Planning commissioner seeks District 5 commission seat

Businessman Mike Olson has filed for the District 5 County Commission seat being vacated by Kelly Kite.

Olson, 46, is a risk manager with Pro Group Management, and has lived in Carson Valley for 10 years in June. Kite works with Olson.

"We'd been visiting my mother six times a year and one year she said 'I found your house,'" he said. "I moved out here on my birthday in 1998."

While never holding elected office, Olson serves on the Douglas County Planning Commission.

"When I moved here the people I met were some of the best people," he said. "It was just a great place to be. But I see our community being divided and that going away. I want to bring our community back together."

Olson said he felt that the county needs to balance its commercial and residential development.

"I think we've grown too fast," he said. "As a community we need to have a mix between commercial and residential. Maybe we need to be building some commercial."

Olson said he believes divisiveness on the commission has prevented work from being completed.

"For me it's the community working together," he said. "We've got a fractured commission and we're not get anything accomplished."

Olson said the county's infrastructure is in poor shape.

"I thought on the planning commission that could do something about it, but I couldn't," he said. "We need to pay some attention to our roads and the other things that we need to carry on our daily lives, so it works."

Olson said his is struggling with the sustainable growth ordinance proposed for the November ballot.

"It's not what the people wanted," he said. "I was on the planning commission and we were not asked for our contributions. I saw it ramrodded through. If it doesn't pass, then we're starting from ground zero."

He said he felt that Douglas County is changing with the influx of people from the west.

"We've got a good community, but we're becoming too much like California in the way we solve our problems and we need to stop that."

Olson previously worked for AIG, and said he has experience in setting, monitoring and managing a working budget, addressing client concerns and resolving difficulties.

He has been married to his wife Tanya for 25 years and they have three daughters, who have grown up in Carson Valley and are attending Douglas County schools.

He is a graduate of both Douglas County and Carson City Leadership program.