PORT ANGELES — Mayor Sissi Bruch soon will be free from the potential conflict-of-interest bonds of her day job, allowing her to realize her full potential on the Port Angeles City Council, she said last week.
Bruch will resign from her senior-planner position with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe by the end of June, she said.
The move will enable her to vote on issues ranging from the tribe’s pending purchase of city-owned downtown property for a hotel to the high-stakes legal wrangling with federal officals over the transfer of the Elwha Water Facilities to city control, to the environmental cleanup of Port Angeles Harbor.
Ever since her election over incumbent Don Perry in 2011 and re-election unopposed in 2015, Bruch has had to recuse herself from city issues related to the tribe to avoid potential conflict-of-interest issues, dutifully exiting the council chambers when one arises.
She ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat against Republican Bill Peach for Clallam County commissioner in 2014.
Bruch’s City Council colleagues appointed her mayor in January, and while the position is largely ceremonial, she still runs meetings, confers with the city manager on setting the council’s meeting agendas, approves committee assignments and signs letters and proclamations on behalf of the council.
“I feel like, right now, with the mayor position, I am busier than I care to be and I would like to count on having more time in the mayor position, to be able to do that position more completely,” Bruch said.
“This was my own decision.”
Bruch, 57, who has been employed by the tribe for about nine years, said she is able to resign her position and does not have to find other employment right away because her youngest son, Hans, is graduating from college.
Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said the search has begun for a new senior planner.
Charles said Bruch’s announcement was a surprise to tribal officials but that she understood the time-consuming pressures of a position such as mayor.
“She was very professional in all aspects to make sure she recused herself in any decision-making” that involved the tribe, Charles said.
“We have an excellent working relationship in both arenas as far as I am concerned, when she’s been an employee just as much as her working as mayor,” she added.
“We are going to continue working with the city now solely with her being in the mayor position.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
