Ketchikan Borough Election
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I am Dragon London and I am running for a seat on the City Council. I have lived in Ketchikan for 14 ½ years. During my tenure in this community I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture through my employment and civic activities. I arrived in Ketchikan on contract to be the Executive Director of Women in Safe Homes, from there I moved on to be the Marketing Coordinator for Ketchikan
Visitors Bureau, then returned back to social service in running the southeast regional office of Hope Community Resources, an organization serving individuals who are experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities. I am currently enjoying interacting and learning about the teens of our community through my role as a substitute teacher at Ketchikan High School. The knowledge and skills I have gained through working in each of these fields has given me a keen awareness of our community, the culture and diversity we embrace and an understanding of the social challenges we face.
I am consistent in my civic activity and participation; through serving on several city committees, working numerous task forces and coordinating and co-facilitating community awareness programs. I am currently a Commissioner on the Ketchikan Gateway Planning Commission and Commissioner and Chair of the City of Ketchikan Historic Commission.
Prior to arriving in Ketchikan I lived and worked overseas for approximately 15 years, primarily doing international business consulting and development. The focal point of my work has been small business development and micro-loan start-up programs along with running my private businesses that include being a proprietor in the hospitality industry and an import/exporter. Although consulting in several countries during this time I considered my home base with business and living to be Indonesia and American Samoa.
Looking at the long term history of my life, I was born and raised in the state of Washington. I come from a long line of political activist, my grandmother was a suffragette and my mother was both a state and national lobbyist which basically means I grew up in the state legislature building and it most certainly had an impact on how I perceive myself and my civic responsibility to be a participant. Early on I decided to follow a path into the field of social service. Over the years I came up through the ranks of social service; from being a counselor, advancing into program management, directing several non-profit organizations and then moving into administrative positions for the state of Washington. During my time in public service I was an organization and performance auditor leading teams tasked with auditing all state offices, institutions and contractors under the Division of Children and Family Services. I had the opportunity to be a part of the team that created the Division of Licensing Resources in Washington and later became the director in both Region 4 and 5 of Division of Licensing Resources. I hold a B.A. degree in Psychology and a M.A. degree in Whole Systems Design.
Why I’m running for office
I’m running for a seat on the City Council because I believe it is my civic responsibility and something I have wanted to do since I arrived in Ketchikan but was prevented from doing due to prior constraints in my personal life. I am now able to make the commitment this import office requires. I feel the knowledge and skills sets I have gained through my work and life experience will make me an asset representing constituents and serving as a member of the council.
The umbrella of my platform is most certainly business and economic development in a broad arena. Too often economic development tends to be viewed as only an avenue for attracting new businesses or industries but in reality it encompasses a far broader scope of actions. Economic health and vibrancy of the core city will only happen through nurturing efforts and alignment of the community to the economic opportunities of our region, economic opportunities for all our residents. The city council members need to be leaders. They need to ensure that we have policies and codes in place that encourage and support business development as well as growth of current industry. Tax incentives may be one option to attract business as well as assist the launch of local companies. We need to partner in nurturing entrepreneurship and business growth particularly in the core city neighborhoods. It’s time to step up to the plate and move our city into a competitive stance. We have serious employee recruitment issues, our wages are not competitive resulting in our inability to retain let alone recruit workers in our community. It is my hope that the current compensation survey out for bid will lead to a final competitive compensation plan for our city workers. Our current industries can expand, tourism is a key growth industry as we seen the larger cruise ships arriving at our port over the next three years, and they are coming. The port expansion to accommodate these ships is a primary economic issue and will be for the next 20 years. An upland comprehensive plan needs to be developed to assist in moving our visitors into the city core or staging areas to move people to activities outside the downtown corridor, provide safety for both our residents as well as tourist through safe corridors and directional signage, and foremost preserving our rich heritage that makes Ketchikan the very special place it is to live or visit.
I would be honored to serve as your representative on the City Council. Please vote for Dragon London for City Council when you go to the polls on October 2, 2018. Thank you.
You can contact me at dragon.london00@gmail.com.
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(APOC Requirement) Paid for by: Dragon London - Candidate for the Ketchikan City Council - PO Box 6003 - Ketchikan, Alaska 99901
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