Opinion: Give Michelle a Hale Yes

Published 6:00 am Friday, September 21, 2018

I am proud to support Michelle Bonnet Hale for Assembly, and I hope you will too.

Having grown up on an isolated island on the rural outer coast, Hale has soggy Southeast Alaska roots. From that hardscrabble upbringing, Hale learned the value of hard work, and she came to understand how to respect and honor this awesome place we call home. I had the pleasure of working with Hale while she was the Director of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Water. In all of my experience, she was a dedicated and impassioned government leader. Through the most challenging years of budget cuts, she took action to create a more efficient government that answered our constitutional mandates for “maximum use” and “sustainable yield” of our state’s vast resources. In doing so, Hale had to balance the often conflicting needs of industry and the public. She believed in the power of the public process, she trusted the scientists with whom she worked, and she used the letter of the law as her regulatory compass. I personally witnessed her style of leadership. She assembled her key staff into a leadership team, and she urged their candid discussion of difficult issues. She embraced conflict as a way to sharpen critical thinking and promote collaborative decision making. I believe that she will bring this style of leadership to her work on the Juneau Assembly.

Hale is the right choice for the Juneau Assembly. On Oct. 2, please join by giving Michelle a Hale Yes.

Jeff Rogers,

Douglas

My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.