At his last meeting as an Albany City Council member, Dick Olsen peers from his place on the dais Wednesday night.
I’ve been following most meetings of the Albany City Council on YouTube or Zoom. But I went in person Wednesday night because the last council meeting of 2022 was also the last for longtime Councilors Bessie Johnson and Dick Olsen.
Olsen is completing six terms or 24 years in a row on the council. With previous terms and one term as mayor, he served Albany residents in Ward 1 for close to 50 years.
Bessie Johnson has been a councilwoman for 20 years, representing Ward 3.
Both lost their bids for one more term in November. I’ve known them for many years. While I realize that change is inevitable and sometimes even necessary, I’m sorry that we will no longer see them behind the rampart-like parapet the council has sat behind since City Hall was built.
Olsen has often been on the side of leaving people alone rather than piling on regulations and code sections to be enforced.
He is a staunch advocate of preserving the architecture and ambiance of the old neighborhoods. He lives in what became the Monteith District and got his start in city politics years ago by keeping the neighborhood from being overrun with apartments.
One of the council issues for which I remember Bessie Johnson has to do with shopping carts being stolen and ending up as litter, often at the bottom of a creek.
In the spring of 2008, the council voted 5-1 to adopt a shopping cart law. It’s still on the books and was intended to encourage stores to retrieve their carts.
Johnson voted “no.” She saw no sense in adopting a law that would not and could not be enforced. All the stolen carts you see abandoned around town have proved her right.
On Wednesday she voted against giving $225,000 in housing funds to an entity that hopes to build 70 “farmworker and workforce” apartments on the southeast edge of town, a $25 million project.
The council majority approved the allocation, and whether Johnson’s skepticism about this project will be borne out, only time will tell.
Also leaving the council is Stacey Bartholomew in Ward 2, who was appointed two years ago and did not seek election this year.
So, there will be three new members when the council meets again, on Jan. 4. We’ll see what if anything they do in the months and years to come. (hh)
Bessie Johnson and Stacey Bartholomew attend their last meeting as council members.
Congratulations are in order. These two have served their community for extended periods. There is something of a conflict regarding Mr. Olsen’s political philosophy as outlined by Hering.
Hasso writes: “Olsen has often been on the side of leaving people alone rather than piling on regulations and code sections to be enforced. He is a staunch advocate of preserving the architecture and ambiance of the old neighborhoods.”
I realize that this is Hasso’s interpretation. Mr. Olsen might not concur. Nevertheless, the two sentences crafted by Mr. Hering regarding Olsen’s political positioning are contradictory. One cannot be “on the side of leaving people alone,” and be a “staunch advocate” of preserving …architecture and old neighborhoods.
We have witnessed, thru Hering’s tenure at the DH and now at his own digital publication, that Councilor Olsen has been at the forefront in many of the so-called controversies over what sort of window applications, or what sort of exterior siding styles are “permitted” inside the alleged Albany Historical District.
While Olsen should be honored for his dedication to the City, it would be best if those honorifics were proffered after one takes off one’s rose-colored glasses. As the famous UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, once said: “Never mistake activity for achievement.”
On to our next life’s adventure for 2023! Happy New Year to all!
Congratulations and thanks to councilors Olsen and Johnson (and to those have served with them, and opposed them). I spent some time on the city beat and yes, there were times I found myself finding fault, but I tend to come back to the words of Teddy Roosevelt (substitute “person” for “man” for a more inclusive, and accurate, take): “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.”
Following says it all about Dick Olsen.
He always stood up for greater good, popular or not.
“ Olsen has often been on the side of leaving people alone rather than piling on regulations and code sections to be enforced.
He is a staunch advocate of preserving the architecture and ambiance of the old neighborhoods. He lives in what became the Monteith District and got his start in city politics years ago by keeping the neighborhood from being overrun with apartments.”
Thank you Dick.
Thanks to both. I have had the pleasure of working with Dick on a few things and his common sense approach will be missed. Good luck to both in future endeavor’s.