Sandra LaCelle wants to be the change she seeks

Challenging for the position of North End Commissioner is Republican Sandra LaCelle.

A resident of Kitsap County for the last 25 years, LaCelle now lives north of Poulsbo. Although new to working in government, she said she’s not new to politics.

LaCelle, who grew up in Seattle and attended law school at Seattle University, worked as an attorney in her own small law practice. She’s currently in the process of attaining another degree in homeland security from the American Military University.

Her motivation for challenging Bauer for the position: She said she’s not satisfied with the way things are currently run and she’s ready to make a few changes.

“I watch the news and I’m the person who gripes a lot but I don’t want to do that anymore,” she said.

LaCelle said there is a lot of mistrust toward local government and it’s her goal to be as open and honest with constituents, as she believes in a transparent government.

“I’m ready to make the tough decisions and be accountable at the end of the day for them,” she said.

With her background in criminal justice and forensic psychology, LaCelle said she’s the type of person who likes to have all the information laid out before she makes a decision.

She’s definitely ready to make changes to the budget.

“Cuts need to be made in as many places as possible and if it has not been done already, more realistic forecasting of revenue so that goals can be targeted for cuts in the budget,” she wrote in an e-mail interview. “I think it is fair to have all departments look for places cuts can be made, but in focusing on the priorities in government we need to be mindful of providing the services that we must provide first, then the services we are allowed to provide, second.”

What must be provided, she said include: law and justice, roads and infrastructure and assistance program to the most vulnerable. “We will need to be creative and look more to public/private partnerships to solve some of the other program cost issues in the future,” she wrote.

LaCelle said she learned a lot about tight budgeting from her previous onership of two restaurants — Captain K’s — in Bremerton and Port Orchard.

Instead of Citizen Advisory groups, currently used by the county to keep in touch with residents, LaCelle said she would favor town hall meetings.

“I still feel Kitsap County is small town USA, which is why town halls would be appropriate,” she said. In her e-mail responses, she added, in addition to the meetings she would, “make time each week to answer e-mails and phone calls so that I can keep up on top of the issues that may arise in the county that I will not know about unless I hear from a citizen and it is vital to keep up with those smaller issues before they become larger ones.”

The current citizen advisory groups, LaCelle said, are a good way to gain information about a community but are not representative of the voices who aren’t involved.

Addressing the local tribes in the area, she said good communication and focus on common interests is necessary to create and maintain better relationships between tribal and non-tribal members in the county.

“Many voters are frustrated over the rights tribes have that have been granted to them under federal treaties,” she wrote, “but we need to work with them in the most positive way possible to create a community atmosphere where our common goals can be focused on and the differences can then be worked on in a positive way.”

If elected to the position, LaCelle said she will focus on how communities and businesses symbiotically benefit each other. She said it’s imperative to reach out to them to make them succeed and attractive to future businesses.

“Ensuring that DCD (the Department of Community Development) has staff available to be assigned as a liaison to a new business to help walk them through our permitting process and smooth over the bumps in the road so that undue delays in permitting do not occur would also be helpful,” she wrote. “In our current economic climate it would be difficult for many entrepreneurs to think about starting businesses but we must look to the future at what kinds of businesses and industries our community could support and needs in order to be properly planning for a prosperous economic future for our county.”

LaCelle’s vision of the North End’s future includes several changes within the county to ensure safety of residents.

• Maintain levels needed for law and justice and roads and infrastructure.

• Plan for more law officers to serve the growing population.

• Maintain existing roadways to lessen traffic accidents and lawsuits against the county.

• Change DCD’s vision to focus on customer service for serving the projected growth. This, she said, will help ensure property owners are able to use their land in ways that don’t violate the county’s Growth Management Act.

“Government should not be in the business of telling people where they must live,” she wrote, “but rather, must listen to the people’s ideas about where they do want to live, and then do the required future planning to be in accordance with the law.”

Steve Bauer a willing public servant

Democratic County Commissioner incumbent Steve Bauer never wanted anything other than to be a Northwest kid. Now, he wants nothing more than to continue his public service and be re-elected to Kitsap County’s District 1 commissioner seat.

Bauer, 63, was appointed to the position 15 months ago when the previous commissioner, Chris Endresen, resigned to take a post as a state director for U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

One of the biggest questions placed before vying candidates for the seat concerns taxes and the county budget.

“First, the county needs to live within its means and not seek increased taxes. We did that for 2008 and we will do it again in 2009,” he wrote in an e-mail interview. “We are working to improve our performance management system so that both the Commissioners and the public can measure our performance. We have an absolute obligation to be stewards of the public’s resources and to treat every penny of the public’s money as if it came from our own pocket (some of it does — after all, Commissioners pay taxes too).”

Bauer, who grew up in Washington and Oregon, got his start early learning about financing after he graduated from high school in Salem, Ore. He left the area to attend Columbia University in New York City.

During one spring break, like any starving college student, he said he didn’t have any money. He sold his college meal ticket for $15 and bought a supply of the diet drink Metracal for nourishment with the hope he could use the money he was paid for vacationing.

With a pocketful of $5 bills Bauer said he could hear freedom calling, but only after a few days of drinking the “absolutely awful” stuff, he sold the rest of his Metracal and bought what was left of his meal ticket.

Through his 25 years of experience working in government, including positions as Bellevue’s city manager and managing Portland’s budget and what he learned from his dad, who farmed in Missouri during the Great Depression, he said he’s gained responsibility and awareness of the value of every penny.

“I really carry a sense of hard work and value of money,” Bauer said.

Besides working on the county’s budget, Bauer said he’s trying to reestablish connections between county residents and their local government.

“Government in general has disconnected voters and taxpayers and it’s not out of good will,” he said, adding government has gotten into an pattern where voice is often granted to those degree-bearing individuals with educated opinions and strayed from individual residents’.

To combat that, Bauer said he’s a big proponent of the county’s Citizen Advisory Groups, which exist to link those who live in unincorporated areas of the county and local government. Currently there are four groups: Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council (GHAAC), Kingston Citizen Advisory Council (KCAC), Suquamish Citizens Advisory Committee (SCAC) and Central Kitsap Community Council (CKCC).

“They help the County because there is one place we can go to get feedback on proposals and they are a great way for the County to hear from a local area,” he wrote. “In the absence of the Advisory Councils, dealing with an area is like the blind men examining the elephant.”

The North End, which is home to two Native American Tribes — the Port Gamble S’Klallam and the Suquamish — is a rich community for a commissioner, he said, but also proves challenging at times. “Principally in terms of the impact of (the tribes’) commercial and construction activities on neighbors,” he wrote. “It is critical that the Commissioner respect the ‘sovereignty’ of the tribes and find ways to bring the tribes and local communities together on common concerns.”

If re-elected, Bauer said he will try to improve service from the Department of Community Development (DCD) for establishing and maintaining local businesses. “The current economic downturn and elimination of almost 25 percent of the DCD workforce will impact our ability to serve our clients but we will continue to work on that.”

Bauer said he envisions the future North End as more than just a suburb of Seattle, especially with its expected growth.

“The planners say we will have as many as 100,000 more people here in the next couple of decades. That is over a 40 percent increase in population. I believe that the majority of those new residents should locate inside cities so that public services can be provided as cheaply and effectively as possible,” he wrote.

An increased population would require prioritizing many of the county’s current services:

• Improved transit service. “We won’t have the funds to build a road system to support this growth.”

• Affordable housing to support those working in the service sector. “We will need to create clean, family wage jobs if we don’t just want to be a suburb of Seattle.”

• Ferry service. “Auto and passenger (ferries) will be critical to our success but we will become less dependent on Seattle for critical services like health care with the continuing high quality expansion of Harrison Hospital.”

• Preservation and protection of Hood Canal and Puget Sound.

• County parks and an expanded trail system in the North End. “I believe that it is essential that we preserve the rural, natural character of our home if we are to avoid becoming like the ‘other side of the water.'”