PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council is in the process of selecting a replacement for its Position 2 seat following the resignation of Aislinn Palmer, who cited personal reasons.
The council on Monday selected four finalists — Heidi Haney, Theo Howard, Neil Nelson and Frederick Obee — who are scheduled to be interviewed in a special session from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the council chambers, 250 Madison St.
The council has 90 days from Palmer’s effective resignation date of May 31 to find the replacement before the responsibility would transfer to the Board of County Commissioners, according to state law.
Mayor David Faber and council member Ben Thomas recused themselves prior to the council going into executive session to select potential candidates, citing professional conflicts of interest.
Following the executive session, the council resumed its public forum, wherein a motion was made and passed to extend all four candidates as finalists.
Owen Rowe, Amy Howard, Libby Urner Wennstrom and Monica MickHager, the four remaining members of the council, will interview candidates for 30 minutes at Tuesday’s session.
Deliberations and a selection are set to be made at the Aug. 5 city council meeting, and the new council members will be sworn in at the Aug. 12 meeting.
About the candidates
Haney has been a Port Townsend resident since 2016. She was the executive director for Port Townsend senior living home Seaport Landing (2016-17) and managed the Eaglemount Cider & Winery tasting room (2016-19). From 2017 to present, she has managed the tasting room for Port Townsend Vineyards. Haney has owned Tipsy Gypsy, a mobile events bar.
“We are a tight knit community of people and I believe we all want what is best for the growth of this community,” Haney said in her application.
“Strong leadership that is able to see all sides of a situation and can be a good fiduciary steward for our city is the best candidate. I believe I can fill that role.”
Haney said she believes that her years in customer service prepare her to work with many personalities gracefully and with wisdom. Her approach to community engagement is to offer transparency in council processes.
She lists coffee chats, regular newspaper columns or a facebook group as potential strategies to achieve quality community engagement.
Haney said the city faces a challenge in public education. She has noticed that a large portion of the public lacks understanding about what’s happening in local government operations.
She also said residents would feel more connected and have a stronger likelihood of supporting council direction if they had a better understanding of the positive impact particular issues might have on their lives.
Haney said she is a proponent of having a public liaison who might offer easier access to key takeaways in council projects.
Howard serves as the elected board president for Olympic Housing Trust and has worked as a staff attorney for Clallam-Jefferson Pro Bono Lawyers since 2021. He also is a radio host and programmer at KPTZ 91.9 FM.
“Since moving to Port Townsend in 2021, I’ve found myself engaged in this unique community in deeper and more varied ways than anywhere I’ve ever lived,” he said in his application for the position.
Howard said he considers the environmental changes over the next decades and century a pressing issue facing Jefferson County, noting that the mild climate will only drive migration toward the area in years to come.
He said how local regulatory bodies manage growth in the area — including creating affordable housing — will define whether the region fulfills its potential to set a broader example on how to develop equitably and sustainably.
Howard said he thinks the vocal minority is not always a representative voice of the populace at large, and he said representative government can only ever approximate executing the clear will of the people. For Howard, that does not undermine the value of public engagement; he sees public input as an important contributing factor to the development and execution of policy.
Howard said he’s interested in engaging with disagreements with a focus on clarifying perspectives. He holds that bringing forward the true nature of what engaged parties may agree or disagree on is important both for the efficiency of a conversation, and for the potential of making progress.
As a leader, he would focus his efforts on helping to bring clear articulation to the various perspectives in given conversations.
Nelson is a longtime resident of Port Townsend and a local business owner. His work has been focused on home building since 2000. Before that, he was a sales rep for large construction vendors. His company, PieceWurx Construction, specializes in building new homes, accessory dwelling units and remodeling. He said he has managed small crews of a few workers and crews with as many as 25 laborers.
He currently serves on the Port Townsend Planning Commission.
“Over the last several years I have come to realize that I have great interest in being of maximum service to my fellow man and to my community,” Nelson said in his council application.
Nelson said he believes his work as a general contractor in the area gives him unique insight into the housing situation locally, both from the perspective of the process of homes being built, and from the perspective of employing laborers who struggle to find housing locally.
With the Planning Commission, Nelson said he has come to find that the process of creating policy, even locally, is far slower than the processes that occur in private business. He said he is eager to continue to learn how to bring his extensive background in construction to a policy development context.
Nelson also noted he is a regular speaker for 12-step recovery groups, drug court and local treatment centers.
Obee has been a Port Townsend resident for 21 years. A lifelong journalist, Obee recently retired, opening the time for him to follow up on his longheld interest in government.
Obee started covering city governments in his capacity as a journalist in 1982. His first job in Port Townsend was covering county government for the Port Townsend Leader. He filled that role from 1994-2000, then worked for three years as an editor for a newspaper in Crescent City, Calif.
In 2003, he moved back to Port Townsend and became the general manager for the Leader. He filled that role until 2015 when he became Centrum’s Marketing Director. Starting in 2016, Obee spent the rest of his career as executive director of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.
“Fortunately, I have a lifetime of practice in quickly absorbing and understanding complex issues, and I will devote as much time as is necessary to become more knowledgeable,” he said in his council application.
Obee sees affordable housing and homelessness as major city issues. He also addressed a number of infrastructure issues, including deferred sewage, water and streets projects, as well as addressing the recent issues with the Mountain View pool.
Public engagement is a major challenge for Obee. He noted that many times the public will not respond, even if it affects them. Obee still holds that public engagement must be robust and extend through every possible channel.
Though picking up on procedural minutiae may present a learning curve, Obee said he has confidence in his experience and devotion.
Learn more about the candidates at tinyurl.com/PDN-PTccCandidates.
For more about the Port Townsend City Council, call 360-379-2980 or email to citycouncil@cityofpt.us.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
