SEQUIM — Jim McEntire and Linda Barnfather were grilled on such topics as unions, the Carlsborg urban growth area and economic development at the first face-to-face political forum for the two Clallam County commissioner candidates.
Several participants in a robust audience of 200 participants at a Monday night meeting of the Concerned Citizens of Clallam County, also known as FourC, also asked McEntire and Barnfather about property rights — with one question by Barnfather directed at McEntire over the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority.
Barnfather, a Democrat, and McEntire, a Republican, were guests at the monthly meeting of FourC just six days after McEntire pulled in 1,047 more votes than Barnfather as of Friday in the Sequim-area, District-No.-1-only all-mail primary election held Aug. 16.
The district primary is required by state law.
McEntire, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner and retired Coast Guard captain, and Barnfather, the executive legislative assistant to 24th District state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege of Sequim, both automatically advance to the Nov. 8 general election, which will be countywide for the position.
Exchanges between McEntire, 61, and Barnfather, 48, were cordial as they revealed sometimes subtle differences in positions and responded to more than 20 questions from an audience far more assertive than they were.
Barnfather said she would seek a “balanced approach to the budget and a balanced approach to match dollars with central services” and touted her legislative acumen.
“I’ve got the legislative experience to put that to work,” she said.
McEntire, who before the meeting had placed campaign fliers on every seat in the gym of the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, said his government philosophy is grounded in individual liberty, self-determination, local control and “fidelity” to the state and federal constitutions.
“We can’t afford any more increases in taxes,” he added.
McEntire also favors reviewing all county regulations governing business and economic activity to determine “if they are addressing the problem they were designed to address and whether or not there is that problem anymore.”
The candidates also asked each other one question.
Barnfather queried McEntire about a statement she said he made at a recent Rotary Club meeting that he “would do Harbor-Works all over again.”
The now-defunct public development authority was created by the city of Port Angeles and the Port of Port Angeles to guide development of the abandoned Rayonier pulp mill site in Port Angeles.
As port commissioner, McEntire supported the port loaning Harbor-Works $650,000, of which $564,054 was written off and never recovered after Rayonier officials declined to negotiate.
“They had assured us they were willing to talk, but they weren’t,” McEntire said of Rayonier.
“They were not very serious about negotiating,” he said. “That’s the thing we could have understood better.”
In his question to Barnfather, McEntire asked her to explain the “role of elected officials as it relates to private-sector and public-sector unions.”
Barnfather said she had been invited to attend an Aug. 11 rally of nearly 70 members of the Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW who picketed at Olympic Medical Center to support the union in its contract dispute with the hospital over staffing levels and health care benefits.
“These are things I care most about: how we treat our elderly, and who will take care of our most vulnerable people,” she said.
Asked one audience member: What are the circumstances under which it was appropriate for an elected official to “publicly declare” a position in a labor dispute involving public employees?
Barnfather said state legislators do that “all the time.”
McEntire said the board of county commissioners negotiates contracts and it would be wrong to take sides before negotiations are complete.
The candidates were asked whether they would reopen contract talks with unions that represent county government workers.
The county anticipates a $2 million to $2.3 million 2012 shortfall that, if left unresolved, could lead to layoffs of up to 25 county employees.
McEntire said he would be willing to reopen contract talks.
Barnfather said reopening a contract “is going to be a very tough task” and that doing so would need the consent of unions.
She added that county employees account for $35 million annually that goes into the economy, an important economic driver for the North Olympic Peninsula.
On land-use issues, asked if property rights have been “eroded” in Clallam County, Barnfather said they have been in Carlsborg as they relate to the urban growth area, which the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board has invalidated because it lacks a sewer system.
The ruling prompted a building moratorium that has stifled Carlsborg growth for more than three years.
But many in the community oppose the planned $15 million to $17 million sewer and wastewater treatment facility on Carlsborg Road.
If elected, Barnfather intends “to get the Carlsborg situation squared up and getting those businesses able to expand and grow and employ people,” she said.
She estimated 600 to 1,100 jobs could be developed in Carlsborg if the land-use issues are resolved.
Barnfather and McEntire agreed the cost of the sewer system should not fall on a small number of residents or businesses.
McEntire, saying the Carlsborg issue may be resolved before a new commissioner takes office, challenged the concept of using “best available science” to make land-use decisions, which he said “often masks a particular desire to accomplish something in the face of no evidence or scanty evidence.”
“I would be willing, if the law allowed us, to spend public dollars to get good science from data here more or less than rely on a generalized study,” he said, calling the statewide Growth Management Act “a fairly blunt instrument.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
