PORT ANGELES — The election picture is taking shape for the Port Angeles City Council.
Council members Cherie Kidd and Sissi Bruch said Monday they intend to run for re-election for their at-large, nonpartisan positions.
But Mayor Dan Di Guilio said he will not be seeking a third, four-year term.
Di Guilio, 66, also is completing his second, two-year term as mayor.
“I just want to spend more time with the family,” he said Monday.
He also wants to travel more with his wife, Carol, who retired as an Olympic Medical Center operating room technician in 2013.
Extended travel has not been an option for Di Guilio for eight years as City Council meetings are held every other week.
“I just want to take it easy for a while,” Di Guilio added. He is also a retired Clallam Transit general manager.
Di Guilio won contested council races in 2007 against appointed incumbent Edna Petersen and in 2011 against challenger Noelle Fuller.
Kidd, 69, said her knowledge and experience will be stabilizing factors on the City Council, given Di Guilio’s decision and council member Lee Whetham’s recent announcement that he intends to run Port of Port Angeles commissioner.
“I am at the point that I am feeling I am knowledgeable and effective, and I love serving the people of Port Angeles,” said Kidd, owner of AAA Affordable Storage & U-Haul.
“I’m in great health and spirits and my business is doing well, and it’s a good time for me to serve the community.”
Kidd, a former Port Angeles mayor, defeated incumbent Grant Munro in 2007 and ran unopposed in 2011 after Cody Blevins dropped out of the race.
She ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2003 against the late Jack Pittis and in 2005 against then-incumbent Larry Williams.
Bruch, 54, is the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s senior planner.
She will be seeking a second four-year term.
“I feel like I really care about the city, and I do my homework,” Bruch said.
“I feel like we are pushing the city in a good direction, and I hope to continue doing that.”
Bruch, a former member of the city Planning Commission, defeated incumbent and then-Deputy Mayor Don Perry in 2011.
She unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat in November for West End Clallam County commissioner, losing to Republican Bill Peach.
Di Guilio said he has quietly been letting people know about his decision but has been unable to generate interest among potential candidates.
“There hasn’t been anybody who’s stepped up,” Di Guilio said.
Di Guilio counted the city’s ongoing waterfront development project and the council initiating a budget priority setting process as among the most important decisions in which he has participated.
“I am very pleased with the leadership and the employees at the city,” he also said in an earlier email.
“Each year they are asked to do more with less.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
