Bob Olson: 4-yr City Council

Why did you choose to run for office? Several reasons 1) I believe every citizen should perform some civic duty whether that be participation in our chamber of commerce, civic club such as Kiwanis, Rotary, youth sports, elected offices such as the City Council, School Board, or County Commissioners or even children advocate programs like CASA. 2) I believe I have the experience to make an impact on the business that comes before the council. My personal capabilities comes from my work experiences, my volunteer involvement,  and my desire to serve.

What skills do you have that you will bring to the office? The learning curve for a city councilman is detailed.  One has to be able to grasp accounting presentations, compliance regulations, and the understanding of how a municipality is put together. I bring an understanding of numbers, the importance of compliance in any operation, and an ever increasing knowledge how the different municipal departments come together to function as a city.  With several council members departing after this term it is important that an element of experience remain, so I bring an incumbency to the table as well.

What do you hope to accomplish if elected? In general I want to serve the people. Specifically the council for the near term will be responsible to maintain and grow the uniqueness of Sidney.  Economic Development is a large item in the future success of our community.  We need to sell ourselves to companies and corporations looking to relocate, to market the abilities of our citizens as employees, and to show the advantage we have in facilities to house their operations.  We have had some successes in attracting business to Sidney, we need to be diligent and continue those efforts. We also need to be cognizant of our expenses.  City department heads have worked hard this last year to pair budgets back to a significant degree while maintaining most services the community has come to expect.

What are some challenges you hope to overcome? There is no secret to the challenges we face. Jobs have left the community and with them talented employee/citizens.  We as a government body have to be creative in the contacts we make as individual councilmen and as a collective group to recruit new businesses. We need to be a helpful resource to the city employees and management.  We need to ask insightful questions of the staff.  We need to be good listeners to our residents.  We need to support our local business community and industries. We need to ask our state and regional leaders for their help on recruitment issues.

What are the most important issues to be addressed by your office? Sidney is a great place to live, a great place to raise a family. I have spent over 20 years in this community. We have a rough patch in front of us, but it is manageable. One  issue we need to address together is attitude. My hope is the council will make decisions that will give our citizens reason to be optimistic, to look to the future with excitement and hope. If we can put that on the dashboard in front of us and all the people of Sidney join us in that outlook we will see progress. We will have hard decisions, not everyone will agree, but if we remember we are in this together we can make progress.  The issue for the council is to enlist the citizens and to encourage them to share ideas and their perspectives. Sidney has risen to the challenge in the past and it will again.