Dr. Robert Ketchum
We Need Jobs! We Need Robert and Ron!
Why should we care who sits on the Board of Trustees for North Idaho College? Because they raise our taxes and decide what kind of education will be offered at our local community college. Those are both big deals.
Two seats on the Board are up for election this Nov. 2nd. They will be on your regular ballot for the General Election that day, or your absentee ballots ahead of time.
Dr. Robert Ketchum is running against the incumbent, Christie Wood. Robert is an amazing professional. He has his doctorate in Professional Technical Education and is the person who started the highly successful Workforce Training Center out in Post Falls, where he was the Director for 20 years. Robert is now an independent consultant in the same field, matching educational courses to the needs of business.
Here’s what Dr. Ketchum said to the Press on 9/20/10:
“A real highlight of my career in education has been linking education and business, education and the economic life of the community, and education to the economic well-being of students,” Ketchum said. “I’ve always felt that’s important because there are many people on the side of academia for academia’s sake, but somebody has to be on the side of, ‘What’s the return on investment for students, what is the economic payback?'” The payoff, Ketchum said, should be the favorable economic impact that comes from having a skilled workforce made up of wage-earners who remain, and spend those wages, in Kootenai County.
Robert helps people get jobs. And he helps businesses get the right people. He is exactly who we need on the board of our community college right now!
Ron Nilson is running for the other seat on the board and his opponent is attorney Ken Howard. Ron Nilson is the owner and CEO of Ground Force Manufacturing in Post Falls and has a personal history that is a rags to riches story, with his success coming from shear hard work, willingness to risk and the faith to believe through it.
Ron is a smart, practical, successful businessman who lives in the real world. He knows budgets, sales, hiring, firing and making a business grow. He is also a terrific mentor of young people. The new KTEC technical high school was Ron’s brain child and he worked with it all the way to its reality.
Ron Nilson will bring real business experience to the Board and Dr. Robert Ketchum will bring the education-to-business connection so desperately needed to create jobs. That’s a winning combination.
The Reagan Republicans have been trying to set up a candidate forum for Robert and Ron to debate their opponents, so the public can hear open discussion of the important issues facing NIC and our community. Ron and Robert are ready but I’ve been told that both Christie Wood and Ken Howard have failed to return more than 6 phone calls made in this effort, so no forum has been arranged thus far.
Please tell everyone you know that the NIC election is important. NIC affects us all. We need the experience and sensibility Dr. Robert Ketchum and Ron Nilson will bring the the Board of Trustees. Pass it on. Together they will make a big difference for our community college.
Dr. Ketchum’s web site: http://ketchumfornic.com
I was originally in charge of the invites to the Reagan Republican NIC debates. They were to be held on the 7th. I received a reply from Mr. Nilson, Dr. Ketchum, and Sgt. Wood. I never received a reply from Mr. Howard.
Sgt. Wood explained that she was busy all that week with police training. So the debate was postponed. I am no longer in charge of the invites, so I don’t know what the status was.
I find it extremely rude that Mr. Howard sought not to reply to my letter. What kind of public representation can we expect from someone who doesn’t demonstrate common courtesy and reply to a personal letter? Likewise, I’ve sent an email message to Mike Bullard, Democratic candidate for Legislative position 4B. He has not returned my email, though when I met him before a debate he did acknowledge receiving it. What kind of message does it send when a candidate is unwilling to return email or reply to a letter? To me, the message is “Don’t vote for me!”
I will be repeating that message from Mr. Howard and Mr. Bullard later this month when I write up my opinions of the local races.
Comment by Dan — October 15, 2010 @ 9:20 am
Dan, I was told directly from the person now trying to set up the debates, that both Christie Wood and Ken Howard have failed to respond to more than 6 phone calls over the last 3 weeks.
(Mr. Howard returned the first phone call, but when he heard it was about a debate, he said he’d have to check his schedule…and has not returned any of the following 6 messages.)
Comment by mary — October 15, 2010 @ 9:29 am
Here’s a question and followup for Christie Wood to answer during the debate-that-never-will-be:
When you were a trustee with School District 271, your Trustee Profile on the district’s website stated, “She is currently the [police] department’s public information officer, and attending college full time to pursue her master’s in law justice studies.”
At the time that profile was posted with that information, in what university master’s program were you enrolled full time to pursue your master’s in law justice studies? Will you immediately sign a release authorizing a citizen to have access to all your enrollment and class records from that university so the information you have provided can be verified?
Comment by Bill — October 15, 2010 @ 9:49 am
To be blunt: The egotistical elites who run this area don’t want to expose their pet candidates to questions that could demonstrate how shallow and empty they are. If I were a political puppet for the good ol’ boys, I wouldn’t want to answer those questions either.
Comment by Dan — October 15, 2010 @ 9:58 am
I was leaning away from Nilson/Ketchup, but if the others’ refusal to debate is true (and I presume it is), that is a BIG turn off and I may change my mind.
Comment by KootenaiConservative — October 15, 2010 @ 11:04 am
*Ketchum
Comment by KootenaiConservative — October 15, 2010 @ 11:05 am
>Ketchup.
THAT was funny!
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, KC (and forgetting that Howard didn’t reply to my letter), there will be two debates coming up with all four candidates attending. I know there is a debate at NIC next Tuesday at noon. I also here there is a televised debate over in Post Falls, though I don’t have any details.
Comment by Dan — October 15, 2010 @ 11:30 am
I’ve been told that Christie Wood is now saying, on the gossip blog, that she responded to a letter from Dan Gookin, asking her to participate in a candidate debate. She says she told him she was busy. That was some time ago. Of course, on this other blog, she does NOT mention the 6 phone calls in the last three weeks that she has received but not answered from the current Reagan Republican person trying to set up the candidate forum. Less-than-half truths from Christie.
Comment by mary — October 15, 2010 @ 5:19 pm
Mary,
On another thread I asked you to defend your assertion that Huckleberries Online is a “gossip blog,” and you never responded. Since you have repeated that assertion, I will ask you again to defend that statement. To save you the trouble, here’s what I said on the other thread:
“And you level a baseless personal attack at Dave Oliveria every time you refer to Huckleberries Online as a “gossip blog,” something which it plainly is not, unless you qualify all of the following as gossip:
1) Interviews with Raul Labrador, Mike Kennedy, Wayne Hoffman, etc
2) Frequent promotion of Betsy Russell’s stories
3) Sports headlines
4) Transcription of the county police scanner
5) Links to various local bloggers
6) Comics and the AP Photo of the Day
7) And so on”
How can you continue to reasonably assert that Huckleberries Online is a gossip blog?
Comment by KootenaiConservative — October 15, 2010 @ 5:47 pm
KC: I’m going to move this to the Open Session topic. Dan
Comment by Dan — October 15, 2010 @ 5:53 pm
For comparison, here is a site most people would indeed classify as a gossip blog: http://www.nypost.com/pagesix
Comment by KootenaiConservative — October 15, 2010 @ 5:53 pm
Kootenai Conservative, are you jumping in right now to distract attention again from the serious issues of this blog? Do you think we will take the bait of the “gossip blog” topic to stop focusing on how Christie Wood is avoiding the public? How she has not responded to more than 6 polite phone calls asking for her participation in a candidate forum presented by a reputable group and moderated, tentatively, by the editor of the Press? We are going to keep our eye on the target because NIC taxes us and makes big decisions without voter input.
We need JOBS and lower taxes!
Comment by mary — October 15, 2010 @ 6:04 pm
No, I welcome the discussion of Christie Wood’s candidacy, and as I have said, I basically agree with the position of this blog when it comes to the issue of her ducking the debate with Robert Ketchum. However, I find the belief that Huckleberries Online is a gossip blog to be highly invalid, and if you are going to keep raising it, I will continue to challenge it until I receive some kind of rational explanation. If you think it’s “off topic,” fine, I’d be happy to discuss it on another thread. But I am going to discuss it.
Comment by KootenaiConservative — October 15, 2010 @ 6:21 pm
Whoops, I see this has been moved. Sorry to keep clogging up this thread!
Comment by KootenaiConservative — October 15, 2010 @ 6:23 pm