PORT ANGELES — After serving just 15 months on the City Council, Lee Whetham announced Thursday he will run for John Calhoun’s soon-to-be vacant seat on the Port of Port Angeles board of commissioners.
In Whetham’s first run for public office in 2013, he defeated online publisher Peter Ripley for four-year Position 2 on the council.
Whetham, a journeyman plumber, took office in January 2014.
Calhoun, the port commission’s senior member, is not running for re-election to a third six-year term to the West End District 3 position, which stretches from west Port Angeles to Neah Bay.
Whetham, 55, said he will resign his council seat if elected to the port board.
Candidates file in May
Candidate filing week for the Nov. 3 general election begins in 38 days and lasts from Monday, May 11, through Friday, May 15.
The Aug. 4 primary election for the position is districtwide.
The general election for the position is countywide.
“With John stepping down, I saw a chance to make a difference at the port,” Whetham said Thursday.
If Calhoun had sought a third term, Whetham would not have run for the position, Whetham said.
“In public office, you want to do the best for the most,” he said.
“I feel I can, I think I can, help more people.”
Whetham said he wants to be involved in the port’s efforts to develop marine-trade businesses on port property.
He also wants to help redevelop the former plywood mill site on Marine Drive, which is in the initial stages of environmental cleanup.
Add more jobs
“I see a potential of adding a lot more metal trades or marine-trade jobs on the waterfront,” he said.
“I’d like to do something more than log storage along the harbor and like to see us become a super Port Townsend in boatworks.
“My history is trying to generate local work for local people.
“I know construction. I know a little bit about the marine trades. I’d like to get involved in that.”
Whetham was recently re-elected executive secretary of the Olympic Peninsula Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO.
Whetham’s wife, Kim, is an anesthesiologist-technician at Olympic Medical Center.
They have two grown children.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
