Editor’s note: This is the last part of the League of Women Voters of Clallam County’s Oct. 3 online forum. View it at youtube.com/@leagueofwomenvotersclallam279,

Included in this story are Sequim city council candidates Patrick Day and Harmony Rutter running for position 6. Election Day is set for Tuesday Nov. 7.

Patrick Day, a retired security police officer, and Harmony Rutter, a Washington State University Extension office staffer, agreed generally on most issues, such as supporting the council’s decision to pledge $250,000 to a Career and Technical Education (CTE) building at Sequim High School, and seeking affordable workforce housing options.

Rutter said affordable housing is a “big emergency (that) we all need to work on.”

She said she wants to continue the council’s initiatives, including how to make accessory dwelling units a better part of the solution, changing zoning, and attracting more apartments to the city.

Day said the city is moving in the right direction with housing, but he’d like to evaluate utility rates for new developments and use more land around the city to seek workforce housing and apartments.

“Our land and city footprint is relatively small,” he said. “We are running out of areas to put this that are reasonable.”

As for the CTE pledge, Day said union representatives he’s spoken with nationwide say there needs to be more service-related training and schools need to add vocational training.

He said programs for woodworking, mechanics and plumbing — similar to when he was in school — are going away and those “career fields are dying for people to get in there and work.”

Rutter said she would support the project if it came back to the council for a pledge. She also feels it’s important for the council to help safeguard natural resources and help increase access to higher speed internet in the area, as it would lead more businesses to bring their work to Sequim.

‘Climate crisis’

Asked about the climate risks the Olympic Peninsula faces, Rutter said the world is “in the middle of a climate crisis” and that she thinks a lot about what the next 30 years will look like.

She said she is hopeful for communities to come together and collaborate on how they’re going to take care of the Earth “and to be to be guardians of our resources because that is a huge part of what makes the Olympic Peninsula so valuable.”

Rutter said people need to do everything they can to protect the environment, and build off efforts Sequim has done, such as build its Water Reclamation facility, seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LEED) certification, and create goals through a “Sustainable Sequim” document.

Day agreed that society is facing climate concerns, but as a small community Sequim is limited in what it can do. However, he said city leaders should participate in local efforts, seek funding to increase infrastructure such as electric charging stations, and petition lawmakers to do more on a global scale.

He added that politicians need to get other countries to participate and change their views on global climate issues.

Asked about priorities in the city’s upcoming Comprehensive Plan update, both candidates touched on climate issues.

Rutter said the city should make climate resilience a priority, and that water is “going to be a very very scarce resource in our future.”

“As a city I’d like to help us figure out how we can go for that federal funding to retrofit our landscapes so that they use little to no water at all but they can still be beautiful,” she said.

“We can look into offering rebates to our citizens for replacing their lawns with drought tolerant plants and luckily lavender is one of many plants on the list of drought tolerant plants.”

Day said the city should look at how to entice companies to come here and increase access to high-speed internet.

“We are so far lacking in that area you will never get any big companies to bring well-paying jobs into the community or the county,” he said.

Day said he also seeks adaptability in planning.

“We did not foresee the pandemic so we’re always going to have some things that come up that weren’t expected and we need to have a grand plan that’s flexible to where we can move and shift if we have to into other areas,” Day said.

As for water resources, Day said he likes Saudi Arabia’s desalination plants and the U.S. doesn’t use them enough.

“We have an abundance of water right there on the coast and I think that’s an area maybe we need to look at,” he said.

Social services

Discussing health and human service funding contracts, Day said they’re important issues and should be explored more “hand-in-hand” with the agencies.

He wants to invest more in infrastructure for children, too, so “they stay out of trouble and they have things to do and they builds their minds and their experiences.”

With homelessness, he said the city needs to look at mental health issues along with drug/alcohol addiction. As an officer, Day said he ran the methadone clinic inside a prison and learned about the drug and alcohol issues inmates were facing along with mental health issues. He said clinicians were shocked to find 80% of the people that had drug and alcohol issues had mental health issues too and were self-medicating.

Once they were being treated for both addiction and mental health issues, Day said, clients had a 70% recovery rate.

Rutter said she feels the city should spend more on health and human service funding while working with regional organizations to help people who need support.

If elected, she said she’ll make sure the city is showing up to provide services to those who need it.

“There’s so many excellent excellent organizations out there, and I really look forward to working with them,” she said.

Youth opportunities

Asked about how to provide meaningful opportunities for local children, Rutter said she’s want to reach out to community partners and build and work on community events that engage families and young people.

She’d also like to build on momentum of events like Rally in the Alley, and creating more opportunities for civic and community engagement, such as a highway pickup event.

Day said he’d support the effort to offer free bus rides for people up to age 25 for work and college.

He said adding more workforce housing is important, and advocating somehow for young people to think about savings and retirement.