Portraits of Leadership

Most people don’t know this, but the walls of my office at Rainier City Hall are covered with framed photographs. Some of them, naturally, are of my wife, children, and parents. However, the photos also include former Oregon Governor Vic Atiyeh, Secretary of State Dennis Richardson and President Dwight Eisenhower. The pictures of those great leaders are hung alongside a copy of the U.S. Constitution. They are reminders of the kind of leadership values that I hope to emulate in my position and as a private citizen.

Also hanging is the Executive Master’s in Public Administration that I earned from Portland State University in 2017. Much of the coursework I took as part of that program involved leadership principles. I’ve made every effort to utilize those in the course of my daily duties ever since. Additionally, I’ve been blessed with fantastic mentorships along the way.

I started my career as a reporter while still attending Southern Oregon University. The internship I landed at the now-defunct Ashland Daily Tidings newspaper led to me meeting the mayor of Ashland. That mayor, Alan DeBoer, then went on to become a state senator a decade and a half later, and I proudly served as his chief of staff.

My first professional job was at a now-defunct weekly newspaper in Central Point. Dennis Richardson was a member of that town’s city council and was running for state representative. I went on to serve as his legislative aide during the 2005 session. Both Dennis and Alan became early mentors of mine, and I learned a lot from them. Those lessons continue to serve me well.

I was fortunate enough to conduct some of Atiyeh’s last recorded interviews prior to his passing in 2014. His influence has also helped guide me along the way. A resident recently stopped by my office and dropped off some leadership quotes by famed former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They included “Leadership is the power to shape the future,” and

“A leader must see himself as the guardian of a heritage for future generations.”

That was a much-appreciated reminder of what I seek to do in Rainier. The Boy Scouts have a basic principle: leave it in better shape than you found it. Even though I quit the Boy Scouts to play the guitar and have never regretted that decision, that philosophy still sticks with me.

The truth is I put a lot of love into what I do. This isn’t just a job to me and never will be. I genuinely care about this community and the people in it and want it to be better. Long after I retire, I want to be able to drive through Rainier and still feel good about the work I’ve done here. In the meantime, I will continue to look up from my desk and see the faces of the leaders whose approaches and examples have helped shape me over the years. I just hope I learned enough from them to continue serving the residents of Rainier well.