Why I Support Stephanie Scott for Mayor, by Joe Poor

Haines Alaska News: Viewpoints
September 12, 2011, Monday

WHY I SUPPORT STEPHANIE SCOTT FOR MAYOR
Our present Mayor has a wonderful smile, firm handshake, attends most local events, has kind words to say, but based on the past 3 years of her leadership – but gets nothing done to strengthen our economy!

Our Assembly spent about 1 ½ years on the local heli-skiing ordinance an issue which polarized our community, and I believe the current recall issue could have been avoided if our Mayor had prioritized her agenda and forced our Assembly to fill the vacancy. The result is the upcoming ballot issue to recall of our Assembly. Roger Maynard, on numerous occasions addressed our Assembly requesting they revisit this issue, but they refused to act. Our Mayor sets the Assembly agenda.

I have only known Stephanie for the past 3 years, but have observed her efforts with our Energy Sustainability Commission and her determination to meet Borough grant requirements in a timely manner, recognize her prior background as an early Borough Administrator, her Master’s degree in education, her solid understanding of our need for a strong local economy, and believe she is truly wants Haines to succeed.

Her strong efforts encouraging our Wood Biomass grant study and sponsoring the CIA Wood Pellet public presentation last year demonstrates her dedication to researching alternate energy sources. By the way, I am still awaiting the results of CIA’s study promised by Mayor Hill almost two months ago, but like most requests, nothing happens!

Stephanie recognizes our extremely high energy rates impact every business and resident in Haines; she certainly understands our local energy situation, the tenuous nature of our current underwater feed from Skagway and strongly supports increasing local hydro-electricity capacity.

She is aware our Borough payroll has increased $839,637 or 30% in the past 4 years while the National Consumer Price Index only increased 5.7% and our population remained relatively stable.

Our community deserves a new approach and new leadership with a focus on strengthening our local economy, controlling our Borough budget, reducing our energy costs and creating better communications between our residents and elected officials.

Yes I plan to vote for Stephanie and hope that you will listen to what she says, understand she believes it and observe how professionally she presents herself, but best of all she will study the situation, listen to reason and respond to resident requests and will be a welcome and positive new direction for Haines!

She is known to get things done which is why I am willing to give her a chance!

Joe Poor

Received September 12, 2011 / Posted September 13, 2011
Viewpoints letters are the opinion of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Haines Alaska News.