PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles School District levy proposition enjoyed unbridled support at a city council meeting this week.
Port Angeles City Council members were required under state law to give time to proponents and opponents before they gave their unanimous endorsement Tuesday to the four-year measure.
The property tax levy, which would collect an estimated $9.1 million annually from property owners and $36.4 million from 2018-21, will be on the Feb. 14 special election ballot.
The four-year levy will continue a two-year measure that annually covers 22 percent of school district operations and programs.
The two-year levy that will be replaced generated $8.6 million in 2016 and will generate an estimated $8.7 million in 2017.
Council members also approved a $64,320 home-run fence for Civic Field, backed considering the impacts of climate change when approving development and approved an agenda for a Jan. 30 joint meeting with Port of Port Angeles commissioners.
School district voters, who numbered 20,862 strong as of Thursday including more than 12,400 within the city limits, will begin weighing in on the levy after ballots are mailed Jan. 25.
The measure, which requires a simple majority for approval, also has been unanimously endorsed by the Clallam County Board of Commissioners.
Proponents and opponents of the levy were offered 15-minute blocks of time to have their say at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
During their 15 minutes, five speakers said they favored the replacement levy.
“It is our job as residents to step up and support this,” city resident David Mabrey said.
“We need the city to lead,” Jeff Bohman said.
No one rose to speak in council chambers when Mayor Patrick Downie opened the floor to opponents.
After a few seconds, Councilman Dan Gase joked he “didn’t want to sit here for 15 minutes” waiting for someone to go to the podium, and the meeting continued with council discussion.
Gase and council members Cherie Kidd and Michael Merideth raised their hands when asked who on the council had graduated from Port Angeles High School.
“It is so important for our entire city that we support this levy,” Gase said, emphasizing the importance of following the slogan of Port Angeles Citizens for Education.
“If we want a good economy, we have to educate our students, our children,” Gase said.
“I am very proud to support it,” he said.
Steve Methner, the pro-levy political action committee’s co-chairman, said the slogan was changed from “Say Yes to Kids” to “A Good Economy Needs Great Schools.”
The slogan “nails it,” Gase said.
Methner told council members that the old slogan unfairly made voters who were against the levy look like they did not like children.
He said the levy would fund programs that keep the vast majority of district students engaged between 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on weekdays.
“I fully support programs to keep those kids busy” while their parents are at work, said Merideth, who has three children in the school district.
Methner said no residents have spoken up at meetings of elected officials and business groups where levy proponents have sought support.
It would collect an estimated $3.30 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2018, or $660 annually for the owner of a $200,000 home.
Port Angeles Citizens for Education has raised $1,385 to pass the levy, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Donations include $500 from Green Crow Corp. of Port Angeles, $250 each from William Arthur and Trudy A. Kindler of Port Angeles, and $100 each from Reed Wendel and Cindy Kelly, a Port Angeles School Board member.
City Council members also took the following action Tuesday:
• Unanimously approved spending $64,320 for a portable, wheeled 6-foot-high chain-link home-run fence at city-owned Civic Field.
The funds will be drawn from $150,000 in lodging tax funds set aside for Civic Field improvements.
The fence will be installed by June, when Port Angeles’ new West Coast League baseball team, the Lefties, begins playing at Civic Field.
The Lefties play their first home game June 1 against the Victoria HarbourCats.
Downie said the HarbourCats also have a home-run fence on wheels.
The current Civic Field fence is 17 years old “and is in dire need of replacement,” Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat said in a memo to the council.
The acquisition “makes a lot of sense,” Downie said.
• Unanimously approved a resolution on climate change.
Council discussion included disagreement on whether the resolution should say the city “should” or “will” consider climate change impacts when planning, designing and reviewing new developments and capital facilities.
The resolution adopts language in the comprehensive land-use plan.
Councilwoman Sissi Bruch said she wanted the resolution to say the city will consider those impacts instead of should.
Gase said he was “strongly” opposed revising what is already in the comprehensive plan.
“It’s just a small word, but it means a lot in the long run,” he said as Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd concurred.
But City Attorney Bill Bloor said Thursday it didn’t matter because council members were not incorporating the language into an actual ordinance.
“It was just a city policy saying this is how the city council feels about this subject, and this is what we want the staff to do,” Bloor said Thursday.
“It really didn’t matter too much which words you use.”
• Unanimously approved an agenda for a 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 30 joint meeting with Port of Port Angeles commissioners in the city council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The council members and port commissioners will discuss joint goals for the cleanup of Port Angeles Harbor; review an update from port officials on the William R. Fairchild International Airport Master Plan, which will include a discussion of disputed city-owned Lincoln Park trees; and go over “collective goals and aspirations.”
Public comment will not be taken at the meeting.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.
