I recently received a nice text from our tourism dept Director. They were at an Oregon Destination Association convention, actively promoting tourism in Oregon and particularly, with our team, Clackamas County. I was acknowledged as the best public advocate for tourism !!!
I am honored For being acknowledged for my service. I truly enjoy doing what I can to help our small business community become successful especially in the tourism industry.
Hello and thank you for visiting my page. Here’s a little bit about me. I have been serving you as a county commissioner for about 2.5 years and am getting ready to start my campaign for reelection.
The last 2.5 years have been very busy. We resolved the Stafford problem, built some parks, have a sustainability initiative moving forward, developed an equity diversity and inclusion program, hired a new administrator, and are tightening up our budget significantly. We also passed the first local source of funding for our roads that are badly in need of maintenance.
We have been active with the state legislature and with Metro, securing 31.5 million dollars towards a new, much needed courthouse and numerous grants from Metro as a result of building positive working relationships. As I have often said “Governments that don’t work together, don’t work! “
As for personal initiatives I am championing, first is cross-laminated timber — a wonderful building material, sustainable, sequesters carbon and renewable. I am also working on increasing high-speed internet capabilities for our residents and businesses and on a Land Bank Authority to rehab distressed properties and re-market them for new businesses.
Finally, we are all particularly proud of our new veterans village — getting homeless vets off the streets and into supported housing and the necessary social services to help them stand up, once again, on their own two feet.
Going forward in the next four years, I want to continue to do our work in getting homeless veterans into homes and expand that effort to other homeless populations. We just opened a 24-unit complex for veterans and their families, and we have 214 units on Otty road about to come on line. We will also be increasing the number of units at Hillside manor to house more low income citizens.
Our CLT initiative has borne fruit — a company will soon break ground in Estacada, and they expect to employ up to 100 people over the next few years at family wage jobs. My ISP initiative has almost completed the business plan and will be presented to the rest of the board soon. My goal is high-speed internet for every home and business in Clackamas County. It will take time, but we will get there. I also am working on establishing a Land Bank Authority, the first in the state, which will clean up and repurpose old industrial sites for new businesses and jobs!
We took on the hard decision of raising the vehicle registration fee to help fund local road improvements. We have a citizens committee of 15 volunteers working with our county staff prioritizing projects throughout the county. Every dime will go into road improvements and will be monitored by that committee to show we are keeping faith with you, the voters.
Finally, we have a courthouse to build and a budget that needs to be made leaner, with focus on results, so we are evaluating all that we do, looking for waste and inefficiencies that we can eliminate. That has not been done for many years . As stewards of your tax dollars, we should be as efficient as possible.
There are many other areas I am working on and there is not enough room to list them all — libraries, sewer plant, business recruitment, etc. I am asking you to give me another four years to continue moving Clackamas County forward for the betterment of us all, preserving the beauty and lifestyle we have all come to know and love. Ken