Kulla restates his commissioner’s goals on KLYC ALIVE AFTER 5
KULLA ON ALIVE AFTER 5
Yamhill County’s newest commissioner Casey Kulla was on KLYC’s Alive After Five show last night (Thursday). Kulla repeated his pledge of wanting to improve the transparency of county government. Kulla says people can’t have trust in their elected officials if they don’t know what’s happening. Kulla admits his outspoken, enthusiastic, is different. For example, sometimes addressing the audience instead simply addressing fellow commissioners in the meeting. But Kulla says he is not here to destroy institutions, but start discussions on items have have not had a lot of discussion.
Kulla says he wants to see the cities and county work more together. Those includes the homeless and houseless situation, water issues, having the county be more resilient, disaster preparedness.
Kulla says he is increasingly concerned about the Sheridan Corrections Institution. Commissioner Starrett says there is a food truck that goes to the prison to make sure the staff and guards have food for their families during the government shutdown.
Kulla would like to see the commission meetings moved to the Kent Taylor Civic Auditorium to make it easier for the public to be involved in the meetings. Kulla said another benefit would be giving more space for legal proceedings in the courthouse. The commissioners room 32 meeting room could could be a fifth courtroom. Kulla said the district attorney also says he needs more space.
In a recent meeting, Commissioner Starrett said she felt blindsided by some issues that Kulla has brought to meetings. That comment was stated after Kulla announced he invited Recology to a future board meeting. Kulla says he is striving to be a team player, but is enthusiastic in his approach to get things done. In this conversation, Starrett also said she didn’t want to dampen that enthusiasm, but wants to make sure all commissioners are involved in planning agenda items.
Kulla says his effort to bring forth an inclusion proclamation was an effort to ensure all members of society, such as gays, LGBT, and the elderly are included. Starrett took a lot of heat from the audience for trying to include the “unborn” into that inclusion list. Audience members accused Starrett of trying to stop the proclamation by including rights of the unborn. Kulla said he believes Starrett put that in the proclamation because with that included, Kulla would not want it to pass. Starrett has said in the past that she is proud of Yamhill County’s compassion for everyone, and it should be applauded, but says she wanted to include the rights of the unborn. The proclamation passed two to one, and did NOT include the “unborn”.
There is an open invitation on KLYC Radio for all commissioners to be on the show and we will invite Commissioners Starrett and Olson to be hour long guests on Alive After Five. Scheduled shows are broadcast Monday through Friday at 5 pm when we have a topic to discuss.
