SEQUIM — City Council candidate Bob Anundson has pulled out of the race for Position 3, the seat to be vacated by longtime member Paul McHugh.
Anundson’s withdrawal Thursday takes the race off of Clallam County’s Aug. 18 primary ballot and clears the way for candidates Mike East and Don Hall to face off in the Nov. 3 general election.
Clallam’s only primary race, then, will be for Port Angeles City Council Position 2, in which Rick Burton, Max Mania, Edna Petersen and Peter Ripley are vying for the seat left open by Larry Williams, who like McHugh won’t run for re-election.
Anundson, 67, made his decision after attending Monday’s City Council meeting.
He said on Thursday: “I don’t think I can accomplish anything I’d like to accomplish.”
His agenda has been to ensure the city lives within its means, without raising taxes or spending too much on projects he doesn’t believe are immediately necessary.
So when the council voted 6-1 Monday night — with McHugh the lone dissenter — to continue funding some $135,000 in consultants’ impact-fee studies, Anundson decided he wouldn’t get very far with his frugality.
The consultants’ reports will determine how much Sequim can legally charge developers in impact fees, which would help the city pay for roads and utilities.
Anundson said the studies are worthwhile, but now is not the time to be spending so much on them.
After Monday’s meeting, he believes his would be the thwarted minority view.
“If I got onto the council, I don’t think I’d be effective,” Anundson said, adding that after a career in high technology management, he knows when to cut his losses.
“The worst thing you can do is spend money on a product that’s going to fail,” he said.
“I’m sorry to see him do that but not really,” said East, who is vice chairman of the Sequim Planning Commission. His rival’s withdrawal “streamlines things.”
Both East and Hall said they admire Anundson, and both said they too want to slim the city’s spending.
Hall said he’d like to have the impact fees but doesn’t want to pour so much money into studies, particularly in the middle of a recession.
East, for his part, has criticized decisions made by the four newer council members — Ken Hays, Susan Lorenzen, Erik Erichsen and Mayor Laura Dubois — such as their firing of city manager Bill Elliott in May 2008, a move that has led to considerable spending on the recruitment of a successor. Waldron & Co., a Seattle search firm hired for $20,000, has said it will help the city find a manager by September.
Meanwhile, East has said the council is in need of “common sense” and “positive management skills.”
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
