LAKEPORT — Fewer than three weeks remain until voters decide who will fill three open seats on the Lakeport City Council. Six candidates are vying for the seats in the Nov. 4 election.
Incumbents Roy Parmentier and Robert Rumfelt face challengers Ginger Ingersoll, Suzanne Lyons, Marc Spillman and George Spurr. Candidates said they are campaigning door-to-door, putting up signs and distributing literature in preparation for Election Day.
In a Sept. 30 candidate forum, Ingersoll said the city should evaluate its departments for efficiency and economy, and consider consolidation.
Ingersoll said Monday she is not in favor of layoffs, but the city would benefit from not filling positions after employees retire.
“My platform is very simple: fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. We have to do that before we can do any of the good things that we want to do. Before we grow, our infrastructure has to be improved. We are not investing in our infrastructure right now,” Ingersoll said.
Lyons said she also wants to see the city”s budget balanced. She said the city”s current budget includes a more than $400,000 line of credit, a practice she said is not sound budgeting. Lyons said city council meetings should be more accessible to the public, and said she would like the meetings to be televised.
Parmentier was vacationing out of town on Tuesday, and could not be interviewed because of a bad cellular connection.
Rumfelt said the city has plans in place to revitalize its downtown, improve its water and sewer systems and fix its streets.
“I like the direction the city is going right now. We”re trying to invite business to get started here, and I would like to see that continue, and keep on with what we”ve been doing lately,” Rumfelt said.
Concerning the city”s budget, Spillman said, “Lakeport cannot outspend revenues by half a million annually.”
To balance the budget, Spillman said if elected, he would support reviewing benefit packages for city employees, dropping travel and training expenses for a year or more, and “robbing redevelopment funds, if it is possible, to get through the next few years.”
Spillman said public input is needed for development projects. He said he would recommend forming a citizen”s committee to work with the city council and redevelopment agency on the Dutch Harbor property.
Spurr said he is finding out what is important to the city from its citizens.
He said he had ideas he would like to explore to stimulate tourism, including the possibility of building a pier on the lake where businesses can have a waterfront view.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
