Luring New Businesses Demands New Leaders, Demo Candidates Say

Democratic challengers Jeff Johnston and M. Grant McMullen are focusing on economic development in their uphill battles against two incumbent Republican Stevens County commissioners.

The county needs to support its struggling timber and mining industries with tax breaks and lure new industries with tax incentives, according to Johnston.

But the county can’t lure new businesses without shaking off ultraconservative opposition to land-use planning and government in general, McMullen believes.

McMullen, 42, is running against fellow Suncrest resident Fran Bessermin, 53, to represent District 1 at the southern end of the county. Johnston, 33, and fellow Colville-area resident Fred Lotze, 62, are vying for District 3 at the county’s northern end.

Johnston and McMullen had no opposition in the Sept. 17 primary election and now must face a pair of Republicans who prevailed in hotly contested primaries.

McMullen made a strong showing with 28.2 percent of the overall primary vote, but Bessermin had 39.9 percent despite attacks by ultraconservatives. McMullen’s agenda of bringing more services to the southern part of the county and his unflinching criticism of far-right zealots may not play as well in the countywide general election as it did in the district-only primary.

But McMullen says he won’t change his message: “This is not the Old West. There are a lot of good, clean potential businesses out there that would like to come into the area, but they’re not going to do that if you’re going to thumb your nose at the (state) Growth Management Act and have militiamen in important positions.”

Commissioner J.D. Anderson, a militia supporter, “will have to find a way to deal with me because I’m not going where he is at to deal with him,” McMullen said.

McMullen grew up in Spokane, graduated from Rogers High School and has lived in Stevens County for six years. He and his wife, Judi, operate Boardwalk Pizzaria in Suncrest. McMullen also is a short-haul driver and office assistant for a Spokane freight company.

He previously worked 14 years for Kaiser Aluminum, mostly as a laborer, and was a United Steelworkers safety representative.

McMullen and his wife have three children, the youngest of whom is 18.

His opponent, Bessermin, was a teacher until she and her late husband moved to Suncrest 16 years ago from California with their now-adult son. She owns and operates a Spokane company that makes pies for grocery store bakeries.

Bessermin graduated from high school in Whittier, Calif., and earned a bachelor’s degree in social science and education from the University of California at Long Beach.

She said she wants another term to tie up loose ends, including making sure the Martin Hall regional juvenile detention center in Medical Lake opens as planned. She thinks her experience is needed to balance the tight county budget and to lobby state officials for better funding of the county’s new 911 emergency dispatch center.

Bessermin considers herself a “middle of the road Republican,” and supports zoning in areas that have requested it.

Johnston, who is single, came to the county about seven years ago from Northern California. A graduate of Saratoga (Calif.) High School, he studied business administration and accounting at De Anza Junior College in Cupertino, Calif., and San Jose State University.

He has worked for the county for six years, as hazardous waste and recycling coordinator and now in the parts office of the Road Department.

If elected, Johnston said, he will quit his job and devote his full attention to the $34,640-a-year commissioner’s position. He thinks his years of county employment make him better qualified than Lotze, a retired logging company operator who was appointed in April.

Johnston is the son of Joyce Tasker, who has irritated some people in the county with her efforts to improve treatment of animals.

“I am very supportive of her issues, but as a commissioner my job will be limited to what this campaign is focused on,” Johnston said. “My issues are what the county government can better do to serve our economy and our industries.”

While new to the commissioners’ office, Lotze has a long record of public service. He served 13 years each on the boards of the Onion Creek-Northport School District and Fire District 3.

Lotze said he opposes any new taxes and state and federal control over local governments. But his view of Commissioner Anderson’s radical politics is only slightly more diplomatic than McMullen’s.

Anderson is “real nerve-wracking to work with,” Lotze said. “I’m not with the radicals, definitely. I think we have to do something to get back to normal, and I think that’s starting to happen.”

Better use of road fund money is one of Lotze’s top priorities. He would like to oil more of the county’s 900 miles of gravel road.

A graduate of Northport High School, Lotze and his wife, Cena, have three adult daughters.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The job Stevens County commissioners serve four-year terms and are paid $34,640 annually.