SEQUIM — This city soon may hire a lobbyist or a grant writer to help the expansion of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory-Battelle campus on Sequim Bay.
The Sequim City Council voted 5-2 Monday night to redistribute its economic development dollars, drastically reducing the amount provided to the Clallam County Economic Development Council while funneling $13,000 toward a new contractor.
The goal of this contractor, be it a lobbyist or grant-proposal writer, will be to find funding to help extend city utilities to Sequim’s coastal research lab.
The facility is operated by the Battelle Memorial Institute, known locally as Battelle.
For years, the Economic Development Council has worked on rezoning and annexation of the Battelle campus, so the city could provide sewer and water service — which would enable the facility to grow and generate new, well-paying research jobs.
And when the City Council adopted the 2010 budget, it allocated $18,000 for renewal of its contract with the EDC.
Burkett suggestion
On Monday night, however, City Manager Steve Burkett recommended that be cut to $5,000, so $13,000 could be spent on finding grants or appropriations from Congress, the state Legislature or both.
This money will, Burkett hopes, pay for “somebody to help us identify where the money is in Olympia and in [Washington], D.C.”
Council member Bill Huizinga, who voted no on Burkett’s proposal, spoke strongly against what he sees as “pulling the rug out” from under the EDC, which he believes has served Sequim well in recent years.
Urging the rest of the council to see Sequim as part of an interdependent north Peninsula, Huizinga called on the council to support the EDC’s efforts on behalf of the whole county.
“We’ve got to get it through our head,” he said, “that we’re not an isolated island that creates its own destiny.”
Linda Rotmark, executive director of the EDC, came forward to thank the council for past funding; she added that the EDC’s three-member staff and 27-member board of directors have never taken Sequim’s contract for granted.
Rotmark stressed, too, that the Battelle campus was rezoned in order to extend city utility service thanks to the EDC’s efforts.
“It has taken three years,” to make that happen, she said, adding that Battelle is a leading-edge developer of “green power,” specifically algae-based fuels and tidal-energy systems.
‘Integrity’s sake’
Joining Huizinga in voting against Burkett’s redistribution was council member Susan Lorenzen, who said, “We did agree on $18,000, as a council, for 2010. For our integrity’s sake, I think we need to stick to that.”
Burkett replied that he looks at the issue as “a business deal, a contract [for which] we’re wanting to get something in return.”
After discussions with the EDC, he said he decided it’s time for the city to invest the lion’s share of its economic-development money elsewhere.
“The EDC has done some good work for us,” Mayor Ken Hays acknowledged, but “the city needs to throw as many resources toward [Battelle’s expansion] as it can.”
The bottom line, to Hays, is that Sequim’s $13,000 is better spent on a contractor — who’ll write grant applications or seek state or federal appropriations — to help the city build infrastructure to serve the Battelle campus.
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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.
