There are few figures in the state who have served all three terms as a State Representative, but Yuri Devlin is one of them. With today’s inauguration of the eleventh Congress, Devlin will be setting down the title of State Representative. However, he maintains an interest in the politics of this state. Devlin granted a rare interview to Shout News on his most recent term in office and the future.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Shout News: You’ve been a public figure for quite some time, but could you please introduce yourself to our readers who may not be familiar with your career?
Yuri Devlin: My name is Yuri Devlin, I’m a three-time state representative and business owner. I help manage and run the day-to-day operations of multiple other businesses.
As a state representative, what were some of the projects you undertook that, in retrospect, you have the most pride in?
The one thing that I was most happy about actually getting done was the establishment of the veterinary services. I feel like it is a good, good thing to have to have dedicated members of the state there to take care of the animals, regardless of their predatory nature in terms of mountain lions when they get injured, or just a cow, absolutely,
We’re heading into the first term of State Representatives where they do not have a veteran in the Congress. As a long-standing State Rep, how do you feel like this could play out after such a hectic Congress?
Thankfully, I’m assisting Representative-Elect Valentino as their legislative assistant, so I feel being around them will benefit the rest of the legislature as being one of the only three-term State Representatives this state has. I’ll be able to give them a wealth of information on how things are, and be a sounding board for anything they need to ask about.
Looking at our current body of legislation, what is the most unaddressed issue that has fallen through the cracks?
The one thing was the recent veto’ing of the updated Freedom of information Act, which was rejected by Governor Quinn Morino at the behest of the Governor-Elect [Jeremy Barbant] and his team, which really does a disservice to the people that this bill was meant to benefit — which is everyone in this state.
This bill was brought forward after the debacle that was Silas Young’s attempt to get the records pertaining to his wife August’s death. Because of the way the current FOIA law is written, he cannot request the records pertaining to her death at lal — even though they are married legally.
As a legislative assistant, what will be your early priorities next term?
I’m going to work with Representatives Valentino and Flippington to change the FOIA to be like the one that we had proposed. Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour, various problems were found by various departments. This happened a few times, where departments would wait until the very last minute to make problems known with bills. At their behest, [Governor Marino] vetoed the bill without saying anything.
So I’m going to make it my number one priority to fix whatever problems that they found or had with whatever it was, and get this up as soon as possible, because this is something that the members of the voting public needs to be able to do in terms of what this bill entails.
What advice would you have for someone who is beginning to follow politics, and wants to change something or have an issue they feel needs addressed?
Talk to your representatives. We’ve had something where people are upset about something, but we don’t know why — and they won’t elaborate, won’t reach out to anyone. I’ve been fairly active often in the Fed Finder under the Legislative tab for people to call and talk to. I’ve also available at one of my businesses. If you need to reach out, please do so, because we can’t fix anything if we don’t know everything.
In recent news and debates, it has been shown that a large portion of San Andreans support revoking wages from legislators who do not do the job. As someone who has served in this role, what are your thoughts on this topic?
Far be it for me to check other people’s pockets, but this is what impeachment is for. I understand people’s frustrations with people getting a paycheck that they don’t deserve, but that can be said for a lot of different businesses across this great state. Impeachment plays a big factor in curtailing curtailing that, and while it’s not a perfect option, I don’t think there’s anything stopping the public from filing a civil suit should it be necessary.
Is there anything else you would like to share with Shout News readers that didn’t come up over the course of our conversation?
The topic of the impeachment of Ella Bright-Starr came up earlier today in a conversation. That wasn’t something that was easy to follow thorugh on.
I know Ella tried her best during her term, but it wasn’t something where we went “Yeah, you’re getting impeached, no matter what.” It was more complicated than that. Talks were heated between the representatives, and it wasn’t something that we just flat out said, “This is what we’re doing. There’s no stopping it.”
I understand the public’s outcry and the belittling that Ella received — which I’m not going to say wasn’t fair or deserved for what happened — but it was not an easy thing to do to Ella.
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