"We turned the ship, it is time to put the pedal to the metal" Mike Newman kick's off Eureka City Council re-election

About 40 people showed up around lunch time for Council member Mike Newman's kick-off today at the C Street Plaza.

Reached for comment later, Mike said, "We turned the ship, it is time to put the pedal to the metal". He wants to emphasize that the four years since he was elected, the City has started to move in a direction and he wants to keep moving forward.

Here is a copy of his speech:

"I am a 30 + years Businessman & Citizen that has worked hard to earn a living while proudly serving my community as a member of our Eureka City Council for the past 4 years.  In that time, I have worked to get more “bang for our buck” in the way City Hall does business.

My opponent has said that this is a do nothing council…that we are not getting things done…Well, I disagree.

In my 4 years I have helped accomplish such tasks as:

• Facilitating the opening of the Extreme Weather Winter Shelter, to care for the homeless when temperatures reach 32 degrees or less.
• Taken steps to combine our Fire Department with Humboldt Fire District #1 to form Humboldt Bay Fire, saving the City approximately $180K per year for the last 3 years.
• Consolidated several departments in City Hall to help save money and make local government more efficient.
• Prioritized the need to attract and retain Business using the assets that our City has, such as a deep water port, a beautiful waterfront and a downtown rich in historic architecture.

Our Council also helped finish the funding of the Fisherman’s Terminal Building behind me for our Fishing Industry’s use. We hired an innovative police chief with a broad array of experience to begin solving our city’s problems.


We are getting the job done ! But there's always more to do!

In the next 4 years, I will continue to work toward:
-easier and better Transportation access to our remote region to help alleviate the extra costs for locating, and conducting business here.
- addressing and solving the needs of our healthcare system. We have a problem attracting and keeping health care providers to our area and one of the reasons cited is the difficulty to easily travel in and out of our Region.
-Beautifying the Broadway corridor
-Development of the Waterfront instead of vacant land
-Industrial Park-pre permitted
-Completing our General Plan
-Continuing the success 0f the just launched Project, “Restore Hope”, by a coalition of the City and County to restore hope to the Citizens of Eureka and bring respite to those struggling to find housing.

I sincerely believe that the future of our families, businesses and community are in the balance.  That’s why I am running again for this office.

I am ready to roll my sleeves up and get back to work for you, and in turn ask for your support in my re-election campaign.   I need You, Your endorsement, Your donations, and your HELP.

If you share my vision of a new Eureka where families can flourish and City Hall works for the people, join the campaign, go to my website, Newman4CityCouncil.

I ask for your vote for Eureka City Council this November.     Thanks for coming today!"