As 2005 draws to a close, I believe the most important gift I can leave each of you with this holiday season is the encouragement to look ahead and be prepared to create intelligent change.
The year 2006 will be an extremely important one in Carlsbad, Sacramento and Washington, DC. More than ever, your involvement and attention will be required. Let's start locally with an overview of what's at stake.
In 2006, two Carlsbad council members and the mayor will be up for re-election. The list includes Councilmen Matt Hall and Mark Packard and Mayor Bud Lewis.
Bud Lewis is quite simply a civic and community treasure in Carlsbad. For more than three decades he has provided leadership, vision and solutions to a community that has grown from a sleepy north county coastal hamlet, into a vibrant and desirable location for people and businesses to call home.
His list of accomplishments, many publicly recognized and rewarded, and others equally as important but done out of the public spotlight simply out of love for the community, are too long to detail here. Suffice it to say that our strong and diverse local economy, enjoyable quality of life, sound fiscal condition at the city and our blueprint for future needs such as recreation, water supply and infrastructure all have Bud's imprint on them.
Has he taken stands that have been unpopular at times? Of course. Did I agree with him on every vote? No, I can't say as though I did. Do I respect the man, his leadership and his ability to create winning, can-do coalitions that have the best of Carlsbad at its core? Yes, and I hope you will join me in supporting him for re-election to another term.
No one person can create a vision and implement it without team members who are equally committed to the process. In fact, the best team members are those who add positive value to the vision and work cooperatively to achieve the goal. In Mark Packard and Matt Hall, Carlsbad has two council members who are key members of the team. (And I would be remiss here if I didn't credit the incomparable Ann Kulchin too. She gets her turn again in 2008. Ann has provided stability and continuity to the governance of our city for many years. The newcomer to the Council, Norine Sigafoose, has earned the tremendous respect of the community and the chamber with her thoughtful, intelligent decisions and open door policy. She's a pleasure to work with and shares the 2008 cycle with Ann for re-election.).
Mark and Matt bring unique skills from their own small businesses to the council. Their re-election will solidify the kind of public policy and local ordinances that are important for business to succeed in Carlsbad.
Looking north to Sacramento, there is great uncertainty, which is something business seeks to avoid at all costs.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the fight of his life with an anti-business coalition of political partisans and organized labor. An administration that started with such promise is now mired in political missteps and legislative trench warfare. The blue haze over the capitol is no longer from Arnold's cigar smoke; it's from the cannons of partisan battle that has no end in sight. His reform initiatives on the 2005 ballot went down in flames at the polls. Business needs him to be a strong and respected chief executive again. Local soldiers in that battle will be changing soon.
The makeup of our state assembly and state senate members who represent Carlsbad will change completely in late 2006. Apparently gone will be two elected officials who routinely score 100% in the chamber's legislative agenda?Assemblyman Mark Wyland and Senator Bill Morrow. Each has their eye on the congressional seat being vacated by Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Wyland and Morrow have each been an open door to Carlsbad Chamber members and officials when we have visited with them in Sacramento over the years. Although they are members of the minority party in the state's capitol these days, they are well respected as key legislators who are often sought out for advice and leadership on issues critical to the small business community in Carlsbad and California. Replacing them with like-minded representatives will be a vitally important task for the chamber and anyone in their respective districts. I encourage you to choose wisely when you vote.
Just as change is brewing in Sacramento, so too, are the winds blowing in Congress. Eight-term US Representative Duke Cunningham is calling it quits after some questionable dealings with defense contractors who are funded by his Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Cunningham is the chairman of the subcommittee that has a multi-hundred billion dollar budget. California, San Diego, North County, the Navy and Marine Corps are all key constituents of Cunningham. His departure will expose those constituencies to needless potential harm from a budgeting standpoint.
Replacing Cunningham, and his budget clout, must be a top priority for local Carlsbad businesses and citizens. The stakes for Carlsbad will be high, so I encourage you to be active in this particular race, as we should be in all of them actually.
Each of these elections has the ability to shape public policy, regulations and legislation that can have enormous impacts on our local business climate.
I encourage you to be active and informed in choosing the leadership you want to lead our city, our state and our nation in 2006. After all, if we choose badly, or worse, don't participate at all, it's a lump of coal in the stocking that will disappoint each of us all year long.
May your holiday season be filled with the warmth of family and friendship, the rewards of your hard work and the bright promise of a welcome new year. What an exciting year it has been.
The year 2006 will be an extremely important one in Carlsbad, Sacramento and Washington, DC. More than ever, your involvement and attention will be required. Let's start locally with an overview of what's at stake.
In 2006, two Carlsbad council members and the mayor will be up for re-election. The list includes Councilmen Matt Hall and Mark Packard and Mayor Bud Lewis.
Bud Lewis is quite simply a civic and community treasure in Carlsbad. For more than three decades he has provided leadership, vision and solutions to a community that has grown from a sleepy north county coastal hamlet, into a vibrant and desirable location for people and businesses to call home.
His list of accomplishments, many publicly recognized and rewarded, and others equally as important but done out of the public spotlight simply out of love for the community, are too long to detail here. Suffice it to say that our strong and diverse local economy, enjoyable quality of life, sound fiscal condition at the city and our blueprint for future needs such as recreation, water supply and infrastructure all have Bud's imprint on them.
Has he taken stands that have been unpopular at times? Of course. Did I agree with him on every vote? No, I can't say as though I did. Do I respect the man, his leadership and his ability to create winning, can-do coalitions that have the best of Carlsbad at its core? Yes, and I hope you will join me in supporting him for re-election to another term.
No one person can create a vision and implement it without team members who are equally committed to the process. In fact, the best team members are those who add positive value to the vision and work cooperatively to achieve the goal. In Mark Packard and Matt Hall, Carlsbad has two council members who are key members of the team. (And I would be remiss here if I didn't credit the incomparable Ann Kulchin too. She gets her turn again in 2008. Ann has provided stability and continuity to the governance of our city for many years. The newcomer to the Council, Norine Sigafoose, has earned the tremendous respect of the community and the chamber with her thoughtful, intelligent decisions and open door policy. She's a pleasure to work with and shares the 2008 cycle with Ann for re-election.).
Mark and Matt bring unique skills from their own small businesses to the council. Their re-election will solidify the kind of public policy and local ordinances that are important for business to succeed in Carlsbad.
Looking north to Sacramento, there is great uncertainty, which is something business seeks to avoid at all costs.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the fight of his life with an anti-business coalition of political partisans and organized labor. An administration that started with such promise is now mired in political missteps and legislative trench warfare. The blue haze over the capitol is no longer from Arnold's cigar smoke; it's from the cannons of partisan battle that has no end in sight. His reform initiatives on the 2005 ballot went down in flames at the polls. Business needs him to be a strong and respected chief executive again. Local soldiers in that battle will be changing soon.
The makeup of our state assembly and state senate members who represent Carlsbad will change completely in late 2006. Apparently gone will be two elected officials who routinely score 100% in the chamber's legislative agenda?Assemblyman Mark Wyland and Senator Bill Morrow. Each has their eye on the congressional seat being vacated by Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Wyland and Morrow have each been an open door to Carlsbad Chamber members and officials when we have visited with them in Sacramento over the years. Although they are members of the minority party in the state's capitol these days, they are well respected as key legislators who are often sought out for advice and leadership on issues critical to the small business community in Carlsbad and California. Replacing them with like-minded representatives will be a vitally important task for the chamber and anyone in their respective districts. I encourage you to choose wisely when you vote.
Just as change is brewing in Sacramento, so too, are the winds blowing in Congress. Eight-term US Representative Duke Cunningham is calling it quits after some questionable dealings with defense contractors who are funded by his Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Cunningham is the chairman of the subcommittee that has a multi-hundred billion dollar budget. California, San Diego, North County, the Navy and Marine Corps are all key constituents of Cunningham. His departure will expose those constituencies to needless potential harm from a budgeting standpoint.
Replacing Cunningham, and his budget clout, must be a top priority for local Carlsbad businesses and citizens. The stakes for Carlsbad will be high, so I encourage you to be active in this particular race, as we should be in all of them actually.
Each of these elections has the ability to shape public policy, regulations and legislation that can have enormous impacts on our local business climate.
I encourage you to be active and informed in choosing the leadership you want to lead our city, our state and our nation in 2006. After all, if we choose badly, or worse, don't participate at all, it's a lump of coal in the stocking that will disappoint each of us all year long.
May your holiday season be filled with the warmth of family and friendship, the rewards of your hard work and the bright promise of a welcome new year. What an exciting year it has been.