I am running for Mayor of Ferndale because I believe there is a silent majority of Ferndale residents who are not happy with how our city is being run. They’re not happy their roads and sidewalks aren’t being cared for or that their water bills continue to rise. This silent majority might want a nice downtown, but they don’t want the city to give away millions of dollars in property taxes and water and sewer connection fees to make that happen. They want to be heard, not patted on the head and told to take their medicine like good children.
Like this silent majority, I have grown increasingly frustrated with the direction our city is going. Every land decision the Mayor and Staff promised us would lead to more affordable housing has only resulted in rising home costs and a growing population that needs more services. I have been on Council for 12 years and growth has never paid for growth, but the current Mayor keeps pretending it will!
Every new home or apartment complex means more people who need water and sewer services, as well as police protection. We are reaching the limit on what we can provide. How many people can we really serve with our shallow well, which we share with hundreds of other users, and one potential deeper well, which will cost millions of dollars to bring online? We don’t take care of what we have now, but we keep building new neighborhoods with more streets and sidewalks and water pipes and sewer pipes. And we can’t keep reaching into our residents’ pockets whenever we need more money to pay for all this growth.
As a Councilmember, I am unable to direct City Staff to do anything. In the last three years, Council has been shut out of the budget process and much of the decision-making process. Council is often presented only one option once the Mayor and Staff decide what they want us to do, vote yes or vote no. I often vote no but two no’s don’t win. It’s time to step up and change the direction of Ferndale and I can’t do that as a Councilmember.
I am running for Mayor because I want to bring Council back into the process so the residents of Ferndale can have seven people fighting for them. I will also bring Staff and Council together to solve our problems, working as a team rather than rivals. I know I can do this because I’ve done it before. In more than 30 years in law enforcement, I managed and led 89 federal agents as a supervisor. I oversaw multimillion dollar budgets. Prior to being promoted to second in command I fought for all our agents for 5 years as their union president.
If you want the City to just keep doing what it has been, vote for someone else. But if you’re ready to hear the hard truth and do the hard things we need to do to fix what’s wrong, I’m your candidate. I am not anti-business or against business development. We are at a crossroads with this election, multifamily pro-development candidates are lining up for open council positions behind the multifamily pro-development mayoral candidates. If they win, you lose.
If you want to talk about anything, send me an email at Olson4Mayor@comcast.net.
Keith Olson
Ferndale
City Councilmember and candidate for Mayor
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