This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Ronald Johnson: My name is Ronald Lee Johnson. I'm running for the city assembly seat. And I'm a commercial fisherman.
Ross: Just a little background — where are you from?
Johnson: I'm from Dillingham. Born and raised here all my life. Graduated from Dillingham High School here.
Ross: So you're running for the city council. Why did you decide to run?
Johnson: I decided to try to help people on the city council fix Dillingham up and try to get our town up and running better. Because things are happening around here — things need to get better in Dillingham.
Ross: Are there any issues in particular that you want to focus on?
Johnson: I think we need to fix the city and start employing more employees for the city, because I think we lack in employees in the city. And we need to start fixing the city to employ more people.
Ross: Recruitment and retention and just worker shortage has been really apparent in the city and in other entities around town. What are some ideas that you think might help fill those positions?
Johnson: I think we need to start getting some of our school kids interested in coming back to Dillingham and working here and going to school and trying to get an education in school and come back and filling in some of the positions in Dillingham. And make a good salary for them to want to come back to Dillingham and work.
Ross: So you're suggesting, or you're thinking about, local recruitment and growing our own, so to speak.
Johnson: Roger. We've got a lot of good kids in this town that need to go to school and get a better education and come back and start running our town and take it over.
Ross: Are there any other issues that you're interested in? What would you look forward to doing on the city council?
Johnson: I would look forward to working with all the other city council members and trying to help solve all the problems in Dillingham around here.
Ross: You're a lifelong resident. What spurred you, particularly at this moment, to decide to run for office? Have you run for office before?
Johnson: I never ran for office ever before in my life. Because of all the problems that's going on in Dillingham, I decided to try to help fix some of the problems around here since I got a lot of free time on my hands. I don't do nothing but fish.
Ross: What qualities do you think you would bring to the position of city council member?
Johnson: I would bring the qualities of being a local person and born and raised here and understanding issues and things that we need to do around this town to fix.
Ross: When you're thinking about issues that people deal with everyday like the roads, as you mentioned, retention and employment, what are your thoughts on the city's budgetary situation? And what are some approaches that you think might be helpful?
Johnson: Well, you know, I haven't been on the city council or anything right now. But I would like to get in there and start learning what's happening and everything and seeing what's going on with the city and try to help do what I can to fix everything around here. And work with other council members to try to help fix everything.
Ross: Thank you so much for taking some time to talk.
Johnson: Alright, thank you ma'am.
Ronald Johnson is the brother of another city council candidate, Kimberly Williams, who is running for Seat A.
Get in touch with the author at izzy@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
