I asked what were their stands in regards from fluoridation, to what sets the apart from their opponents, the following are from the City Council race for Position 3, Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, and Artur Wojnowski.
- Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin
Port Angeles City Council Position 3 candidate
I was born and raised in Port Angeles, graduating from Port Angeles High School in 1998. I returned back home after college, motivated by the idea that if one wants to make the world a better place, start in the place one calls home.
I taught science for several years and during that time continued to become interested in public policy. Subsequently, I went to law school at Gonzaga, where I graduated with highest honors in 2013.
Since then, I've been privileged to work as a constitutional lawyer on issues related to the relative power of the people, our governments, and corporations. This work has given me a deep understanding of how local governments work and what they can do to protect the people's rights, health, safety, and welfare.
As a representative of the people of Port Angeles, I intend to work toward creating a city that values community dialogue and collaboration; fosters a local economy that works for everyone; and solves tough problems like affordable housing and homelessness. This work ultimately requires all of us working together. We can do this - we share this place: it's our home.
- Artur Wojnowski: Thank you, I'd be happy to give you my stance and reasoning on these topics. Bearing in mind that people can find pros and cons for any topic, people choose the facts most aligned with their opinion. Once decided, it's almost impossible to change those opinions.
Personally, I am against fluoride. In fact, I believe the water should be as pure as possible with exception of natural vitamin/minerals and only the amount of disinfectant needed to keep drinking water safe to drink. We can all probably agree, that we don't want to go back in time to a point where we have to boil our water to make it safe to drink.
The real question is, with fluoride being easily accessible, are there community members who would not receive it without the fluoridated water? Wouldn't it be better to assist with access to other individual fluoridated products (rinses, toothpastes, etc.) to community members in need, than to add fluoride to everyone's water supply? We are unable to know how much community members are ingesting when its added to the water supply.
Editorial note: Answers to my question on city council as an elected body taking stands on issues.
As a population that is supposed to be governed by majority, if we take an issue to vote, we need to honor the response of the community. Their voice should be acknowledged with an appropriate action.
Wild Olympics - I applaud these efforts as well as other movements towards sustainability and conservation. Such efforts lead to innovation and cost reductions, among other benefits. It is my observation that the Olympic Peninsula has a great balance of preserved nature with plentiful access to it. I don't believe we need to increase this amount. Doing so will have negative consequences for our community. We cannot preserve our way out of jobs. Tourism is one way to bring people to Port Angeles, but keeping them here will require family-wage jobs..
Whaling - If the local tribes have a contracted right, it needs to be upheld. It would be like me charging someone more money even though there was an agreed upon price. The tribes have voluntarily stopped when needs arose.
City Council members need to find a balance between holding firm to a deeply-held belief and advocating on behalf of the community majority. When the community is given choices, the candidates elected into position likely hold opinions preferred by the majority of the community. This doesn't mean they agree on every point, which means City Council members need to observe and listen to what the community says.
Editorial Note: This publication gave all these candidates chances to avail themselves of getting their message heard, thus far, only these two candidates availed themselves of this opportunity.
For more local headlines and commentary see page 3
