“In all that I do, my core purpose is to imagine and realize a future where a person’s childhood upbringing, their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and any identity factor can no longer be used to predict life-long social, economic, and health outcomes. I want to see the day when who you are can no longer predict your access to education, your health or your wealth.”
– excerpt from Dorian’s confirmation speech made to the Hillsboro School Board on entering public office on the Northwest Regional Education Service District Board, proudly serving 20 school districts across Washington, Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook Counties.
“I commit to protecting the beauty, wonder, and diversity of our natural world for a resilient future seven generations would be proud of.”
- Feeding people will always be top priority – feeding data centers, the stock market, and corporate greed should never be.
- Hunters, farmers, and city folk alike benefit from protecting waterways, flora, and fauna, and unpaved landscapes.
- Knowing and participating in where our food comes from connects people, place, and small business in unity.
“I commit to the working class as a fighter for full bellies, safe and stable housing, and good health in our shared pursuit of happiness.”
- There is enough wealth, grit, and humanity in and surrounding our “Silicon Forest” to ensure every child has a safe, warm bed to sleep in.
- When those of us with lived experience lead, homelessness becomes a brief one-time experience unmarred by systemic barriers to housing, economic, and health needs.
- Meeting people where they are with trauma-informed care saves lives and livelihoods; law-and-order policing can result in fatalities and has kept generations in poverty.
“I commit to building an economy by the people and for the people as a fighter for our livelihoods, affordable groceries, and rent.”
Hillsboro has a council-manager form of city government. Our elected officials must be focused on policymaking while staying grounded in community priorities; they also must direct and assess the performance of an operations executive called a city manager. Assessment must include how well community member priorities are reflected across city operations and services.
Both elected officials and staff have a responsibility to meaningfully engage people across many neighborhoods, identities, and backgrounds to ensure decisions reflect the makeup of the community served.
Engagement must be relational and meaningful; residents representing our neighborhoods on boards and commissions must be empowered to weigh in directly to council, community surveys and comment periods must be clear and available to all regardless of language and digital access, and major long-term policy decisions must be advertised extensively with a focus on those with the potential to be impacted most and who have been historically ignored and harmed.
“I commit to advancing civil rights as a defender of our community, constitution, and democracy in the face of illegal federal actions including ICE violence.”
- All people deserve safety and dignity when dealing with government at any level; civil rights are the bare minimum, not goals.
- State-sanctioned violence against any marginalized group is a threat to all of our rights, not just the group being attacked.
- Local governments are the front line of government and must comply with community priorities, not illegal executive orders.
“I commit to building an economy by the people and for the people as a fighter for our livelihoods, affordable groceries, and rent.”
- Advanced manufacturing, technology, corporate healthcare, and other major industries must contribute to building community wealth by supporting education and workforce development for local people.
- Preventing gentrification, evictions, health crises, and prolonged unemployment is not only the right thing to do, but also more cost effective on a generational timeline.
- Being a “business leader” means expanding shared prosperity through living wages, quality benefits and retirement, safe and healthy workplaces, and jobs and livelihoods our community is proud of. Anything else – including focusing solely on profits and shareholders over workers and livelihoods – is greed.