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Monty Kurtz (Crook County Commissioner, Position 3, Oregon, candidate 2024)
Monty Kurtz (Republican Party) ran for election to Crook County Commissioner, Position 3 in Oregon.[1]
Elections
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Monty Kurtz completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kurtz's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I was born and raised here in Oregon, I’ve never had an address in another state that I Know of. I have had a pretty blessed, crazy, fun, exciting life full of successful careers as a construction project manager and small business owner and other great opportunities. Some of those career opportunities took me all over the world. Having come from a small town in southern Oregon I’m a country kid and always will be. I’ve spent a more time than I can recall bucking hay, chasing cows, being heeled by my dogs and enjoying the outdoors. Today I ride dirt bikes, mountain bikes, street bikes, lots of bikes. They keep me outdoors and at the end of the day they are my stress relievers. You can ask my wife.
- 1) Improve Staff Work Culture a. Provide experienced, Engaged & Supportive Leadership b. Remove roadblocks to staff success c. Prioritize staff retention & quality of work environment
- 2) Fiscal Prudence a. Citizen-centric financial reporting b. Informed, creative, collaborative & conservative financial decisions
- 3) Improve trust a. Long-term planning (County Master plan) b. Community engagement, visioning & goal setting c. Transparent communication that is equitable & leverages technology d. Civic cooperation- Promoting quality of life in our community.
I'd like to leave a legacy of bringing people together. It feels to me that so much of our society is split over one thing or another and if we as a smaller community can't figure out how to work together and understand one another then the state and federal levels don't stand a chance.
Transparency, Supportive leadership, Engaging with the public regularly not just during the election cycle, Accountable and fiscally responsible
Being mindful that the budget is based on public funds and that just because you have been elected does not mean you can just spend that money on any project you'd like to. I think it's important to hold regular public meetings in order to keep in touch with how that elected official is doing in the eyes of the public. Providing Staff with Experience, engaged & supportive leadership where they remove roadblocks for success, Improve the work environment, and prioritize staff retention.
My philosophy is all about engaging with the community, ensuring we are fiscally prudent and we are supporting the staff of the organization in order to provide the best overall experience of services to the citizens of Crook County.
I'm a big supporter of long term planning, Transparent communication that is equitable & leverages technology. A citizen should be able to log into the county's website at any time and see how the budget is doing and where the money is being spent in a Citizen-centric financial reporting format.
Improve Community engagement. Many things happen within our community and I feel there is a big opportunity to improve trust by including the public in the process before big decisions are made. My thought is that when an elected official has an agenda or a pet project it doesn't mean that the community agrees with them just because that person was elected.
My favorite job was designing machining fixtures for a casting house. I learned a lot about titanium casting, machining, metrology and fixture design. I had a supportive leadership group and the whole department played dominos at lunch everyday.
I have been fortunate to have a few of great mentors in my life to date. My grandfather was firm but fair. He required discipline, hard work and Compassion to your fellow citizens. One of my first big jobs was at a Construction company where my boss guided me from a young man with potential in a tough industry into a successful young man with no limits. He was supportive, encouraging and gave me so many opportunities to spread my wings. More recently I have a group of wonderful people in my Kiwanis group who are great volunteers in our community, kind and accepting individuals who regularly show how to lead and also show how to be very compassionate to others.
I am outgoing, smart, inquisitive, fiscally responsible, a task master, problem solver and I'm always learning. A successful office holder should not be shy about talking to the community. A smart leader understand that they are not the smartest in the room and should surround themselves with smarter people in order to learn. An office holder should ask lots of question in order to better understands the needs of the staff and citizens. I believe an office holder should be able to start and finish tasks in a reasonable amount of time. One must figure out how to be a problem solver. If an office holder can find solutions then I do not believe that person can be effective. I'm a firm believer in learning new things. The more I learn the better chance I have in understanding where people are coming from and the better chances I have to get the community what is needed.
Teaching. I have learned a vast amount in my years and I struggle to slow things down (in my brain) in a way where I can teach others some of what I have learned. I am constantly working to hone this skill. This is and I feel always will be a challenge for me, however it is a challenge that I want to be successful at.
We built this city by Starship
This is a tough question as I am a veracious reader. I read at least one book every 10 to 12 days. The most favorite recent book has to be Greenlights by Mathew McConaughey. His telling of lessons through his life makes me think of my own life and how you shouldn't look down on the Red & Yellow lights because those lights are telling you things if you are paying attention. We have all made mistakes in our lives and we all have struggles. Learn from those mistakes and they turn into lessons.
According to unofficial sources, a new simplified income-tax form contains only four lines:
1. What was your income for the year?
2. What were your expenses?
3. How much have you left?
4. Send it in.
Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson
The challenger explosion in 1986 and I would have been 9 years old.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
External links
[1] ↑ Submitted to Ballotpedia's candidate survey in 2024.
