PORT ANGELES — Candidates for two of four Port Angeles City Council seats in the Nov. 8 general election discussed budgets, business and teenagers at a packed Rotary Club of Port Angeles candidate forum this week.
More than 50 Rotary members attended the Wednesday luncheon meeting to hear contenders for Position 1 — Councilman Brad Collins and challenger Drew Schwab — and for Position 5 — Mayor Dan Di Guilio and challenger Noelle Fuller — answer their questions.
On Wednesday, candidates in the other two races — Deputy Mayor Don Perry versus Sissi Bruch and incumbent Cherie Kidd versus Cody Blevins — will answer questions at the Rotary luncheon at noon at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St., in Port Angeles.
Business
Asked how the city stands in the way of business development, Schwab, a 26-year-old Port Angeles business owner and member of the Port Angeles Downtown Association board, said some ordinances are unnecessary and burdensome to businesses in Port Angeles and others are necessary but unenforced.
Collins said the city is working on a partnership to match businesses to appropriate open business spaces in Port Angeles.
Collins, a 62-year-old former deputy director for capital projects and resource development for Serenity House, was appointed to the Port Angeles City Council in January 2010 after a close but unsuccessful bid for Port of Port Angeles commissioner.
There is too much complexity at City Hall, said Fuller, 26, a Port Angeles downtown business owner and a PADA board member.
Business owners are drowned in a tsunami of paperwork, she said.
Di Guilio told the audience he would work with city staff to determine what barriers most affect business.
“We need to get to the root of the inconsistencies,” he said.
Di Guilio, 62, served as general manager for Clallam Transit for nine years.
He is completing his first term in office.
All four candidates agreed teen loitering is a problem in Port Angeles and that the problem is complex.
“If you push them out of one area, you displace them into another,” Di Guilio said.
“We need to reinstitute places for them to go.”
Teen loitering
Fuller — whose business, Twisted, caters to teenagers and young adults — agreed that loitering teens should be given an attractive alternative.
“They think Port Angeles doesn’t want them, that they aren’t welcome here,” she said.
“We need to use their energy in a positive way.”
Working with the homeless is not too much different from dealing with loitering teens, Collins said.
“We need to find a way to make them ambassadors for the city,” Collins said.
The city has a teen resource officer, but because of budget cuts, he’s often elsewhere, Schwab said.
Putting a higher priority on the police budget and adding officers would free him to work with the teens more, he said.
The economy and government budget issues were on the minds of many of the Rotarians at the meeting.
One member asked how the candidates would reprioritize the city’s reduced budget.
Trying to avoid a crisis situation in the first place is key, Collins said.
“We have to stay ahead of the curve,” he said.
Schwab said prioritizing isn’t the council’s job.
City residents should tell the council what they want — and then the council implements the people’s will, he said.
Budget priorities
“At the heart of it is what we want versus what we need,” said Fuller.
The city is working on a new budget model — budgeting for priorities, Di Guilio said.
City residents are invited to offer their ideas as to what the city’s budget priorities should be at a council town hall meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., he said.
Audience members were eager to ask more questions, but time allowed for only three.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
