Meet Your 2020 Jacksonville Candidates

2020 Jacksonville Election Results—Congratulations to Mayor-Elect Donna Bowen, Incumbent City Councilors Steve Casaleggio and Mike McClain and Andrea Lerner Thompson!

Donna Bowen – Mayor

As I sat down to write an introductory article of myself as a candidate for Mayor of the City of Jacksonville, I struggled to find something new, exciting, and inspiring in the sea of articles this election year. Nationally, everyone makes promises and pontificates lofty ideals along with some terrific and not-so-terrific ideas showing why they are better qualified than anyone else for the job. Not so much here in Jacksonville, thankfully. We love living here and all genuinely want the best for our city. My qualifications for the position are simple: my love of our city, my experience in city governance, and my willingness to continue to advocate for Jacksonville and the people who call this place home. I want the best for the present and the future of Jacksonville.

I am a native Oregonian, from Coos Bay, and a full-time resident of Jacksonville since 2008. I was a Vice President of Operations for various brokerage firms including Foster & Marshall; Shearson, Lehman, Hutton; American Express; and A.G. Edwards. I have also been a small business owner and raised American Quarter Horses. My husband, Clark, and I restored and renovated our historic 1863 home here in Jacksonville, giving me my first experience with a city-appointed committee. That led to my serving on the Historic Architecture Review Commission for seven years, three as the HARC Chairperson. For the last two years, I have served as one of your elected City Councilors. I have also served on the Budget Committee for over five years, on personnel hiring committees, as Council Liaison to the Cemetery Commission and as current Council Liaison to the Committee for Citizen Involvement. I am Past President and a member of the Jacksonville Garden Club. My previous experiences include serving on the North Coast Cultural Collaboration in Humboldt County, California, and seven years with the Humboldt Arts Council, three of those years as President. I’m a Women’s History Nominee from the American Association of University Women for my contribution to establishing the Morris Graves Museum of Art in the historic Carnegie Library in Eureka, California.

As Mayor, I expect to utilize and draw upon my past experiences in administration, organization, working within and balancing a budget, and showing measurable progress. I am known for and comfortable working to consensus, connecting people, coordinating multiple partnerships, and increasing public involvement. I consider important city issues to include: finding projects that will generate revenue for the city’s coffers, finishing updating our city code, completing the renovation of the current Fire Hall, utilization of the second story of the City Courthouse, and managing growth responsibly, including traffic congestion. We also need to find ways to have a positive impact on existing businesses, attract new business, and continue to honor our heritage as a historic city.

We have an excellent city infrastructure in place to accomplish this, with an experienced City Administrator and staff, a hard-working City Council, dedicated Commissions, and Volunteers. I plan on building on these partnerships. I welcome your ideas and concerns. I hope you will take the time to share them with me. I look forward very much to serving as Mayor of Jacksonville and will do my best to serve honorably, ably, and fairly.

 

Steve Casaleggio – City Council (Incumbent)

I believe volunteer involvement is vital to Jacksonville and service on our City Council is the highest of volunteer work. That’s why I seek a second Council term. First, though, some background: For 25 years, I was an attorney, working with elected officials and staffs to finance water and sewer systems, schools, public buildings and other improvements. I got pretty familiar with the needs and workings of cities.

Since retiring here fifteen years ago, I’ve been an active volunteer: a Boosters’ Director, Club President and now Director in charge of projects. I’ve enjoyed hands-on work helping restore Peter Britt Gardens and the Arboretum, painting and cleanups at the Cemetery, restoring downtown benches and proudly showing off our City at home and history tours. For the City, I’ve served on the Transient Lodging Tax Committee and chaired the Parks, Recreation and Visitors’ Services Committee. Since January 2017, I’ve exercised my volunteer spirit as a City Councilor, served as Council liaison to the Cemetery and Planning Commissions and helped staff drafting resolutions and ordinances.

My continuing concern is about sustaining the City’s financial health. While we have managed thus far to preserve essential services on our woefully tiny tax base, the future, clouded by Covid-19 and inevitably increasing costs, is at best uncertain. Doubtless, that future will bring difficult decisions over staffing and services. Councils, focused entirely on the City’s needs and continued, enthusiastic volunteer support, will be essential.

Living in Jacksonville means enjoying a relaxed lifestyle among friendly people in an historic, but unpretentious setting. That setting could be changed for the better by the return of a museum. I’ve continued my campaign to use Old City Hall for that purpose once the Council meetings move to the Historic Courthouse-New City Hall. The new museum would offer yet more opportunities for volunteer participation in curating, staffing and managing. It’s all about caring for Jacksonville.

 

Mike McClain – City Council (Incumbent)

I am a fourth generation Oregonian who grew up on a farm/ranch outside the historic northeastern town of Joseph. My entire career was spent in education. For fifteen years I taught high school English and social studies, coached basketball, track and cross country and directed numerous school plays.

From teaching I moved into school administration with my first job in Central Point some 38 years ago. I spent nine years as the principal of Crater High School and then finished my career as the Superintendent of Schools for the Central Point School system. Nine years ago, my wife, Kandee, and I made the five mile move from Central Point to Jacksonville, and we could not be happier.

Shortly after we moved here, we joined the Jacksonville Boosters Club and started volunteering for some of the organization’s projects. This led to friendships, more volunteer opportunities, and being asked to serve on the Boosters Board of Directors. I then served one year as President of the Boosters as well as one term on the Boosters Foundation Board of Directors. In addition, my wife and I are members of the Jacksonville Presbyterian Church where I served for six years as an elder, chaired three auctions to raise funds for the new church on Middle Street and chaired the large church Mexico Mission yard sale for three years.

My first experience with Jacksonville city government came when I was appointed to the Jacksonville Budget Committee in 2017. For the past two years I have served as the chair of the budget committee. In October of 2019 I was appointed to the Jacksonville City Council to fill out a term of a councilman who had resigned. This provided me an opportunity to see if I liked serving on the Council before deciding whether to run for the office. Simply put, I have thoroughly enjoyed being on the Council. My fellow councilors are intelligent people who always make decisions based on what is best for Jacksonville. When we disagree, we do it agreeably and always accept the majority decision. In addition, from my Council experience, I have come to truly appreciate the quality and competence of our staff. We are very fortunate.

I look forward to continuing to serve on the Council and to seeing the completion of several projects, not the least of which is the remodel of the second floor of the New City Hall. This will be a gem for the whole valley to appreciate. In addition, I would like to see the Council develop a multi-year fuel reduction plan for the woodlands that surround our city. Using the recent fuel reduction project done on the Panorama Point area in the Jacksonville Woodlands as our model, I believe we could receive grant support for this project which would make our city so much safer.

If I could snap my fingers and change one thing about our village it would be that all dog owners would pick up after their dogs just like we do with our two dogs. Nothing disgusts me more than to walk our fair city and see numerous piles of dog poop.

 

Scott Selbe – City Council

I’m originally from Illinois. Up until 2015, I spent my entire life living in the northern suburbs of Chicago. In 1973 I attended the University of Illinois where I earned a Bachelor of Science degree, graduating magna cum laude.

In 1979 I was hired by a telecommunications company to write personnel policies and practices. A year later I was moved to the employee benefits department where, via on-the-job experience, I learned the various facets of benefits design, administration and legal compliance. During that time, I also became a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist through course work developed by the Wharton School of Business.

During my 36-year career as a benefits professional, I worked at four different major corporations. The last 16 years I spent with Packaging Corporation of America (PCA), a manufacturer of paper and corrugated products. As Executive Director of Benefits, I was responsible for the administration and legal oversight of our various pension, 401(k), health and insurance plans. I was also responsible for a budget of over $150 million, including expense tracking and cost allocation to our various paper mills and box plants. My role required extensive interface with the corporate legal, accounting, treasury, audit, human resource and labor relations departments. Other significant duties included:

• Serving on PCA’s Investment Committee, which selects and monitors the various investment funds for their pension and 401(k) plans;
• Developing and maintaining legal plan documents;
• Developing and editing employee communications and benefit handbooks, written to meet ERISA’s readability standards (Employee Retirement Income Security Act);
• Participating in the collective bargaining process with their largest labor union, the USW, acting as subject matter expert and consultant to PCA’s labor relations bargaining committee.

Retiring in early 2015, and at the encouragement of my sister and brother-in law (who’ve lived here since 1992), I moved to Jacksonville that summer. It has always been my dream to live in a small town out west, and I can tell you Jacksonville has fulfilled that dream in every imaginable way. I love the fact that everything is so close, the people so friendly, the downtown so unique, and best of all, no stop lights! My girlfriend Brooks and I particularly enjoy walking our dogs, London and Bridges, throughout our beautiful neighborhoods.

In 2018, I was selected by the City Council to serve on a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for the purpose of reviewing and revising Chapter One of Jacksonville’s Comprehensive Plan. Later, I was selected to serve on a second CAC for the purpose of reviewing and revising the current draft of Jacksonville’s Land Development Code. Evidently, my work on the CAC was recognized by certain city representatives, who encouraged me to run for City Council; and so, I have decided to run.

If you believe my background and work experience would make me an asset to our City Council, I would appreciate your vote. If elected, my initial goals would be to listen, learn, get along, and do my best at representing the collective interests of Jacksonville and its citizens.

 

Andrea Lerner Thompson – City Council

Almost five years ago, my husband, my two dogs, and I chose to call Jacksonville home; we wanted to live in a small city, but one with rich cultural offerings, an environment with natural beauty, and marked by the spirited involvement of citizens working to safeguard our rich history and lifestyle. I am running for the Jacksonville City Council because I believe a city is only as strong as its involved citizenry. I am running because despite the partisanship of national politics, I believe on the local level we can work together to build a shared vision. I am running because eighteen years ago when my children were very small, I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. I was terrified, and I made a pact with God: if I could live long enough to raise my children, I would devote more of my energy to good works, to serving my community. My boys are now wonderful, young men in their twenties, and I continue to keep my end of the bargain. Finally, I am running because I wish to see more women in leadership positions.

We retired from northern California where I was Professor of American literature and Native American studies and Director of University Honors Programs at Chico State. I was elected for two terms to the Chico Unified School District Board of Education, serving twice as Board President. In Jacksonville, I have enjoyed volunteering with the Jacksonville Boosters Club where I am currently Club President. I also serve on the Board of the Boosters Foundation which annually donates thousands of dollars in grants to public and non-profit organizations in Jacksonville. In city politics I have chaired the Committee on Citizen Involvement since its inception. Both my professional and civic experience have given me tools to build consensus, to welcome opposing viewpoints, and to make thoughtful decisions. While I realize not everyone will agree with every decision, I pledge that people will always feel heard.

Over the next four years, there is much work to be done: the revision of our building codes must be completed with transparency and citizen involvement. We must address the following questions: How do we retain Jacksonville’s unique character while accommodating inevitable growth? How does a city with a small taxable population base continue to offer high quality services despite the increased costs of public employees and insurance? How do we encourage tourism while maintaining the integrity of the community for its residents? What measures can we take to protect our resources and our unique historical dimension and ensure our residents the high quality of life to which they are accustomed? How do we deal with the challenges of COVID-19 and its effect on our businesses as well as our most vulnerable citizens?

These are not questions easily answered. Yet I believe I possess a pragmatic and thoughtful approach to the challenges that arise, a mindset wedded to teamwork and committed to embracing the active participation of our community.