General Election: James Olsen has his priorities straight

Published 9:32 am Friday, October 29, 2010

My father, James M. Olsen, a retired Coast Guard Captain and current business man, instilled in me and my siblings honor, hard work, tenacity and a strong willingness to stand up for what is right, no matter what the cost. For many years he had to do extensive travels between Bainbridge and Washington, D.C., but he was a model of leadership and innovation.

Over the recent past few years he championed for City of Bainbridge to streamline their expenses by using web-based broadcasting versus expensive BITV ($383K per year) for coverage of council meetings and he worked with Interim Manager Walton to follow Mayor Lary Cappola’s model in Port Orchard of cost-savings use of web-broadcast of meetings. My father also decried COBI’s short-sightedness in failing to chip-seal the roads while giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bainbridge artists. My father tirelessly championed the notion a government that governs the least, governs the best (Thomas Jefferson).

I was very please in recent press reports to see City of Bainbridge Council just zeroed out the Hollywood production of COBI Council meetings and also zeroed out funding for the arts. As my father would say: Do the core missions, roads and public safety: Let the public sector support community television and the arts.

My father is ready, willing and able to serve in the Washington legislature all the citizens of Washington State. I endorse him as a fiscal conservative who will not be swayed by special interests or party dictates.

Crosby J. Olsen

Kandahar, Afghanistan

Fort Ward, Bainbridge (home of record)