Writer choose McClain based on integrity

To The Eagle:

The word most often used in the assessor’s race between the incumbent, Bill Coons and the challenger, Brian McClain, is experience. There is another word that needs to be added to the discussion – integrity.

Follow the storyline: Bill Coons, the incumbent assessor with experience, is in the process of building a “mokki” on the property he resides on located on Welcome Slough which is defined as a Finnish word for cottage which is defined as a simple house, one near a lake or beach. Now we’re rolling in Wahkiakum County to build a mokki, cottage or house, certain procedures are required to wit/namely, a pre-approved building plan which when approved then allows you to apply for the following permits--septic, electrical, plumbing etc. There is no pre-approved building plan for Coons’s mokki, aka cottage, house, ergo everything regarding the mokki has been constructed without the issuance of permits. The SW Washington Department of Ecology has an open case number PDTS 48848 pending on this mokki.

For the moment, let’s get back and give a definition of two words:

1. Experience--“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” --Rita Mae Brown, Alma Mater.

2. Integrity --“Integrity is doing the right things when no one is looking.” --Anonymous.

The question now becomes did Coons get his much touted experience using bad judgment by building the mokki which then makes one wonder what other experience he has gained from exercising bad judgment, perhaps at your expense?

Or is it a lack of integrity he is clearly demonstrating by building the mokki when none of us were looking?

Experience is important, but integrity should be given equal weight when we are presented with such a glaring fait accompli example of what appears to be using a lack of one, integrity, whilst touting the other, experience.

You have a choice to make with your vote--Bill Coons with questionable experience or Brian McClain with unquestioned integrity?

Mary Gustafson

Cathlamet