IF YOU DON’T like what’s happening, run for office.
The candidate filing week is May 17-21 for the Nov. 2 general election and the North Olympic Peninsula offers 88 opportunities to change the status quo.
We’ve seen what happens when too few people run for office. Candidates run unopposed and take positions of power without sufficient vetting by the public.
A case in point is the seven-member Sequim City Council, which has four positions now held by appointees up for election in November as well as one incumbent seeking reelection.
We’ve had a mayor — originally appointed then elected without opposition to a four-year term in 2019 — who publicly supports QAnon and subsequently denies he did so (and blames the media), a successful effort to rid the town of an accomplished city manager who followed the law in regard to a drug treatment facility and who spoke against the mayor’s QAnon comments and a race now in progress to fill the position permanently before an election can change the composition of the council, among other actions.
Many like what the council has accomplished.
Many have made it clear they do not.
If you don’t approve, vote of course, but even more, run for office. Make sure all voters have a choice.
The last time any Sequim City Council member was opposed in an election was in 2015. Make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Port Townsend City Council offers another large opportunity, with three of the seven incumbents choosing not to run again.
The public needs good, viable candidates to vie for those seats.
The Port Angeles City Council has four of its seven members up for reelection.
The Forks City Council has three seats open.
Seats also are open on port commissions, hospital district commissioners, school board, fire districts and other entities.
All need capable people ready to served to run for office.
Important decisions are coming that affect housing, infrastructure, homelessness, policing, business, taxes and other everyday mainstay issues.
The opportunity to affect change begins on May 17.
Step up.
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The Peninsula Daily News editorial board is composed of Terry Ward, publisher and vice-president of Sound Publishing, Inc., and PDN Executive Editor Leah Leach.
