Dear George,

Just had a call from Fay Clarke to ask for my endorsement of Bern. I wholeheartedly do endorse his candidacy but am unable to get to your web site. Must have an incorrect address.

I was on the City Council when Cole Hendrix brought Bern Ewert in to be the assistant City Manager. From the very beginning he brought a keen understanding of the problems which the city faced as most of the new business and residential growth was occurring in the county and the city was beginning the decline that plagued most inner cities in the fifties, sixties and seventies. He helped to craft the many strategies for the city which kept us from the ruin which has occurred in far too many places where the suburbs killed the inner cities older business districts.

Bern also had the audacity to bring a delapidated dwelling into the Barracks Road Shopping Center parking lot to show the terrible state of housing that slumlords were renting to people who had no other options.

Those of us who have worked hard to keep this wonderful city healthy and vibrant are very much in debt to Bern Ewert for being one of the most innovative and dedicated public servants that we have ever had.

Sincerely,

Jill T. Rinehart (electronic mail, February 20, 2002)