LWV City Council Candidates Forum 15 Questions, 15 Answers.
7. Affordable housing in Cortez
2 min introduction
My written answers to all these questions is at the fb group People for a Thriving, Prosperous Cortez. Please, all candidates, post yours there as well? Also at the website. Take a card.
1. Work experience,
• For 50 years I have been a heart surgeon of communities. 27 years as an executive and high-tech turning around far flung Nationwide dying organizations. I made people many tens of millions of dollars, but I couldn't care less about money. I care about communities thriving. I can't stand to see them languishing, and dying.
• I have worked for the health of Cortez 7 days a week, every waking breath, since I arrived, literally, starting with our canaries in the coal mine, the unhoused, because I can't resist the joy of it.
• I'm not running for City council. I've said this since day one. What heart surgeon runs for your business? That's criminal. I've made myself available on the ballot. Always hold me to my word, truthfulness, including this. There is no one in the city and probably in the state that approaches my trackrecord for healing communities that are on their deathbed, and causing them to thrive. Cortez is on its death bed.
• Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. General Eisenhower was exactly correct.
• There's no pleasing political sound bite policy that created cortez. The pioneering spirit in people's chests relentlessly solving problems, planning and creating things, created cortez. All that spirit is gone from cortez. The question is can we bring it alive within us again. We all had it at birth. It is alive in my chest no credit to me. Maybe I can help bring it alive in others. Times in the past I've been able to. That courageous pioneering spirit that failure is not an option. Only that Spirit can save us. And it's the only thing worth living for. That spirit is life itself.
What might might make me an effective Council member? I won't play politics. Playing politics is constitutionally impossible for me. I won't pretend everything's okay. I won't straighten the deck chairs on the titanic. I won't tell you what you want to hear. I'll tell you what I think you need to hear. And the instant you want me gone, I'll be gone.
Philosophy of government
My philosophy of government is to avoid governing people, like the plague that it is. That is to desecrate the human being, to crush the human potential, to govern them, to manage them.
Servant Leadership is what is needed. From every one of us, leading our lives in such a way that it can Inspire and Inform others in the direction of thriving and prospering.
Governing people, managing people is to kill the soul. Leading by example is to bring the soul alive. Working five times harder than anyone else. The CEO of a high-tech company in Salt Lake had me come and save his company for him. He said, james, you create a vortex that pulls people to good work, far beyond what they imagined was possible. That's my philosophy of government. Visionary, passionate, committed, expert, authoritative leadership, tireless.
• Regarding the county and the youth tribe? My religion is to be the good neighbor, as was the religion of my teacher. I don't suspect we have been. We must be. With passion and love we must offer that. Whether it's accepted we can't control. Respecting is a synonym for loving.
Budget:
needs and values of our community?!!
• Please hear me out. Tragically, the budget does reflect the values of our community, the values that are killing us. The values of lazy short-term head in the sand thinking. We're straightening the deck chairs on the titanic. If you or I were to create a budget for a month but not in the context of the year ahead of us or the three years ahead of us, we're committing economic suicide. And that's what we do in Cortez in our government. It's suicide. Our top 10 priorities must be to come up with a living three year plan that brings revenue streams that we want, into this community. So that the community doesn't change. It is changing now, it's dying.
B. What experience have you had in
managing and working with budgets?
• Well, there's my personal budget. My credit rating as of three or four days ago was 796. I'm told that's fairly high. I hate managing money. But what I enjoy or don't enjoy has nothing to do with what I do. I do what needs to be done.
• For the 27 years of my executive career in high tech, if I didn't have a budget plan that brought in huge Revenue at least every quarter, I was out on the street. I was never out on the street. I always exceeded goals by a margin that most thought impossible.
3. City’s strengths?
• Oh my god, the decency of our ground level public servants. I created world class organizations my entire career. I and continually Spellbound by the quality of performance, professionalism, decency, humanity, training, expertise that I see in our city police, our courts, the staff here in City hall, the library. It makes my head spin. I don't get it.
• As I told Mr Leroy when he was for director of the library and the other candidates, you're taking over the world champions, regarding the library, the rec center.
• Sitting in court alongside our unhoused siblings that otherwise had no one with them, there were times that the decency and Humanity of the judge padilla, Mr buffington, brought me to tears with their decency, humanity, compassion, tough love, creativity, adherence to highest standards.
• And the basic decency of everyone I have met in cortez. But if we don't rise above our denial, it's not going to go well for us.
4. One Challenge
• There is only one challenge. Our Community creating the best possible 3-year plan / vision, for vibrancy for this community.
And if we address it with all of our being everything else that we could consider a challenge will be solved beautifully.
And if we don't address it, everything else we do will be a waste of time and money. And we don't have one penny, or 1 minute to waste.
• Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. We are dying financially. The easy money is gone. Fossil fuel industry dead for us now. Agriculture dying with our water supply. Tourism revenues are dying with the dying National economy. I facilitated communities to solve such problems my whole life. Nothing less interests me. The odds are daunting. But the chances are zero unless we make this front and center of our Citywide attention forever now. And meeting such challenges head on is what makes life worth living. The joy is irresistible.
5. Economic development
• Policy? No disrespect intended. What is the policy that has a community raise a barn? What is the policy that had a community create cortez? I will continue working 7 days a week every waking breath, hold me accountable for every word, for the well-being of this city whether I'm on counsel or or not. And anyone that gets on Council that doesn't do the same is dooming this city to oblivion. We're in trouble. City council working 6 hours a month? A Girl Scout can't do her cookie business on 6 hours a month. We need 40 Hour a week work sessions in the public eye figuring out a plan and implementing it for the economic survival of the city. So that we change the city? Over My Dead body. So that we keep the city afloat and make everyone in it thriving. That must be our policy.
Exhausting every avenue:
As hundreds of communities are doing, create bridges that our current residents can climb themselves toward greater prosperity… that will wind up in our local economy.
Citywide efficiency, effectiveness, bestpractices, collaboration, communication. I’m a systems guy, People, Hardware, Software. Turn resource sucking silos into massively productive systems.
World-class economic development… on our terms.
How to pull back business from wallmart into our stores. Who is doing it. Let’s incorporate it.
Best practices for getting more than our share of dwindling national/international tourist $.
6. 7th St Park
• I would do nothing to help build a park on 7th street, except that I understood that it was a necessary component of a 3 year plan to make this city thriving, prosering, and take it off it's deathbead. Do I suspect that a park on 7th Street would be part of such a plan? It is impossible that it would not be. Parks are life-giving. They are living beating Hearts within a community.
7. Affordable housing in Cortez
The top 10 things we should do are economic development benefiting our 50% plus citizens one paycheck away from destitution…. We need to help people become self sufficient. If you want a soundbite way of doing that, ask a politician.
If you want a truthful way, walk to the library and find the shelves that are the Bridges to Sustainable Communities section, with how hundreds of communities are making such things as sustainable housing. And or call me if your serous, and let’s plan for hours.
Warehousing people, makes contractors, realtors wealthy, and debilitates the community.
However, start with NOT what makes the political class happy - the next tawi kaan.
Start with what people need to start thriving - safe dignified legal place to rest for tomorrow's work.
8. Cortez in 3 years
Respectfully speaking, 5 years is absurdly too long in today's economic and political climate. 2 years, too short. 3 years.
Alive as a community, building a future we all want. EXACTLY what built cortez to begin with, a community working it out, creating together. A barn raising community… a FUTURE creating community.
Cortez UNCHANGED. Alive and thriving, not sunk like the titanic that stayed in denial of their icefield.
Not big-box or mcmansions.
Folks earning enough to have the energy, optimism, confidence to revitalize their homes, 50% of which now are crumbling to dust.
The city of Good Neighbors. I speak these words that my Joy would remain in you, and that your Joy would be full. My Master of 2000 years ago. His Joy? HE was the good neigbor. That is the ONLY place joy is to be found.
No longer living off the most impoverished, but filthy rich in the wealth of joy from helping the neediest toward prospering and thriving.
95% of the cortez citizens thrilled with the respectful servant leadership of the City Council.
9. Minimum wage laws
Legislating is what weak dying communities do. The stores you shop at, are you legislated to do that?
Hundreds of communities have realized that poverty, and non-living wage jobs is a symptom of deadly cancer. They go for the cure: becoming a community that is triving in every way. Go to your politician for the soundbite lie. Go the that library rack for the blueprints from hundreds of communities. Join us 1st and third Tuesdays at Methodist (they gave us the room) where we’re learning and figuring it out. Not theory. Fact.
And the business communities there have discovered that systemic, community wide, bridging impoverished citizens toward prospering slashes their turnover costs, and attracts healthy new desirable business revenues to their business and the community. Not theory. Fact.
10. External activities
My internship in school counseling, I turned down the wealthy suburbs for a largest most impoverished elementary schools in the country.
Among the things I learned in that year 2000 timeframe: a child’s success is MORE determined by how their time is spent OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS, than in school. I created a public access 7/24 city tv channel to support that, and by all appearances the Obama administration copied my 10/20 Zone program, duplicating it in Harlem - Kidz Zone they called it.
Money is never infinite.
We have roughly 60% child poverty in our schools. Our future is those kids. And if we don’t embrace that, our souls already are dead.
Developing our kids is our most joyful, highest priority. Is the ballfields the best expenditure? Without a 3 year city vitalization plan, anyone that says yes or no, is a politician.
11. Water
My 420 day occupation / hunger strike in Washington DC, covered by the LA times, was exactly to stop destroying our ecosystem with our overconsuption driving climate incineration. Opposing the violation of native land at standing rock, desecrating the water - water is life was our mantra at standing rock. The 12000 water protectors had all left by the last day, but 48 of us remained, facing 5 years in prison, rather that abandon our sacred water protection duties. The snipers on the hill didn’t get us, but the zipties sure did bite.
I treasure water. Part of our 3 year plan well address the priority and methods of protecting our water.
12 Aging Infrastructure
(See 3 year vision / plan. All things are possible in a thriving prospering community.)
The alternative is being fleeced by political conn artists, and their empty simple solutions.
13. City preferred employer
Revitalize Cortez. Community created rolling 3 year vision worth our lives. We’ll keep our extraordinary staff members, and others will flock here.
Look to someone else if you want a political soundbite.
14 Promote tourism
The young man said to the father, how can I attract a wonderful partner? The father said, make yourself a wonderful partner.
A city in Brazil,Curitiba, attracts tourists worldwide - a world’s most sustainable city, and a marvel of meeting human needs in every way.
Cortez has a magnificent, ancient civilization that draws people here. Why do they get the glory. Let’s create a NEW civilization in Cortez / MC that also draws from around the world? What could be more joyful, sustainable, than that?
15. Childcare
Everything we should want, including childcare, is the result of a 3 year vision plan that engages everyone in the community in vitilizing this community. Any answer besides that is an empty political soundbite.
Nobody can thrive unless we all thrive. AND WE CAN, SHOULD AND MUST ALL THRIVE. What else is life for?
closing remarks.
My written answers to all these questions is at the fb group People for a Thriving, Prosperous Cortez. Please, all candidates, post yours there as well? Mine also on the website. Take a card.
There is no 3 year plan / vision, that is not OUR plan and vision. The job of the city, facilitated 40 hour a week by all council member servants, is to facilitate the emergence of a plan / vision that bridges all divides and engages us all with passion. I’ve led that many times. We have no other chance to flourish.
Candidates, if you are elected, accept or decline based on whether this a the central calling of your life. 9000 lives depend on it.
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