Downtown Beautification Commission/
Committee appointed by Mayor Stromberg. This last group was composed of mostly
downtown business owners who proved to be effective committee members. This body
convened bi-monthly at 7:30 AM and adjourned at 9 AM. Over 10 meetings 17
"digestible" recommendations were formulated as to how to allocate Transient
Occupancy revenues for downtown beautification.
J
As President of Friends of Jackson County I was invited to be a part of the
Medford Boundary Adjustment Committee in 2010. 1 attended meetings where I urged
the committee to include in its mission recommendations for infill not just geographic
expansion. Because of the realities and requirements of what is known as the Regional
Problem Solving master plan, the Medford City Council was forced to disband the
Boundary Adjustment Committee. To my knowledge an "infill committee" was never
appointed. Pity.
Since 2013 1 have been one of two pole vault coaches at Ashland High School. I
also encourage participation in the decathlon and heptathlon. In that time four female
vaulters have made the top 10 record board with the girls' school record being broken
three times. Three male vaulters have made the top 10 record board, and there are
now three decathlon marks including one mark that was in the top 10 for all U.S. high
school track and field athletes in 2015. Next year we hope to have our first heptathlon
marks.
I helped found and/or was president of: Friends of Jackson County, The Jackson
County Citizens League, and the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy.
Role of the City Councillor
The role of the City Councillor is to learn all possible about 1). the current
workings and finances of Ashland's government, 2) Ashland's community organizations
including SOU, 3) Ashland's residents and their vision, and 4) Jackson County issues.
The Councillor must study issues well, then listen, and then listen some more as
movement is made towards decisions. Eventually the Councillor has to decide it is time
to make a decision, help formulate a motion, and then diplomatically explain the
reasoning for a given vote. The City of Ashland with its 21,000 residents and 17
Commissions is a complex entity to govern. Many things are brought before the City
Council. Decisions must be made in a timely fashion, and the reasoning for decisions
must be conveyed to the public. Thus, the most effective Councillor would be one who
is not only studious and communicative but who also is not a "ditherer".
Brent Thompson
541 488-0407
References-
Hans Voskes- Head Track Coach Ashland High School
Karl Kemper- Athletic Director Ashland High School
Jay Hummell - former Superintendent Ashland High School
Charlie Hall- SOU Head Football Coach
David Kanner- former Ashland City Administrator
Brian Almquist-former Ashland City Administrator 1970- 1998
Cathy Golden Shaw- Ashland Mayor Jan 1989 to Jan 2001
Darby Stricker- Mayor of Talent
Jeffrey Riley - JPR- Jefferson Exchange Host
Gary Turner- Attorney Davis, Hearn, Turner, etc.
Bill Robertson- Fire District 5 Board Member
1
Planning urged to make
cities more `coinfortable'
By BRENT THOMPSON
LN MY OPMON '
Oregon arguably has the best body of land*
use planning law in the United States. riding a bicycle or rising public transporta-
The goals of the 1970s, such as farmland lion. We would like to have alternativdthat
preservation and the prevention of urban
sprawl and leap-frog development, have invite driving and walking
been achieved to some extent. Oregonians Imagine your car out of service. Can you
did not want to duplicate California's style of needs to in revise your its town? not,. your city i
land-use planning. needs to planning policies. Your,
. But there is an important aspect of plantown needs site-design guidelines and trans
Ding that we have ignored. While we have portation policies that provide easier access
wisely protected our farmland and con- for walkers, bicyclists and public transpor
tained the cities, we have not made our cities ration users. .
and towns comfortable to be able to walk, These things can be done, and planners
stroll or linger in. want to incorporate the will of the people In
It is difficult to quantify comfort,-which their planning.,They often know how to,,
is part of the problem. Inside of our urban make a:iomfortable town. They simply need:'
growth boundaries we are duplicating Cali community support to do it. Letting them .
fornia's worst sins by not trying hard know that we want to be able to walk is;
enough t0 make people comfortable. We a good start. Tell them you want to be able to .
know we don't like huge parking lots, con- walk to places in your town.
gesdon, strip development with a seemingly Oregon planners and our Legislature .
endless series of one-story, single-usb struc have led the state closer to proper land use
tures with standard franchise themes, but than any other state. They just need to bring
we don't know what to do about it. These us the rest of the way. A single planninge
types of development are_oriented solely to action-rarely affects a city- greatly-but -if-'
automobile, not pedestrian, use, which there are enough of them where the comfort
of carless people is,a priority, the entire city
makes these areas uncomfortable for people.
We are continuing to build shopping cen•- will become more comfortable. It is possible
te.rs in the middle of parcels, surrounding even to reduce the amount of parking need-
ed.
them with asphalt, omitting sidewalks and
paths to neighboring residential areas, and The U.S. standard is one parking space for
justifying such development by describing every 400 square feet of commercial space.
conceivably
the shopping center as "regional," which plan a well statewide enough goal, for we altercouldnative forms of
means shoppers have to drive there. From plan
the streets, we see some landscaping and - transportation to snake our state standard,',
one space for every 600 square feet of com
Dix away across the asphalt the'shopping
center. This is the California model. mercial space. If we set that as a goal, our
Shopping centers and commercial build planners would figure out many ways of
- - ings do not have to tie built-that-way. They-- _ attaining it, and we would begin what would
can be built closer to surface streets with be known as the "Oregon urban planning
parking at the side or in the rear, which in- : model" .
vites people to walk there, thus making peo- What could be a better goal for the next
pie unquantifiably "comfortable." Buildings decade?
i should be located on parcels, to enhance,
- rather than detract from, the streetscape...
F Cities should reflect the v,oues of their
residents in planning'. If we *ant-" to drive
our cars everywhere, we should continue as
we are for the next decade and beyond. If we
want the option of walking, we can voice our
a objections to any development that does not S
f ` provide for all forms of transportation equal-
ly. The state land-use transportation goal % ~J U t
provides for that, even though it is generally
ignored by developers and planners. We can
remind planning officials of it by proclaim
t Ing that. "We want to walk!"
f This doesn't mean that we always want to`
walk or that we don't want to drive, but that
)alwl
we don't want to be penalized for walking,
- - Brent Thompson, an Ashland building J ,fo1ti
renovator and property manager, is a mem-
ber of the Ashland Planning Commission
and the board of the Southern Oregon Land
conservancy.
.i