Bettge is the best
Hands down, Art Bettge is the most holistic, thorough, insightful, and well-versed Moscow city councilor. There is none better to now stand up for mayor. He is fiscally sound with plenty of experience in economic venues. He’s served on the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee and grasps the extent of our water needs. He knows the crucial factors involved in resource sustainability, whether that’s land use, housing affordability, or promoting talent and opportunity. He understands the complexity of diversity in people and enterprises. He is committed to the cultural integrity of Moscow.
I first interacted with Art when he was chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission and was also attending city council meetings in the audience for months, learning the ropes there before being voted in as a councilor. He’s been an Urban Renewal Agency board member for years while I have been routinely in the audience. We’ve had many discussions before and after meetings and when crossing paths. His positions always have insight and validity. He balances compassion with accountability and collaboration with positive resolutions.
As mayor, Art will be a genuine representative of our town in all those qualities that make Moscow special. He is likable and folks from varying perspectives relate to him well. With a range of having been a Peace Corp volunteer, UI- and WSU-trained and employed, a professional consultant, serving in city commissions and government, and a decades-long resident, he has a wide network to draw upon. Art Bettge is the best vote for mayor. He has it all: experience, balance, commitment.
Victoria Seever
Moscow
Our picks for city council
A slew of people are running for election in Moscow. Four want to be mayor. Eight are competing for three council seats. After reading about candidates on the League of Women Voters VOTE411.org web site and watching question-and-answer forums online, we’ve come to some conclusions. There’s a lot of pain and dissent out there, even in Moscow. Three mayoral candidates reflect dissatisfaction with the status quo, appealing to voters to fix what’s broken in local government. Concerns include the invisibility of people who are unsheltered or who struggle to satisfy everyday needs, loss of trust in government, criticism over excessive spending, bafflement at the delay in acting on water issues, and resentment of a decision-making process perceived as heavy-handed and opaque.
On the council side, three candidates stand out. Julia Parker is a careful listener, pragmatic collaborator, and independent thinker, not likely to fall victim to the hypnotic effects of groupthink. She is smart and compassionate. As a nurse, administrator, and former faculty member in natural resources, her expertise is well-suited to the challenges ahead. Hailey Lewis exudes positive energy. She is a strong communicator who is willing to ask hard questions, consider wide-ranging perspectives, and anticipate repercussions of her decisions. Kyrk Taylor is well-spoken and courteous, befitting his job in human relations. He approaches public office with a service mentality, and advocacy for community participation and government transparency. Refreshingly, he considers having a variety of opinions on the council as a good thing. Our picks: Parker, Lewis and Taylor.
Nancy Chaney and Gary Bryan
Moscow
Candidates must accept reality
After reading candidate statements for the Moscow mayoral race, it is evident that there is only one candidate that is qualified to lead our city into a challenging future. It is truly concerning that the other three candidates are not even remotely qualified. Art Bettge has been meaningfully participating in Moscow city government for decades and has the skills and knowledge to successfully lead our city.
One unqualified candidate claims that climate science is far from settled, even though a recent Cornell University survey of peer-reviewed climate change literature (2012-2020) found that 99.9 percent of the scientific articles accepted that climate change is occurring, and it is the result of human activity. This is a level of certainty comparable to our acceptance of the process of evolution.
Science is constantly evolving and does not have all the correct answers all the time. However, when it concludes something with a 99.9 percent consensus, it accurately represents reality. We must accept reality if we are to have any chance of surviving into the future. Another unqualified candidate sees no reason for the Moscow mayor to be concerned with climate change. This, despite the recent Moscow city report detailing the significant current and projected climate change impacts to our quality of life here on the Palouse.
The Moscow City Council race similarly has several unqualified candidates. Internet searches on these candidates provide you with absolutely no information. However, two stand out candidates are Julia Parker and Hailey Lewis. I was particularly impressed with Parker’s statement at a recent candidate forum. She accepts the scientific consensus and feels that the city has a duty to its citizens to plan for adaptation to the impacts of climate change and help with its mitigation. Please vote for qualified candidates that accept reality on Nov. 2.
Al Poplawsky
Moscow
Rolo no role model
Although my mother raised me largely on breakfasts that featured Wheaties, then billed as “The Breakfast of Champions” and featuring various athletes on the box, I never quite adopted the premise that athletes — or their coaches — might prove viable role models. Accordingly, I am not shocked and awed when one of the above, as we used to say down South, “comes a cropper.”
I do feel some empathy for the Cougs football team and for the assistant coaches who have gone down with their captain from whatever misplaced sense of loyalty, but I feel very little empathy for Cap’n Rolovich. He knew better. His personal masking, as witnessed on the sidelines, speaks well of him, up to a point. But what can any civilized person say to those who decide that laws, rules, and regulations need be obeyed only so far as they have personal appeal? OK. Live with the consequences.
Filing a nuisance lawsuit, as Rolo has done, does not speak well of his character. Nor does his obviously fallacious misrepresentation of his Catholicism as supposed ground for his refusal to obey the vaccination mandate, even if he does find that mandate unappealing. My daughter is a public school teacher in Idaho, and she is a devout Catholic, and she is fully vaccinated. If her religion, her church, her Pope, does not bar her from vaccination, I cannot understand how it is that Mr. Rolovich’s does.
Ron McFarland
Moscow
