PORT ANGELES — With fewer than seven weeks until the Nov. 2 general election, two electoral opponents vying to become Clallam County community development director took opposite sides Tuesday over requiring more structures to have building permits.
Appearing at a Port Angeles Business Association breakfast meeting debate Tuesday, county Code Compliance Officer/Deputy Fire Marshall Sheila Roark Miller said that building permits should not be required for 400- to 200-square-foot structures.
Her boss and election opponent, incumbent Director John Miller, has proposed that permits should be required for structures as small as 200 square feet.
“I don’t think we should dog everything that’s done out there in this county,” said Roark Miller, 51, of Carlsborg.
Buildings of 400 square feet and less don’t require building permits now. Many are garages, sheds or livestock shelters
John Miller, 61, of Port Angeles, wants to change that to require permits for any structures of 200 square feet or more because, he said, some are being used for human habitation and other non-permitted uses.
“People are at risk in structures built without permits,” he told the debate’s two dozen attendees.
Ballots for the Nov. 2 election will be mailed to voters county-wide Oct. 13.
In the five-candidate field for the Aug. 17 primary, Roark Miller was the top vote-getter, with 6,207 votes, or 31 percent, followed by John Miller’s 5,901 votes, or 29 percent.
The DCD director — the only elected position of its kind in Washington and possible the nation — is paid $62,211 to $70,877, administers a budget that in 2010 is $3.44 million and supervises 32 employees.
As he did during the primary, Miller said that no building permit had been denied during the nearly four years of his present term in office.
Roark Miller brandished paperwork that she said showed a building permit was denied in Joyce.
“You have denied building permits,” she said.
“We need to find solutions, not put up barriers, ” she added. “We need to open doors.”
John Miller said the permit was for “a wood-selling operation” in an area that was not zoned for the use, so it was a “zoning question,” not a building-permit issue.
Roark Miller said in a later interview she would have informed the person of the zoning issues rather than have them apply for a building permit.
“Denying a building permit is still denying a building permit,” she said.
At the debate, John Miller said he has reduced the number of land-use appeals on the state level, defended his department’s actions on carrying out regulations on wheelchair ramps.”
“My theme for this reelection campaign is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said.
One member of the audience challenged an item in John Miller’s campaign literature that says he is “accessible.”
Millers said he expects land-use applicants to work with a planner and that if they raise their voice, they don’t “earn the right to leap over them and talk directly to the director.”
He said he sees his job as ensuring his employees “have the resources to get their work done, and I stand back and let them do it.”
Miller added that he is available by phoning his office number at 360-417-2323.
Roark Miller said she will be accessible at all times, regardless of the situation.
“I’m so accessible, people call me at home,” she said.
Roark Miller also criticized John Miller for hiring a carbon footprint manager “at a time when businesses are laying off employees and struggling to meet payrolls.”
John Miller said he was on a statewide advisory committee on carbon sequestration.
He suggested it’s important to advise local governments on coping with rising sea levels, especially in areas like shoreline-dependent Clallam County.
They both touted their accomplishments.
“I have the benefit of a track record,” John Miller said, citing his 17-year tenure as an administrator when he was executive director of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
Roark Miller said she offers more diversity with various contacts in the county.
“I offer good relationships at all levels around the county with its different groups and boards that serve us,” she said, adding she “has more energy and calmness.”
Further explaining her comment, Roark Miller said later that she is not easily flustered and that people have a right as citizens and voters to talk directly to her and go over the heads of employees.
“I see a normal person can get frustrated at the process, and with my experience and background and calmness, I can separate out their obvious anxieties about what the process needs to be fixed without becoming emotionally involved with the process.”
John Miller said later that he, too, is suited for the job.
“I don’t consider myself non-energetic, nor to I consider myself not calm,” he said. “I’m a very capable leader who instills confidence in his staff.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
