Mark Capell and Scott Ramsay would like to have another term on the Bend City Council. Can the city afford to have these two fiscally irresponsible people continue to ignore public opinion and spend the city’s money in any way they choose? I don’t think so. Nathan Boddie and Barb Campbell, who are running against these incumbents, (as well as Lisa Seales) represent a major change in their approach as to how the city should be run.

These candidates believe the public should have a major voice in what direction Bend should take. The council members should take advantage of the public input as they seek a variety of possible alternatives for major projects. These alternatives should be openly and objectively discussed with all stakeholders. Once the council has made a decision, it should tell the staff what is to be accomplished and at what cost.

By comparison, Capell and Ramsay have championed spending $68 million on the Surface Water Project and did not make any effort to provide a true public forum where the issues could be objectively examined, reviewed and judged by the public. If they had allowed such public discussion, the same results could have been achieved for less than half the cost and would have resulted in lower water rates for all. Look at what they did, not what they said.

This attitude seems hard to understand. However, if we look at some facts perhaps we can understand their actions. Capell’s brother received his job at HDR at about the same time the city awarded the surface water project contract to HDR.

Capell has relied on an obscure legal loophole, provided to him by the city attorney, which allows him to ignore generally accepted standards of ethical conduct concerning conflict of interest. Not only has he not recused himself from all dealings with the water project, he has become the chief defender of all things HDR suggests for the project. He has severely limited public input and opinion; he and other members of the council did not adequately, if at all, challenge staff when they made inaccurate statements about the project, though, in some cases the council may not have known it and he and three others on the council (Capell, Ramsay, Barram, Chudowski) have seen that the public has no voice in opposing the project or suggesting reasonable alternatives to it.

The following excerpt is from a 2011 editorial titled “Councilor Capell should follow the spirit of the law” from The Bulletin, “(Councilor Capell’s) brother works for HDR … The company has contracts for … the $68 million Bridge Creek surface water project … (Capell) should not be guiding or even participating in discussions.”

Capell, and his gang, do not want the voters of Bend to hear any alternatives to the HDR plan. They want to be able to commit and spend all the money they choose, regardless of the cost to the taxpayers.

In early 2013 a small working group of two city councilors, the city manager, and a member of the opposition to the water project met on several occasions in an effort to try to come up with a way that both sides could be heard and a reconciliation of views could be worked out. When their initial recommendations were presented to council, Capell and his Gang of Four blocked any further efforts or discussions, during which Capell said, “We don’t need to discuss this anymore; the council has already decided.”

Wouldn’t it be great for Bend if we could have intelligent, responsible people on the City Council whose main agenda is the good of the city and not exclusionary personal agendas?

I’m voting for Nathan Boddie, Barb Campbell and Lisa Seales. I hope you do too.

— Peter Schneider lives in Bend.