Happy New Year everyone and here’s to a joyous and exciting 2012.
2011 saw quite a year for local politics, about the only thing missing was a tsunami. The county lost two commissioners and gained two manipulators to complement the third manipulator already on the bench and almost immediately the county moved from grief to Chamber fueled chaos as business tried to insert itself into government. The chaos turned out to be a good thing because it has sparked a level of interest in the Coos County Commission that has our commissioners running for cover from the bright light of public scrutiny as well as finagling new ways to thwart public meetings law, i.e. a county CEO.
The Port of Coos Bay lost the stifling and destructive influence of its own narrow viewed, dinosaur industry advocate CEO when Jeff Bishop took a 50% pay cut to move to Blanchard, OK. His departure comes has hopes for citing a LNG terminal on the North Spit fade (despite a recent land use permit) and the impracticality of the many pipe dreams he promoted and spent millions of dollars on slip away. Two expiring commission slots will be filled in 2012, let’s hope they are filled by individuals who are willing to ask questions and not just blindly follow the lead of one executive.
During 2011 we once again saw the local paper try frantically to turn a minor dispute into a raging controversy with their over the top treatment of ORCCA, the local community action agency while ignoring their ten million dollar investment in Coos County with a new food bank facility and campus. The paper has ignored the new jobs created installing solar panels on low income housing and their ongoing weatherization program.
As 2012 begins lets hope for a healthy collection of new candidates running for local office and for a growing coalition of labor and environmentalists to put together a sustainable jobs plan for Coos County that doesn’t require federal permitting or eminent domain or tearing up the countryside. This will happen… keep watching.
