Brad Hampton: Candidate for Rock Island City Council

What qualities or experiences make you the best candidate for the position?

As retired Navy, I have some world experience I can bring to the table. I like to think I can see maybe a bigger picture. As a machinist mechanic, I can participate in discussions with a more mechanical point of view, more nuts and bolts. I was involved in our sewer project and attended meetings with the engineer and contractors and I provided input when requested.

Currently I am working to improve the emergency management capability of the city starting with communications (some radios and antennas with back-up power). This will allow us to better support our citizens if there is a disaster in the area and will allow us to maintain communications with Douglas and Chelan County Emergency Management. Often in city government, we need to rely on experts in many different fields (engineering, planning and many others). My experience helps me ask the right questions to get to the information needed to make the best decisions we can.

What do you think are the important issues in this race?

Continuity — all the other council members have changed in the last four years, not sure on specifics, but it falls to me to be the voice from the past. It is easy to forget why we made the decisions we made in the past, and those details can affect the context.

In my opinion, we have one of the best councils to tackle the issues Rock Island currently faces. There are a couple with previous government experience, one with budget and accounting, another with natural-resource type experience, another that is a successful local business owner and a resident with a civic-people point of view and I would not want to trade any one of them. Our mayor has a strong vision of the future.

What is your vision for Rock Island? Are there specific issues or projects you want to tackle if elected?

My goal for Rock Island is to allow it to grow without losing why people want to come here. If we try to staunch or regulate all development, then the city will stagnate, so there must be progress. If we go too fast, we run a risk of making the wrong decision. We have to look at each decision from as many directions as possible and keep our citizens in mind. Not all will be happy. At the end of the day, I hope to make Rock Island a better place.