Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Cliff Wooten wants to use his experience as a Linn County commissioner to continue serving his Linn County neighbors.
He’ll be 65 in July, he said, and he would be 70 by the end of another term as commissioner. He doesn’t think it would be wise to be putting in as many hours as he approaches that age. The House position is a two-year term.
Wooten is one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for House District 17, which represents Sweet Home, Lebanon, Scio, Stayton, Sublimity and parts of the North Santiam Canyon. Also running are incumbent Sherrie Sprenger, Bruce Cuff and Marc Lucca. Dan Thackaberry is running unopposed in the Democrat primary.
“I have a great replacement, Will Tucker,” Wooten said of his commission seat, adding that he believes Tucker knows public safety is number one and understands the county budget and county government. “I felt comfortable about leaving. Otherwise I would run.”
Wooten was thinking about what else he could do to represent and serve, he said. The people in Linn County are his neighbors, and “I want to make sure the services they need are met.”
Because of his experience, he knows what those service areas are, he said. In the House, he can watch out for the people of Linn County and their needs.
An example are programs that provide transportation to the developmentally disabled to and from work, he said. Under that program, they can get out for four to six hours per day and earn the resources they need to live.
He would like to protect programs like this, but the state keeps cutting, and counties have to cover for it, he said.
Wooten likes to take a low-key approach to politics.
“In my case, it’s better to work with people for a collaborative change rather than working against them,” he said. A judo instructor for about 37 years, he said the martial art carries within it the key to doing that.
His approach, based on judo principles, is to “yield, work with them and redirect,” he said. “Respect their way.”
As long as it works, he is happy to let solutions be another’s idea, he said.
“I think they (legislators) need to stop the bickering,” Wooten said. “They apparently tend to divide by party lines and forget they’re there to serve the public. I would rather respond to constituents’ needs and see that they’re met. I represent everyone. What they want to hear is you’ll simply represent them.”
He does have values of his own, and if he does take or cannot take a specific action, he’ll explain why, he said.
His job as a commissioner, his main job was to provide resources to the people who do the work, he said. A state representative is even more resource-oriented.
The Legislature has to make sure the apples are all there to take care of existing needs, he said.
Among those needs is education.
He said when he spoke to a teachers association, “they didn’t like my responses, but they were all nodding yes,” Wooten said. Public education faces a number of challenges. Programs such as Scio’s on-line charter school take resources from public schools while leaving public schools with more special needs students.
But they require parental involvement, which is important to education, he said, and they’re a great way to get parents helping students. They’re effective, and students who aren’t so successful in a social situation, can work in front of a computer screen with parents there as coach.
“It creates competition, which is wholesome,” Wooten said.
“It’s the public sector that’s doing all the crying,” Wooten said. “They need help.”
Public schools have lost vocational classes, he said. “Most schools are geared toward the academic part of preparing youngsters for college” even though not all students can afford to or want to attend college.
In Scio, where Wooten lives and his wife is a longtime school board member, the dropout rate was down to 1 percent. With juniors and seniors, the district will use student funding for either vocational or academic courses.
“They try to fit the students with the resources they have,” Wooten said.
Wooten supports basic cost-of-living type increases, 3 percent or so, annually for funding schools, and he doesn’t support funding cuts. He doesn’t support cutting other programs to give more funding to schools.
Seniors need programs like Project Independence, he said. “You have to prioritize programs. There are some programs for the needy or low-income that you can’t take because it’s their livelihood.
“I will be supportive of the needs of the schools, and they have the amount of resources they need to be effective. No, I will not be for a wheelbarrow full of money to schools. They’ll have enough resources if they’ll be creative enough to help kids get the education need to be successful.”
Wooten said he opposes increasing any taxes right now.
“Families have to live within their income,” he said. “You can’t keep finding new ways to tax.”
State officials don’t listen, though, Wooten said. “It’s not the answer. We’re tired. We’re taxed to death.
“On the state level, if you keep taxing, you discourage corporations from coming here.”
Rather, as Linn County has done by bringing Pepsico and Lowe’s to the area, the state needs to create a climate that encourages people to come to Oregon, he said. That means continuing funding for groups such as the Albany-Millersburg Economic Development Corporation and others.
He suggests tax deductions for the first three to five years to help a business get started. The lost dollars are made up by the resources gained and the new jobs.
The Lowe’s Distribution Center in Lebanon provides paychecks to employees who create demand for more goods and services, by far exceeding the loss of three to five years of taxes, Wooten said.
Beyond taxes and economic development, the state needs to strengthen the state police force, mainly on highways and freeways to combat imported narcotics, he said. “That’s where the drug transfer is going on.”
Dealing with the drug problem involved educating children, preventing drug abuse in the first place, he said. More police presence helps reduce the availability of the drugs. Courts must force convicted addicts to learn a new lifestyle.
So far courts have failed to sentence them to rehabilitation or something else to force them to learn a new lifestyle, although drug courts have been somewhat effective, he said.
With the looming loss of federal timber safety net payments, some counties are facing deep cuts.
Up to half of some budgets for jails and sheriff’s offices will be cut, he said. The solution: “Let them harvest timber again.”
Sustainably harvesting trees creates jobs, provides resources for governments, restores health to forests and decreases fire danger, Wooten said.
Wooten has been a commissioner for seven years. In recent years, he has worked at Oremet in radiological imaging and quality control. He retired from Oremet when he was elected commissioner. With a shortage of qualified workers, he was asked by the business to return.