When current Ocean Shores City Council member Kathryn Sprigg decided she would not seek another term in 2023, it left Position 2 up for grabs, and another former councilor, along with a longtime law enforcement officer, are now vying for the spot.
Candidates Bob Peterson and Tom Taylor met Wednesday evening at the Ocean Shores Lions Club to answer questions on city issues and make their case for the job.
The forum was hosted by citizen advocacy group Voice of the Shores and moderated by Gina Rawlings. Candidates randomly selected questions generated from community surveys conducted by Voice of the Shores.
Before the questions began, Peterson talked about his work on council, including rewriting several business ordinances and council of governments documents. He was elected in 2016 and again in 2019, but resigned in August 2022 short of fulfilling his second term due to a health issue in his family.
Before leaving he worked to gain support for a school-based health center at North Beach Junior/Senior High School, a state Legislature-funded project through Grays Harbor County Public Health that began operations this year.
Peterson said his long career as a school psychologist, including 10 years of involvement with North Beach, required adept problem solving skills, and being a good listener is a big part of that.
“It all starts with listening, which is something I always try to do,” Peterson said Wednesday. “Before I usually speak at a council meeting, I always listen to what everybody else has to say. … I wanted to see if my thinking was with their thinking, and there’s something that I needed to rethink, or if I had convinced them to do something else. So it’s a matter of being malleable, of doing what’s best in the situation that you have.”
“That’s what I do, and I’ll continue to do that,” he said.
Taylor said he doesn’t have the same council experience as Peterson, but is no stranger to public service. He worked for 22 years as a deputy sheriff in San Bernardino County, California, followed by eight years in his current position as a code enforcement and animal control officer with the city of Hoquiam.
He said he ran for city council to “get the citizens back into it, give them a voice, give them the ability to tell us what they want us to do, not us tell them what we want to do.”
“I began my life serving first my nation in the military, then my county as a deputy sheriff, my family as the breadwinner, and my department as a representative of that department,” Taylor said. “I’m not doing this for any other reason than to serve this community at this point in my life.”
Police and fire departments
Several questions arose Wednesday surrounding police and fire department issues in Ocean Shores, mostly about the buildings that house them.
In attempts to remedy an outdated and undersized police station, the city attempted to finance a new station with a $12 million bond last November, but voters rejected it.
Both candidates said they would be willing to put police station financing on the ballot again, but had slightly different ideas about what might constitute the new station. Taylor said building from scratch is not the only option, and suggested the city look to remodel an existing facility.
“There might be something out there that’s already structural, already prepared for modifications,” Taylor said.
He pointed to the city of Kirkland, which remodeled a former storefront into a police station and large jail.
“We could do the same here,” he said.
Peterson mentioned several potential sites the city owns that could host a new police station, including empty land near Ace Hardware and said land across from the Polynesian Hotel. He emphasized urgency on the issue.
“Every time we don’t do something the cost rises exponentially,” he said.
Rising costs recently caused price estimates on another city station — the South End Fire Station — to nearly double, according to one question that asked candidates if they would prioritize remodels there.
Peterson affirmed, and said the south station will become increasingly important as population booms on the south end of the peninsula.
“We need to make sure they’ve got the tools they need, and I think right now we’re just a little bit short,” he said.
Taylor said the city should examine solutions like adding trailers to the station if living space is a barrier for expansion, and the city could seek grants to pay for it.
Speaking about the police department, Taylor said his experience with law enforcement “allows me to look at our department and see if we can improve it,” mentioning accreditation, paperwork, training and how the department patrols districts. In response to a question about traffic safety, he said OSPD could look to increase traffic stops to control speeders, citing a high number of stops made by the Hoquiam Police Department as an example.
Business and economic growth
Two questions Wednesday night probed for ideas about how to attract new business and spur economic growth in Ocean Shores.
Peterson said several areas of the town, including behind the IGA grocery store on Point Brown Avenue and on Ocean Shores Boulevard, could use further development. He said most people who visit the beach usually only walk a short way to the businesses closest to beach entrances.
“Certainly we need to become more attractive downtown,” Peterson said. “It’s inaccessible to a lot of people that are in town.”
He said the city should consider implementing sidewalks to promote easy foot travel.
Taylor also said sidewalks and other infrastructure projects could help promote tourism. He said the city should work with current business owners to grow its network of entrepreneurs, adding that he is a business owner himself.
“If you are a business owner, you know a lot of business owners, not just in our city but all over. They’re our best speakers for getting new businesses here.”
Other public infrastructure
Other questions Wednesday asked candidates about plans for funding projects such as waterways and roads.
Last year, the city completed the first phase of a major project clearing decades-worth of debris from the Oyehut Ditch, which is prone to flooding. The city recently awarded a contract with Rognlin’s to complete phase two, and will have to continue regular maintenance.
Taylor said the city should use city maintenance workers to conduct regular cleanup of the ditch instead of contracting the work every several years.
“Why can’t our city workers do what they do? We have the equipment, we have the workers,” Taylor said. “That’s their job. If we need to hire a professional to guide them, we can do that.”
He also said city workers could be used to maintain the quality of the city’s 23-mile fresh water system of lakes and canals, which has suffered from aquatic weed infestations and harmful algal blooms.
Peterson said the Oyehut Ditch is important as “the headwaters of our fresh waterways.” He said the city could fund fresh waterway maintenance by creating a lake management taxing district, incorporating properties touching the water, an idea proposed several years ago but never adopted. He said that could complement a low tax from the rest of the city, because “it’s a city problem, it’s not just the people living on the lake. It’s an asset for this city, it’s a prime asset.”
Another question expressed concern about city roads, and asked about possible additional resources to maintain them.
Peterson said during his time on council he worked to create a transportation benefit district, which is designed to allocate a “small portion” of sales tax toward a road fund at about $250,000 per year. The city created a plan for the project that died when a former city engineer left the position, but could be revived under the new city’s new project manager, Peterson said.
“That’s actually part of our major function as a council, is to maintain infrastructure,” he said.
Taylor added that the city could also examine grants to pay for road infrastructure projects.
Healthcare
One question asked candidates whether the city should facilitate some kind of healthcare facility in Ocean Shores. Many people have advocated for bringing an urgent care clinic to the city.
For Taylor, the solution could require the city to “start thinking outside the box,” including looking for alternatives for doctors, such as someone who recently graduated from medical school, internships or other programs.
Peterson said the focus should be on the Grays Harbor Hospital District 2, to which Ocean Shores taxpayers contribute about $2 million each year. He said the hospital could provide some kind of satellite care on the North Beach, although, “I don’t know that an urgent care is better than what we have now. Once you step into an ambulance here, then you’re in an emergency room. A lot of places they don’t have that.”
Ethics review
The candidates had different ideas about the way the city should review ethics complaints against council members. Currently, ethics complaints are reviewed in a private executive session and investigated by a three-member ad hoc committee.
Taylor advocated for citizen involvement in the process, and said complaints could be evaluated by a more comprehensive ethics committee.
“I believe that we should have selected citizens of the city with backgrounds in investigation, police officers, firemen, investigators of some type, let them look at the original complaint, weed it out, talk to the people involved, and come back with a recommendation,” Taylor said.
Peterson said the city council “does a good job of policing” complaints in the current system.
“There’s so much that goes into these decisions that people make, that it would be almost unimaginable to get a group of people all of the info they need to make the decision,” he said.
Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.
Clayton Franke / The Daily World Bob Peterson, candidate for Position 2 on the Ocean Shores city council, speaks at a forum Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the Ocean Shores Lions Club.
Clayton Franke / The Daily World Tom Taylor, candidate for Position 2 on the Ocean Shores city council, speaks at a forum Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the Ocean Shores Lions Club.
