Three Sequim City Council seats, all four-year terms, are on this year’s ballot, the first election since four new councilors were elected in 2007.

Incumbents Bill Huizinga and Walt Schubert decided to run again, but Paul McHugh is retiring from the council. His seat is sought by Don Hall, a former councilor, and Planning Commissioner Mike East.

Schubert is being challenged by Planning Commission Chairman Ted Miller. Huizinga is running unopposed.

Schubert, Huizinga and East are running as a slate under the banner of Sequim Sense.

In these races, as in others in this package of reports, unopposed candidates are not covered. Also, all offices are nonpartisan.

Ted Miller
The Sequim City Council Position 2 race is not merely a contest between two candidates. It is nothing less than a referendum on the future direction for Sequim.

My opponent and the real estate developers are determined to regain control of the city council and will spare no expense to do so.

They want to stop reform and ensure that you and other taxpayers continue to pay most of the developers’ impact costs.

I am equally determined to stop them. Prior to becoming a candidate, I helped the city attorney draft the ordinances necessary to ensure that the developers pay their own infrastructure impact costs instead of shifting the burden to the taxpayers like that which occurred prior to 2007.

But unless the city council passes these reform ordinances, we are doomed to repeat history. The city (and the taxpayers) suffered a devastating financial blow during the growth cycle of 2001-2007; it can’t afford another one.

Two-thirds of Sequim residents are seniors and they pay two-thirds of the taxes. My opponent has treated seniors as the ignored majority. Many sidewalks are nonexistent or do not meet ADA standards.
Sequim Speaks, the new citizen’s advisory body, should be asked to add a senior issues subcommittee. The Senior Center facility must soon be replaced. I have recently been nominated to the Senior Center board of directors. I will work to resolve this issue and put the best solution before the voters for your consideration.

Walt Schubert
After 10 years’ service on the council, six as your mayor, I wish to continue serving and representing the people of Sequim. All the people!

It is time our young families, our seniors, our Boys & Girls Club and others in our community are treated as partners and brought into the circle.

We have become a council that makes decisions — such as firing our city manager — without reason or thought (this has cost the citizens of Sequim in excess of a quarter million dollars to date with no end in sight).

We have become a council that is sending the message to those considering moving to the Sequim-Dungeness Valley that we do not want them to live in our city by charging unreasonably and unjustified excessive development fees and taxes. The result is we are forcing almost all residential development out into the county, promoting urban sprawl and gobbling up farmland and open space that we all are here to enjoy and want to preserve.

Managing our city is very much like managing a business. It requires leadership, experience, integrity and a steady hand. I have those qualities with over 50 years of successful business management/ownership experience. I have proven my leadership abilities over the past 10 years with my service as your city council representative and mayor.

Help me send a strong message to the new council majority that you have had enough of their irresponsible leadership.

Mike East
I have served on the Sequim Planning Commission for the past 2½ years.

My wife, Nancy Holmberg-East, and I have lived in the Sequim area for six years.

I am retired from the transportation industry. I have managed transportation companies in air, ocean and truck freight with sales and marketing to U.S. Fortune 500 and international companies. I have worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a supervisor with TSA at Seattle International Airport.

I have a B.S. degree from the University of Oregon. 

I have worked with the Boys & Girls Club of Alaska as a coach and fundraiser and served on the board of directors for the Anchorage Youth Soccer Club, as president of the Hilltop Youth Inc., dba Hilltop Ski Area, and president of the Anchorage Air Cargo Association.

It is time to bring back common sense to the Sequim City Council, using positive management skills while reducing wasted city spending and allowing the city staff, directors, managers and supervisors to manage their departments, and fellow staff to perform their jobs without interference and intimidation. 

I want to guide the city of Sequim into the future with a well-designed plan for the city center, with educated decisions for a sustainable future. I want to preserve our farmland, protect our local food sources and the limited open spaces in our community.

I want to assist with the affordable housing development in Sequim. I propose that any tax increase should be by a vote of the public.

Don Hall
I am a retired quality assurance manager who has lived in Sequim for 12-plus years. I have been attending planning commission, parks board and city council meetings for 10 years.

I am a past planning commission member, a council member for 5½ years and presently a parks board member.

I am proud of the extra things I have done and am doing for Sequim residents. I have helped the Senior Softball players get the two fields at Carrie Blake up to standard so they could be played on.

I helped the dog park Pals get the Dog Park at Carrie Blake. I am responsible for having the asphalt path put in from the reuse parking lot to the Sequim Band Shell so the elderly and handicapped could get to the band shell more easily.

I am part of the city team that picks up trash along the bypass and also pick up trash along city streets when needed.

I am running for the city council for several reasons:
The most important is that I want to control city costs, which will be in the red next year.

I would like to work on the Town Center Plan and I would like to work on the new city hall.

I have no political agenda but only want to make Sequim a better place to live in these new uncertain times.