PORT ANGELES — Jim Hallett got to sit in as an election candidate — he’s unopposed for the Port of Port Angeles commission — during a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce candidates forum Monday.
The forum also featured City Council Position 6 incumbent Don Perry and challenger Sissi Bruch, and Position 7 incumbent Cherie Kidd, who is unopposed after candidate Cody Blevins bowed out of the race for personal reasons last month.
Hallett, the former mayor who is also president of the Chamber of Commerce, sat in on the forum as he plans to replace the retiring George Schoenfeldt for a six-year term on the port commission next year.
About 60 members of the chamber and their guests at Monday’s luncheon meeting at the Red Lion Hotel provided questions on subjects such as awarding contracts to local businesses, the fate of tall fir trees growing at Lincoln Park and budget management during difficult financial times.
First forum
While Hallett, 56, has taken part in several recent port commission meetings, addressing on port issues during the public speaking portion of the meetings, Monday’s was his first candidates forum of the election season.
Being unopposed was not what the investment adviser expected when he filed as a candidate last July.
“At this time last election, Commissioner John Calhoun’s election went into overtime,” Hallett recalled.
Sitting around and waiting for the Nov. 8 election to be finished, wasn’t part of the plan, he said.
Financially, the port is a different kind of public entity, and Hallett said his background as a businessman will serve the port well.
In some ways, the port is closer to a business than a traditional government, Hallett said.
“It has a different role — it can do some things businesses can do,” he said.
Except for a small port tax levy, the agency is self-sufficient, he said.
However, the port’s current success is not guaranteed to continue to the future.
“We must be good stewards,” he said.
The majority of the port’s income comes from leases of port properties, marina and dock facilities, and from the port’s log export operations.
The port’s tax rate, 16 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation — totaled $1,347,598 in 2011, which is either invested directly into port capital projects or to pay debt on past capital projects.
Lincoln Park
Port-owned William R. Fairchild International Airport is increasingly important to Port Angeles with or without a commercial airline, Hallett said.
To that end, there will have to be some changes to neighboring Lincoln Park to make the airport safer, he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires removal of trees in the runway approach that have grown too tall and are threatening to block pilots’ visibility.
Instead of removing some trees now and some later, the port has proposed clearcutting most of the Lincoln Park’s Douglas fir trees and replacing them with a smaller species to eliminate the problem.
The port will adopt a plan that will both protect the air traffic and make the park better than it already is, Hallett said.
“It’s a vital part of our community,” he said.
Council candidates
The city’s “buy local” campaign to get local residents to shop Port Angeles-area shops to keep money in town should apply to the city’s decisions on who should be hired on city contracts, Bruch and Kidd agreed.
“The fire station should be done by local talent,” said Bruch, who is now a planning commissioner and is challenging Perry for the Position 6 seat.
However, as a government entity, by law the city has to take the lowest bid and cannot consider whether the bidder is local or from out-of state,
Perry said.
“We have to abide by the law, but I want to see local workers,” Kidd said.
On the subject of the city’s budget and handling the poor economy, Kidd said the best thing the council can do is to examine the city’s business policies and consider eliminating some that might hamper business from flourishing.
“Economic development is the key to everything. We need to bring more people downtown,” Perry said.
“The biggest thing is jobs, and it is small businesses that bring in jobs,” Bruch said.
All seven Port Angeles City Council candidates are scheduled for a League of Women Voters candidates’ forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Port Angeles City Hall council chambers, 321 E. Fifth St.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
