D. Stephen Pickering is campaigning for Coos Bay City Council in the Nov. 4 mail-in election. This information was provided by the candidate.

• Age: 61

• Years in Coos Bay: 6

• Occupation: retired manager

• Prior elected experience: a student senator in 1960s

• What in your background would help you as an elected official?



 My work experience in the last years before retiring was in the technology fields and industrial automation. As corporate manager of information systems and new technology, I designed, constructed, installed maintained and supported the automated production system at a Midwest industrial company with five U.S. plants and several offshore facilities. I also provided the network and support for 200 users on seven servers.  Specifically within the City of Coos Bay I have a local background as a fireman and I worked for both School District 9 and the schools in District 13 before that. I also commercial fished out of Charleston four years until my fire department injury in 1973, at which time I went to work with the Old Silver Fox, George Hartley, as a marine technician. I feel with the current city projects, my fire department and school district experience, and law enforcement/corrections background, along with the commercial fishing Industry, is a plus. I have some experience with union negations and the collective bargaining process including activities in Coos Bay in 1973 with the advent of the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act. As both a manager and union member I have been on both sides of the table.

• Why are you running?

 Like almost everyone else, I want to see change, but only that change that is realistic and beneficial to the community as a whole. I’m retired and I would like to serve the entire community as a full time city councilor. Serve! That’s a word that many politicians today have forgotten. Public servant is more than a title. You need to be a servant of the people who elected you. If politicians are in office for their own gain, they are in the wrong job, paid or volunteer.

• What do you see as the key issues in the race?

 Schools. Where to build the new fire department. Hollering Place Project needs to come to fruition. This has gone on long enough. Streets, both their repair and construction and traffic flow in the downtown core. Retaining businesses and jobs, while obtaining new family wage opportunities. No new taxes except where there is no way to avoid them such as a mandate to repair the wastewater and sewer system. City programs for youth and a stronger effort to combat illegal drugs and curtail the almost daily reports of a fight somewhere in the city. More time on the streets as patrolman for the police department. The city needs to be more involved directly or indirectly with issues such as LNG, the airport tax district, and the states port commission. Close monitoring and accountability of the city’s top paid positions such as police chief, fire chief and city manager. Also top level city commissions and boards like the planning commission and water board. This city needs to work closer with its neighbors. The bay this city is named for surrounds two entities and touches several more. The North Spit is as important to Coos Bay as a city as it is to North Bend. Although not appropriate at this time, I see the day when North Bend and Coos Bay will be one city without the duplication of services that exist at present.

• What would you like to see happen at the Hollering Place?

I am on record as supporting a mixed-use replica seaport village with public and commercial spaces. Some parts of the current plan are great, but I don’t understand the need to go outside the area for expertise and guidance. Take that for what it’s worth. The public has told the city what they want for nine years. Listen to them. I also don’t want to see the Hollering Place take away from the existing businesses. Rather I want to see an update and blending of the existing Empire business district with the new. I think the issue is that residents expected a park and the city wants it on the tax rolls. The answer is someplace in-between.

• What do you think is the solution to the situation involving Southwestern Oregon Community College refusing to pay for police services?

 Training and cooperation. Send the campus security for police certification. Accept them back as reserves. And the college needs to report any and all crimes as defined by state law. These are young adults. Stop baby-sitting them and protecting them if they break the law. The school can’t afford to pay for patrol cars and salary with benefits to provide city police protection. The city can not be expected to spend local tax dollars on tax-exempt projects such as the campus housing presents. I also question how that housing was built under existing rules and regulations without being on the tax rolls. The immediate solutions are to train the existing campus security and implement changes of policy by both the college and the police department.

• What do you think about the proposal to construct an LNG terminal on the North Spit?

 Not much. My views lean toward being against it, but not necessarily for the same reasons as many of the No LNG people. I have seen the countryside dotted with refineries. It is not a view I or anyone else wants to see on the Oregon Coast anywhere. People need to understand this is a refinery in a sense. They may be reconstituting it to a gaseous state, but the facility will look the same as a refinery with a couple of 168,000 gallon tanks right in the middle. It will kill any further development of family wage jobs on the North Spit or anywhere within sight of it. And the destruction of a valuable tourist resource is a certainty. Jobs? I doubt it very much. I also am not a proponent of eminent domain.

• If the Presbyterian Church site falls through, where do you think a fire station should be built?

 On Fourth Street just south of the existing station where the old Oregon State Police parking lot was. I don’t believe it should be anywhere within an existing residential area. It needs to remain in close proximity to the City Hall. I don’t like seeing city services spread out within a downtown. There needs to be a governmental core. An alternative would be to move operations to the Empire and Eastside stations, and tear down the old station and old city hall for a new station. This is not my first choice as I like seeing the old architecture of the city hall remain, and I think the new station needs to be a pull through facility.

• What ideas do you have for improving the city's urban renewal districts?

 I am not sure why the members of the Urban Renewal Agency are exclusively city councilors. I have tried and I will continue to try to contact every business in Coos Bay to see what their thoughts are. I have no direct thoughts of my own at this time. I am trying to get a feel of how the voters feel, and what they think is, or should be, the job and position of the Urban Renewal Agency. I must admit I attend the meetings and I am still not sure of their agenda. I do have a position on the Urban Renewal Agency’s involvement with the South Coast Development Council. I am not sure Coos Bay is getting the most for its money from SCDC.

• How would you rate the performance of the current city council?

Mixed. I am not sure you can rate the council without talking about the candidates also, including the mayor. I think when it comes to the day-to-day spending and paying the bills, they do a yeoman’s job considering they are all volunteers, albeit elected volunteers. I see some diversity in the members which is critical to the proper operation of any city council. I wonder how many citizens are aware of the work these councils do for no pay. They work at least as hard as the $78,000 a year county commissioners. Having said that, I think the current council needs to take a stand on the proposed LNG project in open meeting. I also believe they dropped the ball with the recent finance department fiasco. The city manager needs to be constantly accountable to the council. It is the council’s job to run the city, and although the daily operations and hiring and firing is up to the city manager, top positions such as the finance department need to be placed before the council. I also see too much rubber stamping and not enough discussion. If a department is required to bring an item to the council they need to discuss it rather then just blanket approval. This is not an everyday occurrence, but I see a lot of items passed where I question “Just when was this discussed?”

• What do you think about the city annexing Bunker Hill or any other county land?

 It is going to happen. This council or another one in the future will present it to the voters and eventually it will be a reality. Prior to the inclusion of Eastside in the city I would have said no, but now it has become a no man’s land in need of city services, sandwiched between the city limits, and in need of enforcement for public well being through existing ordinances. There are places in Bunker Hill that are worse than the landfill. The only way it will get cleaned up is through annexation. It is on the shoulders of those living in the Bunker Hill areas to decide if the relatively minor increase in taxes is too onerous, or beneficial to public health to have standards in construction and services. If the residents want it, I will support it.

• How should the city pay for the $42 million in repairs to the wastewater treatment and sewer system?

If it is a mandated upgrade then I would support a bond with repayment through an increase in user fees. If it is for future expansion (if it can be postponed), then I would postpone the construction until the economy improves. I would also exhaust all avenues in seeking grants before I asked for a bond.