Ketchikan Borough Assembly member Dan Ortiz has filed to run for reelection in the upcoming municipal election. There are three 3-year seats up for grabs on the borough assembly.
The assembly serves as the legislative power of the borough, and is responsible for voting on action items and establishing policy for the borough.
KRBD spoke with Ortiz about his goals and priorities if reelected to office.
Dan Ortiz: I’m running because I want to continue to be an advocate for the things that I think make Ketchikan a unique and wonderful community. You know, I have a long history here, and I have a lot of interest in how we move forward into the future, and want to maintain a lot of what makes Ketchikan unique. And when I say that, it’s to a sense of community here, and I think that’s getting more rare all the time in our society. And I grew up in that community, and I want to do what I can to maintain that sense of community, both in specific ways, but also to try to maintain an understanding amongst people that you know. First and foremost we’re here on this island together. We need to value each other and value the community that we’re in, and appreciate it for what it is, because it’s, in my opinion, a unique place and growing more unique in its sense of community all the time.
Specifically, I’m interested in maintaining a voice for public education. I think it is the backbone of what formed the country, and constitutionally, representatives have some mandates for protecting, and public safety and public education are two of those mandates. They don’t talk about anything else. You know, we get comfortable with the idea that the government should do a lot of other things, and that’s good too. But when it’s all said and done, there’s only two things they have to do: that’s provide for an adequate public education for kids between 5 to 18, and then also to provide for public safety. So I don’t apologize for being an advocate for public education. I feel like it’s just following our Constitutional mandate, the Alaskan Constitution, and that’s what we swore allegiance to. When I was in the legislature, we also were bound by the Alaskan Constitution. I know when I took my oath of office to the borough, it was an oath of swearing allegiance to the U.S. Constitution as well as to the Alaska Constitution, so there you go.
And then from there, issues like the library. I want to continue to be an advocate for public libraries and the importance of public libraries and having access to places where people can get information and can learn, and don’t have to pay a lot of money for it. In fact, you know, other than taxpayers for their share, it’s one of the few places that are open to people when they walk in the door they don’t have to pay a fee. And I think what they encounter when they go into the library is lots of stuff that’s good and good for them to be exposed to and have access to, and so I’ll be an advocate for and continue to try to be an advocate for the library, whether the borough takes over powers or not. I feel like we need to maintain our contribution to the library, and to make sure that people island-wide have access to a public library; those would be two big issues for me.
And then, you know, I think as we move forward, I think we’re getting closer and closer to reaching a tipping point, if you will, towards being comfortable with all the tourists that are arriving. But at the same time, understanding what an important role they play in our economy. But at the same time, trying to maintain a balance so that the people who live here year-round feel like they can go to certain places and go to certain areas where, traditionally they’ve had some privacy, or at least, knowing that they would be not inundated by tourists. And now that seems to be – there’s fewer and fewer places. It’s going to be a tough balancing act because I understand the importance of tourism to our economy and will always be an advocate for that.
But at the same time, I’m hearing more and more from people about, you know, is there no limit to how many people are in our town each day, and is it a good thing if we have now 12,000 to 13,000 in a day? Does that mean that four years from now it’s going to be a good thing to have 19,000 or 20,000 a day? I don’t know that our infrastructure can support that, and that it would also support maintaining the quality of life for the people here. So issues like that. But yeah, I’m excited to continue to try to serve on the borough. And I filled a one-year seat and thought that you know I need to give it a little bit more effort than that than just the one year. So I filed, and we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what the voters say.
Hunter Morrison: On your time on the assembly, what is something that you’ve done that you’re most proud of?
Ortiz: I’m not so sure that there’s been one thing. I think that, you know, just trying to help contribute to a sense of balance and a sense of dialogue where we talk about the issues. I don’t want to say before my arrival the borough was slanted in any way politically, but I think when people listen to the dialogue, they know that I’m representing just what I talked about: community representing important things that I think are important in our community, in our state. Adherence to the constitution, all those kinds of things.
I’m not so sure that I can point to one thing, and I will tell you that being on the borough assembly compared to being a state representative, in some ways, is harder because I confront issues where I can understand very well, and I have friends on both sides of issues that come before the assembly. Friends that have lived in the community for a long time, like myself, and so it’s tougher to make those kinds of decisions when you know you’re making them, and you know, that in some cases half the people aren’t going to be happy with you. And that’s tough because they’re right there too. It’s right there, at the local meeting and those kinds of things. And so, you know, when you’re at the state level, you’re more like advocating for everybody in your district. Now, granted, not everybody agreed with you, but first of all, they’re not right there in front of you, and second of all, those people who didn’t agree with you, oftentimes you felt like you really were sticking up for the best interests of everybody in Alaska, or the best interests of your district. It seemed like it was clear what your direction should be on different issues, based on how you felt like the majority of people in the communities you’re representing, how they felt about the issue. Now, oftentimes, you know, like the issue with the building of the health facility out at Salmon Falls, that just drew lots of public comment from both sides of the issue, and I had friends on both sides of the issue, so that was tough. So in some ways, like I say, it’s harder.
But your question was, can I point to one thing that I feel most proud about? Not really. I just feel like I’ve been a voice to try to balance things out a little bit, and I’ll continue to try to remember that I believe in the system. I believe in representative government. I believe in people getting involved and stepping up and trying to do their part to maintain community, maintain the things that are important in our society, et cetera. So I believe in that, and so I guess that’s what I feel most proud about is that I’m not just sitting on the sidelines, but I’m getting involved and I’m doing my part as a citizen.
Morrison: Outside of your time on the assembly, what other community engagement or leadership roles makes you feel like you’re equipped for the job?
Ortiz: Well I spent 10 years as a state representative in that time. I certainly am familiar with issues that impact our community, that impact our region and our state, and I have spent 10 years listening to my own constituents. So when I go to represent this borough, the borough was the biggest part of my group that I represented, and I spent 10 years listening to them, so I feel like I have a lot of knowledge. And then I also understand quite clearly how the state interacts with the borough, and I feel like I can be a good advocate with people at the state level because I know so many of those people. I served with them, I know them personally, and even those people who were not in my caucus, I still had a pretty good relationship with. So I feel like I can be a good advocate for Ketchikan interests at the state level because I know the people are at the state level, and at least a lot of them, and so there’s that. That gives me some qualifications, if you will, and then the fact that I’ve been a resident here for over 50 years now. Yeah, I think I’m a legitimate representative. I understand what the community’s about, and so that alone gives me, I think, some qualifications, if you will, to be a borough assembly person because I have lived for and been a part of this borough for over 50 years and a public school teacher for over 32 years. So yeah.
Morrison: Aside from what you’ve already sort of mentioned, what is something that you would like listeners to know about you?
Ortiz: You know, I’m not so sure that listeners to KRBD, that there’s many of them that at least know my name, and know that if they listen to KRBD, well then that means that they’ve been listening. If they’ve been here a while, they’ve been listening over the years. I’ve certainly been engaged with. I’ve been an advocate for KRBD at the state level. I don’t necessarily know that there’s any one thing I want them to know about me, other than I’m just a local guy interested in trying to promote the community of Ketchikan and the well-being of the people of Ketchikan. And if they don’t know that about me, if they come to understand that that’s what I’m about, you know I’m not a very partisan person politically. I ran as an independent, but at the state level, of course. At the borough level, the political parties don’t necessarily play as much of a part. But I’m certainly not tied philosophically to what some people would refer to as the far left, or what other people would refer to as the far right. Either the boundaries on both sides of the political spectrum. I’m not a part of that. I’m just kind of a center guy that looks for compromise and looks for what I think is the best interest of people on the issues that come before me. So if they come to that, understand that about me, well, then that’s a good thing.
Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
