Without my vote > Rexroad.com

Tomorrow is the Sunday before the absentee ballots are sent out. I expect that I will open my newspaper tomorrow to find that the Daily Democrat endorses Jeff Monroe, Art Pimentel, and one other candidate. If I had to guess right now I would say Martie Dote but we will see.

I have told you all why I support Art and Martie.

I have a few good things to say about Jeff. I don't think he is corrupt. I don't think he is dishonest.

The two meetings that he was most valuable to the City of Woodland was first when we had a 2x2 with the county on KMart. It was Vic Singh, Sieferman, and Pollock. I objected and Jeff stuck right with us. The second time was when he held strong when the county sued us over Gateway. Those two things are to his credit.

Let me tell you some of the many reasons I can't possibly support Jeff Monroe, even though I am sure he will win.

First of all, when the Democrat endorsed Monroe four years ago it mentioned that he had made "tough decisions". He had not made tough decisions four years ago, and he has not since. Jeff avoids tough decisions as much as possible. He takes the path of least resistance at all times. That is not real leadership.

The firefighters endorsed Jeff because he advocated for higher salaries for them. I understand that view. Here is the problem -- Jeff did not get two other council members to go along with him, and he never said what he would cut in order to make it happen. He just supports more pay for the firefighters but not the costs associated with it -- cutting other programs or raising taxes.

The PBID provides another example of failed leadership. Jeff voted for all the studies. Jeff voted for all the preliminary stuff leading right up until the end -- then people like Brenda Cedarblade speak against it and Jeff runs to the hills. If he wanted the city not to vote and felt so strongly about it -- he could have set something up to deal with that.

The urban limit Line is another example. Jeff was all for it. He argued for it. Then argued against it. He argued all over the place. He thought it should be bigger. Then it should be smaller. All of the reasons were valid but in the end he voted to study it. Voted to spend money on it. In the end he never tried to create compromise -- he just voted no.

Many of my neighbors on College Street are supporting him because he spoke out against the busses going down our street. Did he offer another route? Not a chance. He just opposed it being here to make some people happy.

The Wayfarer Center debate we had was truly memorable to me. Jeff was arguing to make the facility smaller or to put it at another location. This is after he had voted numerous times to dedicate money toward the plan to build phase 2 right where it is now. During the debate Jeff said that his number one goal was to build it to serve as many people as possible that needed the service. The very next words out of his mouth were that he wanted to make the building smaller.

I believe that Jeff Monroe is not a mean person or corrupt in any way. I just don't think he brings a thought process to the table that allows him to be consistent. The only belief he holds firmly is that he wants to be as popular as possible. We might as well just elect a pollster to the council that will look at exactly how the community feels at that one particular moment and he could cast his vote that way.

Then we have the Major Project Financing Plan. We had all the information in front of us. We had the fee schedule and all the things that would be built with the money. Jeff makes a passionate plea to lower fees for new home buyers. Clearly it is important to him. The fees are calculated by the cost of stuff built divided by the number of units. After he finished talking, I asked him what he wanted to take off the list of things we were going to do with the money. He said he didn't want to take anything off the list. He had been on the Council for about six years and did not have a grasp of this simple concept.

My final comment on this is to ask one simple question: What has Jeff Monroe accomplished during his eight years on the City Council? He has been there for eight years and is still running as an outsider. That is because he does not get things done. He will not take ownership of what happens because he doesn't accomplish anything.

The reasons above are all policy reasons.

Then we have one thing that locked my view of Jeff Monroe in stone. When he turned Art Pimentel in to the District Attorney--that did it for me. Why anyone would want to serve with Jeff is beyond me.

Then he complained about how it was made public. Oh well.

I also think he and his wife were involved in the Flatlander publication four years ago that caused so much harm to the people of Woodland.

Jeff tried to get by on a smile and a "gosh golly" attitude. He actually does it quite well.

He will win on June 3rd but without my vote.

Comments

By perkoff @ Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:47 AM

What has, Monroe accomplished during his eight years on the City Council, you ask? You must had forgotten that he almost single handedly saved those Olive trees on Gibson a few years ago...With an outlay of City money, and if my memory serves me, the trees were saved by removing and transplanted further east on Gibson until they died or were removed for development? Or is there a tree or two still around???

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