3 Questions with Wil Fuentes- Guest Martin Pittioni

Brought to you by the 18th Legislative District Democrats with your host Wil Fuentes and our special guest Martin Pittioni who has led major public reforms in Washington and Oregon and is Candidate for Clark County Council District 2. Mr Pittioni  talks about being transparent and a team player as well as the growth management issues facing Clark Country. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Three Questions, sponsored by the 18th Legislative District, Washington State Democrats. I'm your host, Wolf Wentis. Folks, I'd like to introduce my next guest, Martin Pigidoni. He has led major public reforms across Washington State and Oregon successfully modernizing opiate response tools. He is a seasoned government reform leader, agency executive, and candidate who calls Clark County home and happens to be running for Clark County Council District 2. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Absolutely. You know, I'm happy to have you here, first of all. I'm excited to ask you a little bit about your campaign. You are running for Clark County Council District 2. Tell our audience uh the boundaries of your district.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Okay, so boundaries it it actually goes uh almost all the way uh uh it goes down to the city of Vancouver is a little bit uh of the very northern part of the city of Vancouver goes all the way over to um goes all the way over to Vancouver Lake. Okay. And uh actually far beyond um so to 205. Okay, and uh to 205 and actually beyond 205 orchard uh Orchard Hills area um also and then north to Hazeldell's um creek. Okay, okay at Salmon Creek area.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Okay, so a lot of those urban communities within uh the city of Vancouver's uh urban growth boundary, but not in the city of Vancouver other than like you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

There's a sm there's a small space, yes. Okay, so it's it's a very it's it's a very um uh it's unincorporated. It's unincorporated, yeah. Mostly uh suburban and rural.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Oh, okay. Okay, so you do have a little bit of rural, yeah, absolutely, as you start going north uh northeast. Yes. Question number one. So here's my question for you, Martin. Clark County is set to grow pretty significantly over the next couple of decades, right? Uh forecasted to grow approximately 200,000 folks. That's a lot of people. So my question to you is what is your core philosophy on how local government should operate to best serve the people of Clark County as we have this explosive growth over the next couple of decades?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Well, really for me, you know, there's two components to this question. One is the philosophical piece, and then how it plays out specifically with the issue uh relative to growth, right? And for me, the core philosophy uh is really the same how I've always approached my public service, right? And it's about hearing all voices. You want to be respectful, you don't want to just listen, but you also want to consider those perspectives and voices, and you want to do this kind of in a very proper and balanced way. The other piece that to me has always led to kind of more kind of everything that's kind of informed my success in my career working, you know, to really move policy forward, whether it's growth or not, is relationships. And relationships really is the key to everything, both in private life as well as in public life. Absolutely. Um, and what that specifically means, and I'll lay this out in a context of growth in a moment, right, is you show up, you work hard, um, and that's for me the priority. You listen, you're respectful, you're a team player, and you're transparent.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Now that's all very high level. So now I want to bring it down to the specific of the growth question. Alright. Um, right. So recently, uh, and I'm sorry to this may be a painful memory for you, Will, uh, there was a vote on the uh delayed growth management plan uh that the county held, right? And you had voices from the city, you had from the cities uh that wanted to expand their urban growth boundaries, you had voices from the AC Commission, you had voices from um you had voices uh from the AC Commission that were advocated for inclusion of transfer of development rights, you had voices from the community that were uh very specifically saying, hey, can we not use farmland? Right. Can we please kind of use alternative one, right? You want to preserve it, right? So you had all these different voices, and while they clearly had access to that process, I, for example, worry about why two weeks prior to that same split three to two vote, right, we had another split three to two vote, right, on the uh on a legal opinion that appeared to have been related to this very topic, right? And it troubles me because clearly if you have two counselors voting in favor of releasing that opinion, it means that was a feasible option. Right. If you then have a majority that says we don't want to release it, it breeds mistrust.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, you start wondering.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

It's you start wondering, right? It just breeds mistrust. And then when you then have the outcoming of community members that come and basically say, please protect our farmland, we can grow within our existing boundaries, right? And they end up on the losing side of the equation. It just leaves, I respect the ability to make different policy choices, but the process, when it plays out that way, leaves a little bit of a taste in all of this. So, as a counselor for me, right, what that means is I approach things through good and inclusive processes, and I will stand up for transparency. That's it, right? Because that's really the key for me, so that this is a complex issue. There are gonna be different opinions, and one of the best ways to get through it is by building trust through transparency. And I don't think we quite met the mark there. And that's something where I would, as a counselor, definitely uh push in that direction.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

And that's that's really great to hear because as you and I, and a lot of people know there's a lot of mistrust in government. It's nothing new, right? It's always happened, but it's important for government to be fully transparent. People want to know what you know, how they're being represented, first of all, and what their uh elected officials are doing. You know, you talked about being present, making sure that you're there, right? To do the work, that you're showing up, that you're collaborating, that that you're working with people. And those are important. If you're gonna move any type of policy uh forward, you have to be able to do it in collaboration with with your with your colleagues and other other folks in the community. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

So uh I've got another question for you, really quick. Question number two. So, what is your approach to keep uh our community safe?

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So, for me, that really there are a number of angles to this, right? I want to start off on the law enforcement side, right? There was a recent vote by the council that I really, really appreciated a unanimous vote uh to bring on 22 new positions in the sheriff's um in the sheriff's office, including 21 new deputies, and I think a sergeant position, if I remember correctly. Right, and so I'm thrilled about that. I I do think it's something to watch for two reasons. One is we still are in the implementation phase, and I'm a little worried about kind of the like the length of time it's gonna take us to actually bring that onto the streets in like a literal, yeah, in a literal fashion. And quite frankly, it's still not gonna hit us anywhere near the ratio where we need to be, which is hard when you have a structural deficit and still trying to find funding sources. So I do want to keep an eye on that. Um, that said, safety is about more than just law enforcement because the biggest thing that I've heard actually from the community members as I go around and talk with people in the community is it's actually not focused on the sheriff's deputy issue, it's issue of street safety. Yeah, hey, it's not safe for me to get out of here and out of my neighborhood. There's been so much development, there is no traffic light, and people are really worried about us not having demand managed our planning and our development as well as we could have. So for me, I really want to dig into what we can do, what's really underneath, and what is it that on at the council level we can do to improve not just the trust in planning but real outcomes in terms of where are the biggest pain points and what do we need to fix? Because to me, that's just as big an issue for community safety as the as the law enforcement, um, as the law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

And that's such a valid point that safety, community safety, it's not just about law enforcement, it's not just about deputies or police officers, it's about ensuring that we have a proper infrastructure in place, right, so that people can cross that highway safely, right? Uh, and and and so absolutely you're right that it's the council oftentimes that becomes the challenge, becomes the obstacle. So it's great to hear that you're fully aware of that, and you really want you want to be part of that solution. Absolutely, we do.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

And quite frankly, there's also, from my perspective, public safety also connects to public health. We probably don't have time to get into the details there, maybe a little bit uh in in the remaining part of the interview, but that's another issue that I feel very, very um strongly about is that you can't really keep people safe unless you also do well on public health.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Absolutely. I'll talk a little bit about that in just a moment. Question number three. Martin, I've got a last question for you. Now, homelessness and behavioral health are just complex issues, right? That are not easy to solve, uh, and they impact our entire community, right? No matter where you live. So, how should the county approach these challenges?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

So, really, I want to just say first that this is actually something I really look forward to digging into. Simply because I have a lot of behavioral health expertise and background from my prior work in behavioral health oversight. Okay, um, as well as actually also working on homelessness issues directly, right? So for me, this is close to my heart. Oh, it's here, I care about that, right? That said, um there is a host of things that really needs to be done here. You're absolutely right, it's a super complex issue. There are no easy answers. The good news here is in this community, we do have a lot of existing programs where I think we can look at both efficacy, support, and expansion, if at all possible under the budgetary circumstances. So, what I'm talking about here is you know, there's a number of categories. Yeah, for me, one of them is the outreach and stabilization programs that we have, uh, that we have already in the county, like the host program or the heart program, right? We already have uh certain local housing and shelter solutions that are out there. So the issue again is looking at what can be done beyond what we're doing now to support those and to strengthen those, right? And then we also have a number of programs in behavioral health, yeah, right, uh around and specifically through Clark County Behavioral Health Services. And quite frankly, just see what is it we can do to support those more, including specifically, you know, the wellness and recovery uh recovery centers, the alcohol and drug treatment, right? The alcohol and drug treatment side and the mental health disorder, particularly the co-occurring disorder side, right? That's a tough one to manage.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like you have some background, and you shared with us you have some background in in dealing with behavior health uh from prior experiences in your career. Um now there are uh a number of organizations that continue to do work uh as well, particularly the heart uh uh in the city of Vancouver, right? Uh, one of the things that I've heard other uh potenti candidates talk about is expanding it beyond the city of Vancouver. What are your thoughts about that? Strongly in support of that.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Because quite frankly, if you look at this simply from a perspective of impact on citizens, right, they're not gonna care whether they're over the county line or just inside the city line. Yeah, the impacts are exactly the same, regardless of whether inside or outside that line, right? So having being able to have that same consistency of service, right? The reality is whether we like it or not, the county is effectively already being asked to operate a lot like a city.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

That's the reality. Whether we like that or not is a whole other discussion, right? And and what the challenges are is a whole other discussion. But the reality is from the question that you asked, the best thing we can do is to have consistency of those services that don't break what really for most is an artificial line.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Right, that's exactly it, yeah. So collaborate with the city of Encore with other jurisdictions to address a very complex challenge. Uh, Martin, is there anything else that you want viewers to know about you?

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Just simply that I deeply care and I look forward to making this my main focus of um of my time, so um, of my time and really the main focus of my work. I have a lot of background in making government work and I would love to bring that to the council.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

And uh absolutely. Well, we want to thank you for being on the show today. Uh thank you for your time. Uh, you got a uh a road ahead of you. Uh it's camp based season in full swing. Uh it is a lot of work, uh, but we wish you all the luck in the world. Awesome. Absolutely. Thank you. Folks, that is our show for today. Don't forget to hit like, subscribe, leave a comment, and hit the notification bell. We will see you next time.