Abel unable to govern efectively

Kim Abel was unable to run the city of Port Orchard as an effective mayor. In fact, she was completely ineffective.

I have lived in Port Orchard all of 69 years and have been in business in our community for more than 40 years.

In that time, I have seen several city administrations and I found Kim Abel’s leadership to be lacking in many areas.

For one thing, he was unable to pass a comprehensive plan for four years while she was in office, which left the city unable to pursue community grants.

In order to pursue community grants, you have to have a comprehensive plan that complies with the Growth Management Act, and as a result, it left the city out of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

As if that weren’t enough, she forced out of office (actually fired) a public works director, Larry Curles, who had been with the city for more than 20 years.

Larry was respected by business and adored by the public for his professionalism and dedicated service to the city.

Then she went on to hire an incompetent planning director and engineer. The city subsequently came to a standstill due to poor leadership, poor management and poor judgment.

Finally, the mayor’s lack of respect for the city council and the public led her to go to Olympia to lobby against NASCAR without the city council’s permission or knowledge in order to satisfy the no-growth left wing of her party.

This time the voters need to send someone to Olympia who looks out for the taxpayers, has good judgment and demonstrates good leadership skills.

That person is not Kim Abel.

DICK BROWN

Port Orchard

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