SEQUIM — Walt Schubert, former mayor and 10-year incumbent City Council member, and challenger Ted Miller highlighted a candidates’ forum Wednesday, with Schubert saying developers shouldn’t pay development impact fees and Miller asserting it’s their duty.
Absent from the forum at the Pioneer Park clubhouse, sponsored by the Clallam County Democratic Club, were School Board candidate Virginia O’Neil and Sequim Aquatic and Recreation Center commissioner candidate Noelle Levesque, while SARC candidate Jan Richardson left early.
O’Neil was out of town, her husband, Conn, said Thursday. Richardson had to leave the forum early to take an international call at home, he said. Levesque did not return calls for comment.
At the forum, those in the approximately 40-person audience, were allowed to ask questions directly of individual candidates, all of whom are running for office in the Nov.3 general election.
Ben Chambers, the party club chairman who moderated the forum, allowed audience members to converse back and forth with candidates and imposed no set time limit on responses, unlike other forums on the North Olympic Peninsula this election season, where questioners have been required to ask the same question of all candidates, whose responses are limited to two or three minutes.
That turned the forum into a clash of positions between Miller, 63, a retired CIA systems analyst, and Schubert, 69, founder of Action Property Management, and an audience discussion with the candidates – mostly about development in Sequim, with much of the questioning directed at Miller.
Impact fees
The city has hired a consultant to determine how much the city can charge if the City Council implements impact fees.
Developers would be charged impact fees to pay for schools and other facilities needed to accommodate population increases caused by those developments.
Sequim City Council candidate Michael East, 66, a retired terminal air freight manager for Consolidated Freightways, and Don Hall, 77, a former council member, retired quality assurance manager and current city Planning Commission member — said little, as the audience aimed questions at Miller and Schubert.
When they did speak, they too disagreed on impact fees, with East asserting builders already “pay their fair share,” while Hall said the fees can do some good, for example, in preserving park space.
Some residents at the forum said developers already pay exorbitant utility hookup fees compared to other parts of the county and all residents, not just those buying new homes, create the kind of demographic pressure that requires new schools and other facilities.
Schubert said imposition of the fees would force development to occur outside the city limit.
“Is it better to have development outside the city? No,” Schubert said, adding developers pay for their infrastructure impact through fees paid and jobs created.
“We need to encourage development in the city limits so we are not sending people out into the county and eating up open space and farmland,” he added.
But Miller said current residents should not have to pay for the impacts caused by new residents.
“Residential development does not pay for itself,” Miller said.
“You get a short-term benefit from construction. The fact is, you are borrowing from the future when you do this.”
SARC programs
SARC programs, especially for senior citizens and young people, were discussed by incumbent SARC candidate Susan Sorensen, 56, a part-time registered nurse running against Richardson, 69, a retired construction company owner, and Robert Macaulay, 64, a former pool director and high school principal, running against Levesque, 29, who is in the health and wellness field.
They defended SARC against what City Council member Ken Hays claimed was a lack of attention to young people.
He urged SARC to hire a professional swimming instructor, citing his son’s need for lessons and what he said was a growing number of young people in Sequim.
School Board
John Kirshbaum, 66, a retired information technology project manager running against O’Neil, 48, president and general manager of a limited family partnership, said he was inspired to run for the Sequim School Board by the late June Robinson, a longtime PDN columnist and School Board member.
He suggested more vocational programs would keep students, who are at risk for dropping out, in school.
The forum also included two presentations that were added onto the program at the last minute, Chambers said, at the request of the two presenters, Mayor Laura Dubois and county Commissioner Steve Tharinger of Dungeness.
Tax, initiative
Dubois outline the proposed 2 percent sales tax increase for Sequim residents — an additional 2 cents on every $10 purchased on retail goods not including food except for restaurant and deli food — to pay for city street improvements.
“When you shop here, you get to help us with those streets,” Dubois said.
Tharinger spoke against statewide Initiative 1033.
It would cap city, county and state general fund increases at the previous year’s revenue level and adjust the amount for inflation and population growth, with revenue collected above the limit paying for property tax relief.
“We would always be behind the eight ball trying to manage funding,” Tharinger said, calling it “a very poor mechanism” for addressing high property taxes and deriding initiative sponsor Tim Eyman for being “in the initiative business.”
No audience member asked questions and Chambers did not ask if any opposed to the sales tax increase or in favor of I-1033 wanted to outline positions on the measures.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.