SEQUIM — Bill Huizinga says he is tired of “pushing the wet noodle” that is the Sequim City Council.
“The hardest thing to learn on the City Council is that nothing happens quickly,” he said. “Nothing is ‘soon.'”
Yet he’s one of two incumbents who’ll run for re-election in November.
“I’ve got some unfinished business,” Huizinga said on Friday.
The candidate filing period is June 1 through June 5, but he and Sequim’s other two long-serving council members already have plenty to say about their plans.
Walt Schubert, the avid Boys and Girls Club booster and Action Property Management owner in his ninth year on the council, said he’s ready to seek another four-year term, partly because of Huizinga’s decision.
“I see a critical need on the council for experience,” Schubert said.
He added that he still considers Ken Hays, Susan Lorenzen, Erik Erichsen and Mayor Laura Dubois, who took office in January 2008, to be “new” council members.
Schubert vehemently disagreed with their vote to fire City Manager Bill Elliott in May 2008 and laments the fact that Sequim still hasn’t found a permanent chief.
After a futile search for a city manager last year, the council hired Seattle search firm Waldron& Co. for $20,000 to restart recruitment this spring.
Meantime, Linda Herzog, formerly on the city management teams of Redmond and Mercer Island, is Sequim’s interim boss, earning $7,083 per month till her nine-month contract expires Sept. 3.
Paul McHugh, a Realtor who’s served on the council since 2001, told the Peninsula Daily News on Saturday that after a period of reflection, he won’t seek re-election.
McHugh, 52, said he’s served long enough, and instead of campaigning this summer, he and his wife want to do some traveling.
The city made excellent progress in the first five or so years he was a council member, McHugh said — but then came 2008 and the four newcomers.
McHugh believes the new members, such as Hays, are in favor of impact fees for home builders and against affordable housing for people with average incomes.
Steep development fees and high-priced homes, to his mind, could make Sequim an exclusive place, something like Telluride, Colo., within reach of only the well-to-do.
Many cities across Western Washington charge impact fees, Hays responded. That’s how they pay for roads and other basic services.
“I have trouble understanding why [affordable housing] is the huge battle cry right now,” Hays added.
He wants to see more hard facts about Sequim’s need for lower-priced homes and voted last week to pay consultant Tom Beckwith $10,000 to design an action plan for making Sequim’s housing stock more diverse.
McHugh and Hays differ on another big question: the city’s economy.
McHugh said that compared to many small towns, Sequim is in great shape, thanks to a strong economic base.
In fact, a large share of Sequim’s revenue comes from sales tax, especially from big-box stores such as Costco Wholesale, The Home Depot and Wal-Mart — now joined on West Washington Street by Discount Tire and Schuck’s Auto Supply.
Finances
Hays believes that finances are the most troubling issue looming over this city, and the council had better face that.
Sequim has a history of spending on capital projects to serve a rapidly growing population, but he wonders whether that growth will continue apace.
“Sequim’s a nice place,” said Hays, who’s lived here for a couple of decades. “But it’s not the magnet” that it has been in past years.
Huizinga, meantime, is in his third year as leader of Sequim’s affordable housing committee, a group of county housing advocates, real estate agents and developers.
Huizinga himself used to sell real estate but now works for Clallam County as a right-of-way agent.
The committee’s efforts to attract developers of owner-occupied affordable housing have produced little — though one possibility on the horizon is CityWalk, a 42-unit townhouse development planned for Fifth Avenue by Larry Freedman, a member of the affordable housing panel.
Since he’s signed contracts for only a few of the units, Freedman’s not sure whether CityWalk will happen.
In any event, others inside and outside the real estate industry say they’re urging people to run for City Council in November.
They include Sequim real estate broker Mike McAleer, Freedman and Schubert, as well as Hays and Dubois.
“A lot of people are very vocal and complain,” about local politics, Dubois said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people . . . and asked, would you consider running? Nooo.”
Many who are most vocal about Sequim issues live outside the city limit, she added, so they’re ineligible for City Council, “or they’re working folks, or retired . . . but I would love to see people step forward.”
Community service, not money, is the main motivation. Mayor Dubois earns $250 per month; Mayor Pro Tempore Hays is paid $200, and the other council members earn $150 per month plus reimbursement for some expenses.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
