SEQUIM — Applications for an open seat on the Sequim City Council are due Friday.
Those interested must apply to the city clerk by noon with a letter of interest, resume and a completed application with answers to supplemental questions. Send applications by email to acting city clerk Heather Robley at hrobley@sequimwa.gov or by mail at the Civic Center, 152 W. Cedar St., Sequim, WA 98382.
Find the application page at sequimwa.gov/67/City-Council. Applications for the Position 7 seat are part of the public record and will be distributed with city council meeting materials, city staff said.
The seat is open following Tom Ferrell’s resignation effective March 11.
Under city and state requirements, applicants must be registered voters of the City of Sequim, have a one-year continuous period of residence in the city and hold no other public office or employment under the city government.
Council members agreed March 11 that they would gauge public interest at their meeting next Monday to determine if they must extend the deadline. City attorney Kristina Nelson-Gross said the council has the ability to extend the deadline.
If someone is not appointed within 90 days of Ferrell’s resignation (June 9), Clallam County commissioners would have to select someone for the seat, Robley said.
Ferrell, Sequim’s mayor from 2022-2023, twice ran unopposed for his position and council members were unsure how much interest there would be, so they asked for Robley to report to them on Monday about the number of applications.
Council member Rachel Anderson, Position 4, was the last council member appointed in February 2021, following the resignation of former mayor/council member Dennis Smith. Anderson was elected to the position later that year.
Interviews of candidates are scheduled before the council’s regular meeting on April 8 at the Sequim Civic Center. Council members may ask additional questions during the interview, city staff said.
If selected that night, the appointee would serve on the council effective after taking the Oath of Office.
The appointee would serve through certification of the 2025 general election and receive $368 per month while in office. The appointee would need to run again in 2025 to serve Ferrell’s full term through Dec. 31, 2027. Ferrell was reelected in last November.
Ferrell announced in February his intent to resign by the end of March, but he opted to resign effective the beginning of the March 11 meeting.
In a previous interview, Ferrell said he had been considering not running again for the seat in 2023 but was asked by many people to do so. His work commitments and differing views on the direction of the council’s efforts were contributing factors to his resignation, he said.
Ferrell moved to Sequim in 2016 and was appointed to the Sequim Planning Commission from March 2018 to December 2019 prior to being elected to city council. He served as a U.S. Air Force B-52 flight officer and an Air Force Reservist for 30 years.
He also owned an aerospace research company in San Diego, Calif., and served as the CEO of World Trade Center Sacramento, Economic Development Director for the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce and the director for Quality Management for Aerojet Rocket Company.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
