The city of Elma will have a new mayor starting Jan. 1, 2024, as the current Mayor Jim Sorensen will not seek reelection for a potential third term.

Sorensen, who has presided over the fastest-growing city, percentage-wise, in Grays Harbor County expressed his desire to allow a new voice to be heard but talked about other reasons for his decision.

“Number one, it’s always good to bring in change. Just like our president, it’s two terms and then somebody else. I think it’s good for a lot of leadership positions to have new voices over time,” Sorensen said. “I’ve been doing this for over seven years and to be honest I’m a little tired. Things were going very smoothly up until COVID hit. Then suddenly, my 10-hour-a-week job as mayor turned into a 40-plus hour-a-week job on top of me already having a 40-hour-a-week job.”

While Sorensen admitted that he would have still declined to run for a third term regardless of if the pandemic happened or not, he described his role over that multi-year period as “crazy.” Despite the pandemic, Elma has seen a vibrant shift from when Sorensen was first elected in November 2015 up until now such as with the expansion of the Summit Pacific Medical Center and Eagles Landing Business District.

“I think (Eagles Landing) has been a great thing. It’s gotten people off the highway and into our town, especially people who are traveling from Seattle to go out to the beaches. The Grocery Outlet is going to be really good for our residents to shop locally given that we’re limited on those types of resources,” Sorensen said.

Despite the growth of the town population-wise, Sorensen sees his biggest achievement during his tenure as mayor being the financial budget the city has the ability to operate with.

“When I took office, we did not have much reserve funding at all, so I wanted to build that up for when if something happens, we have funds available,” Sorensen said.

The prime example Sorensen gave of “if something happens” is the Elma theater. According to the mayor, when the roof collapsed on the theater a couple of years ago, the city would have had to take a loan out to take care of the demolition. Now, the city doesn’t have to worry about loaning the money and Sorensen expects the demolition to be completed before his exit.

Although the biggest challenge for Sorensen was accepting the pace of things when it comes to government, he hopes that people will see the fiscal improvements the city has made during his tenure.

When asked if any big plans were on the horizon once the proverbial mayoral hat is no longer needed, Sorensen laughed and said he hadn’t thought too much about it.

“Just because I’m not running for mayor doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be involved,” Sorensen said. “I really appreciated the last seven-plus years, I’m so thankful to the citizens of Elma for letting me do this. Yes, it’s been a lot of work but it’s also been a lot of fun. I love my staff at the city and I’ll miss them for sure. They are such a great group of people. But I’m not moving away so I’ll still get to enjoy them.”

Sorensen was also quick to acknowledge his path up to this point and his gratitude for being mayor by citing his personal experience with being homeless and a non-traditional education journey.

“Something a lot of people don’t know about me is that I was a high-school dropout. Got my GED when I was about 25, started going to college when I was 30, and graduated with my bachelor’s degree when I was 36,” Sorensen explained. “So in no way, in my mind, would I have thought I would be able to be in this position. But here I am.”

Looking to the future, Sorensen expressed that the best quality the next mayor of Elma can possess is an open mind and straying away from being closed off to new ideas citing his personal experiences during the last seven-plus years.

While the next mayor of Elma will preside during the completion of the city’s police station remodel in mid-2024 as well as the planned expansion of Summit Pacific Medical Center in 2025, the biggest issue Sorensen noted that will need to be addressed is housing.

“We need to do what we can to make it more inviting for developers. This is a county-wide issue but at least in Elma, we need all levels of housing,” Sorensen said.

According to the Washington Secretary of State, online candidate filing week starts Monday, May 15 at 9 a.m. and ends Friday, May 19 at 4 p.m. The primary election is slated for August, and then the general election is in November. The city of Elma should know its new mayor by the end of November when certification is required.

With Sorensen declaring that he will not run for reelection, he joins a number of other city leaders declining an oppurtunity to run for another term joining Cosmopolis Mayor Kyle Pauley, Aberdeen Mayor Pete Schave, and Montesano Mayor Vini Samuel.

Contact Reporter Allen Leister at 360-463-3572 or allen.leister@thedailyworld.com