Editor’s note: the following refers to a letter (“Councilman gives boost to Elfers”) printed in the Oct. 12 edition.

I have a question about the intent of this endorsement. Is Rich Elfers being endorsed based only on the fact that he is a hard-working and dedicated person? Although that is a good thing, that is something that we should expect out of all of our elected officials. I think it’s OK for us to ask for more than just that.

In this declining economy we can all agree on one thing, and that is, there are money woes out there. Our nation, our state, our cities and towns, and our friends and families are struggling to make ends meet. Inflation is going up, our pay is going down, and there’s a need to raise taxes to cover what is being spent. I believe our government officials need to have more of a business sense, a business education and business experience. (A positive business experience.) We need people to sacrifice their time away from their successful businesses to help fix some of the money problems that have been created in our communities. These are the type of people that have the education, background and experience in dealing with money.

My father told me many years ago that good business people stay in business and make money and those that can’t make it in business go into politics and make poor decisions like they did in business. I don’t believe this to be true in all situations, but we can definitely see this type of situation in our history. As I said earlier, we need experienced, good businessman to sacrifice some of their time to help fix the problems we all have to face in our communities. If we vote people into office based on being a nice guy, or just hard-working and dedicated, and not on whether they have the experience and education to help fix the financial problems that we have, we will only face bigger problems in the future.

I have heard Darrel Dickson speak passionately about the community of Enumclaw and its financial problems. I don’t think he has all of the answers. I don’t think anybody has all the answers. But I do think he can help. Over 20 years of successful business experience and an educational background dealing with finances makes him a good candidate for helping us figure it out. We need to vote people into public offices that can do good for us. Voting people in that do not have the education or work experience in that field makes just as much sense as having a barber perform heart surgery on you. Yes, the barber can give it a good go, but in the end, the outcome isn’t going to be very promising.

Kory Custer

Buckley