PORT ANGELES — Two longtime fire department volunteers appear headed for a November showdown for a Clallam County Fire District No. 3 board of commissioners seat.
G. Michael Gawley and Sean Ryan held strong leads in the fire district primary after the first ballot counts Tuesday and a second count in Jefferson County on Wednesday.
Gawley received 2,801 votes, or 44.06 percent, while Ryan won 2,584 votes, or 40.65 percent.
A third candidate, Alan. W. Slind, received 972 votes, or 15.29 percent, of the 6,357 total votes cast in both Jefferson and Clallam counties and was eliminated from the contest during the top-two primary election.
The two candidates who get the most votes will move on to the Nov. 3 general election.
In the district, ballots were mailed to 23,702 Clallam County voters and to 344 Jefferson County voters.
Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs said some 3,000 to 4,000 ballots are expected to be counted Friday.
Jefferson County counted an additional 472 ballots Wednesday and plans a count of an estimated 100 more Friday.
Two volunteers
Both leading candidates are volunteers with Fire District No. 3.
Gawley, 72, of Sequim is retired from the Federal Aviation Administration.
He has served as commissioner since February 2014 and has been a volunteer with the district since 2005.
“We have different motives for running,” he said Wednesday of the differences between his run for fire commissioner and Ryan’s.
Gawley said he is running primarily to create the best fire department possible for the residents of the district while staying within budget.
“We need to spend it wisely,” he said.
He said he believes Ryan is running primarily on fiscal constraint, with more attention paid to the cost of the department than to the quality of services.
Ryan, 53, of Port Angeles is a business owner, has been a district volunteer for eight years and ran for the same office unsuccessfully against James Barnfather in 2013.
He disagreed with Gawley’s assessment of his motives for running for the fire commission.
“I want to do the people’s work. Every penny we spend, we must get the most bang for our buck. We need to get more paramedics on the ground right now,” Ryan said.
He said he believes Gawley “wants the status quo.”
Slind, 76, of Port Angeles is a retired chief financial officer and has never held office.
He has said he is disappointed by election results and will try again to gain a seat on the commission in a future election.
District No. 3 covers the area east of Deer Park Road to Gardiner in Jefferson County including 23,427 voters in Clallam County and 343 voters in Jefferson County.
On Tuesday night, the Clallam County Auditor’s Office counted 11,457 out of the 43,544 ballots mailed to registered voters for a voter turnout of 26.32 percent.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office counted 2,304 out of the 7,542 ballots mailed to registered voters for a voter turnout of 30.52 percent.
District No. 3 commissioner is a six-year term with a maximum annual compensation of $10,944.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
