After living in Aberdeen for the past five years, Robert J. Rodgers decided it was time to leave the sidelines and get directly involved in the process of formulating solutions to the problems facing the city by entering the race for the Aberdeen City Council Ward 1 Position 2 seat currently held by Tawni Andrews.

“At one point in time I decided I no longer wanted to be a bystander to the things that are happening in my community,” he said. “I wanted to be part of the change that needs to happen. I’m full of opinions, but there’s only so much you can do sitting around drinking coffee with friends in the morning.”

Rodgers said he believes a balance between the members of the community and core downtown businesses is key to improving the quality of life in Aberdeen.

“Small businesses are the key to the economy, and by promoting those businesses you can improve the quality of life for people in the community,” he said. “The two are dependent on each other.”

New to politics, Rodgers has a bachelor’s degree in applied psychology from Eastern Washington University and a master’s degree in human resources from Webster University through Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane.

“I’ve always been in the helping professions,” he said. “I’ve worked as a counselor and in the field of affordable housing, so one thing I can change is to increase the opportunity for people to access those resources.” Rodgers currently works at the new Lifeline Connections office at 311 I St. in Aberdeen as a counselor working with people in the community with mental health and substance abuse problems.

When asked what he thought about Mayor Erik Larson’s efforts to hire a city manager, Rodgers said, “My opinion is the mayor is the city manager. That’s basically his job, to lead the city and not have a city manager.”

Rodgers grew up in Arlington; when he completed his graduate work in Spokane he wanted to move his family back to the coast. His childhood home had grown up quite a bit and lost a lot of the small town charm he remembered, so he and his family found Aberdeen five years ago.

Rodgers said his goal if elected to the city council is to make people-based decisions that look at the long term effects rather than pushing short term solutions to the city’s needs.

“I would take the people into consideration, and whatever decisions I would make I would look at the long term effects of those decisions,” he said. “Sometimes decisions made in the short term are not the best decisions.”

Robert Jerrick Rodgers, Robert’s son, is facing incumbent Alan Richrod for the Ward 5 Position 10 city council seat; there was some confusion over the shared names and contact information when the two filed for office in May.