Moscow will see a new mayor in the town’s 2021 local election on Nov. 2, with Mayor Bill Lambert not seeking re-election. The four candidates running for mayor are Art Bettge, Jim Gray, Olivia Moses and Barb Rathbun.
Candidates addressed issues of Moscow’s aquifer, climate change and city development. This year, the candidates expressed concerns with division among locals over COVID-19, political polarization and Christ Church.
Art Bettge
Bettge has worked as a city councilor since 2013 and spent 10 years on the Planning and Zoning Commission, seven of those years as the chair.
What made you run for mayor?
My parents always felt that one should give back to their community… The other thing is that after serving a good decade on the planning and zoning board, as well as on city council, there are a number of projects that I would like to guide the city in and see those projects completed.
Aquifer
The aquifer has been steadily declining since the 1900s and we need to find another source of water to supplement that. Although we can conserve, we need more water for new developments as well. Every year we put this off is another year of lagging at the back end, so my goal is to get this project up and running because we can’t go on forever kicking this can along the road to some future city council to deal with.
Climate change
City council has directed staff to develop a policy to be presented in March. We have done a great job reducing Moscow’s carbon footprint by 20% over the past 20 years, despite the growth, and we’d like to continue that process with a list of achievable goals that extend beyond signing our name to agreements and start educating the public on how to better reduce their footprint.
Development
If you’re going to grow there’s going to be new development. You have to deal with the issue at the front of people’s minds which is affordable housing, and right now we are stuck in a bad place because we don’t have enough housing. Therefore, the housing market has become unattainable for pretty much anybody. Moscow grows at about 1% per year, which means we need 100 new dwelling units per year, and we have not been doing that for the past decade or so. Instead of sprawling out, we need to encourage more development within town.
COVID-19
There’s not a whole lot we as the city can do. We have a current mask ordinance in city buildings, but there is not a lot of appetite for another mask mandate. There is not a lot we can do other than encourage masks and encourage people to get vaccinated. I look forward to when 5 to 11-year-olds get vaccinated.
Jim Gray
Gray has background based in the U.S. Coast Guard and as a high school teacher.
Why made you run for mayor?
Well, it’s what I see (a) lack of in the community, which is business. So businesses, whereby young people who are finishing high school or going into university, could have an occupation in this area…where they are here closer to the families.
I’ve never run for anything before, this is the first… (If elected) my first task is to open up communication with the people and the community.
Development
The property taxes went up tremendously here the last couple of years and when you look around in the city, where is all this money going?
They want people to start paying taxes abruptly. Too many people are out of work, so that has to be a slow process. It has to be… one of the things that people need to be talked with about and as opposed to just arbitrarily taking a particular percentage of a person’s income.
Division in Moscow
The town was a lot friendlier than it is right now. And I want to see that come back where they’re actually talking with each other, not fighting with each other. It might have a difference of opinion, but they are willing to talk about it, as opposed to go on berserk, like some people do.
COVID-19
Doctors say that the kids’ chances of catching this with a bug is, is almost zero. And in teenagers, for most words, the same thing. But wearing masks was problematic to me because I don’t care what kind of masks you have, if you don’t have it fitted, a germ will get in there, period.
I don’t see the usefulness in wearing a mask unless you’re in a very dense, crowded, crowded place.
(Mayor Bill Lambert) should have talked more with the people about what the people actually wanted to do to protect themselves, because nobody wants to get sick. No one wants to be in the hospital and nobody wants to die. People got to do what’s necessary to take care of themselves.
Candidate Moses’ ‘fight the cult’ and Christ Church
Moses’ platform has run with criticism of Christ Church, denouncing the group as a cult.
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Is that a cult?
When you get involved with religion. That’s something that is taboo, like family, stay away from that, because when you’re talking about somebody’s belief, you’re going to be stepping on their toes. If you talk about family, you are stepping on their toes even harder.
You may not like the person, but that is no reason to attack the belief system, because that’s close-mindedness. And if you have to, you can be any kind of leader, you have to have an open mind. You have to take in all these considerations and information from all the various sources and come up with a decision that is equitable.
Olivia Moses
Born and raised in Moscow, Moses hopes to give back to the community she grew up in.
What made you run for mayor?
I am frankly pretty hurt with what I see around town in terms of folks are waiting to get into appropriate housing.
I’m also angry about how terrible the water quality is, especially in student housing, where the water can be anything from cloudy to outright yellow. It’s upsetting to see these decisions and how they affect our long-term housing supply, our water supply, and how we conduct ourselves as a city during a pandemic of all things.
Aquifer
Finding alternative water sources and institution long-term sustainability plans in our new developments is really important, but I think it is crucial to make sure all our current water users are at the table within Moscow. Back in 2017 at a candidate’s forum, someone brought up that the water quality was so poor and asked about what the city could do to hold landlords accountable for their apartments. The response from one of the candidates was ‘oh, that’s not a problem or our water department would have said something.’ Our water department is great, but we need to use the voices of the people who live in Moscow to make an informed decision. We need to make sure our needs are being met currently.
Development
(We should act) by following the example of a lot of other cities, by making inclusionary housing zones.
It was said in one of the candidate forums that Moscow is not a real estate developer, but the reality is that is a very limited view of what affordable housing is. There are other agencies we can work with to build sustainable multi-family living units that serve our needs.
COVID-19
I think we need to engage the sub-communities in our larger community on this…We all know we need to listen to scientists and doctors in some capacity because a lot of people I speak with will reference ‘this one doctor,’ but people don’t feel like they have the experience to say anything or ask questions, but we have the ability to reach out and do door-to-door canvassing. We have a real opportunity to really make people feel like they have a voice.
Candidate Moses’ ‘fight the cult’ and Christ Church
One of the things that come up every single day in the work that I do is the cult’s presence and what it does on an interpersonal level.
How is it that so many groups experience these same abuses and harassments in public, but the response is ‘woah, can you call it a cult?’ Why should we be the last ones to notice our town is being explicitly taken over?
Barb Rathbun
Rathbun aims to support a government that works for residents in the town she grew up in.
What made you run for mayor?
I think there are a lot of problems that Moscow is facing, and there are a lot of problems on the horizon facing us.
I didn’t see any other candidates I thought would delve into the problems and take them seriously, so I put my name in.
Climate change
The city is bringing in a lot of federal plans for the federal money, and I think that it comes with a government narrative of fear. We are going into a grand solar minima, which means our climate will be cooler, not hotter. The government narrative only allows things that support its agenda.
Development
There is not much we can do. Can we stop people from moving here? Can we stop people from building? It doesn’t sound like we can, but we can at least try to make the building that goes on work better for our water supply or our traffic problems.
Candidate Moses’ ‘fight the cult’ and Christ Church
I have come across a lot of emotional opinions on Christ Church, but I do not think the city should be involved in public issues like that. Many of the things said about them are things that can be said of any religion, or even of people not affiliated with a religion.
Abigail Spencer and Daniel V. Ramirez can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @AbairdSpencer and @DVR_Tweets