Candidates for Ocean Shores City Council Position 4 — the only contested city office on the 2023 primary election ballot — gathered for a forum at the Ocean Shores Library Tuesday morning to give their pitch to voters and answer questions from the public.

The primary election will take place Aug. 1, with ballots mailed out July 14. Online and mail-in ballots must be received eight days prior to election day.

Jennifer Herboldsheimer, Caroline Emmert and Alison Cline are vying for the Position 4 council seat, two of which will advance through the primary to the general election in November. At the forum, hosted by nonprofit organization Ocean Shores Friends of the Library, the three addressed issues posed by voters: transparency in government, medical care, funding for the library and the city’s public water system.

Cline, the incumbent, has served on the city council since early 2022, when the council unanimously appointed her to the seat left open by Jon Martin, who became mayor after the death of Crystal Dingler.

Neither of the other candidates have experience with political office. Just a few years ago, in fact, Herboldsheimer would not have been eligible to run for city council, or any other office.

A native of the United Kingdom, she completed a master’s program in Germany, received a degree in Scandinavian and Germanic philology, the science of language, which she would later use in work as a translator.

She came to the United States in 2016 on a spousal green card program and began working in Snohomish County. When her company went to fully remote work in 2019, she moved to Ocean Shores, and the beach, an area that reminded her of England’s south coast.

She applied for citizenship as soon as she was able. The process took two years, through the pandemic, but she finally became a citizen in 2021, and started attending city council meetings regularly. What she heard there spurred her interest in running for a council seat.

“I was hearing the same thing over and over again from the citizens, and these weren’t unreasonable requests from people,” Herboldsheimer said Tuesday to a crowd of about 30 people. “They wanted sidewalks, they wanted more police. They wanted better water, and they wanted the weeds to be taken out of the fresh waterways.”

She said she noticed a disconnect between citizen advocacy and council action, adding, “I think we need a more town-hall style approach, a more open and approachable government for our citizens.”

“When people feel more involved, that their voices count or that they’re being listened to, it’s easier for other things to happen, for more things to fall into place after that, and then we won’t have as many measures that fail at the ballot, because we won’t have lost the confidence,” Herboldsheimer said.

The concept of implementing a “town hall” type citizen engagement meeting has been a talking point for other candidates for Ocean Shores city offices this election season, including mayoral candidate Frank Elduen, and another Position 4 candidate, Caroline Emmert.

Emmert advocated for “regular town halls” in her own pitch, and was later asked to clarify the difference between a town hall and the current “city chats,” a monthly meeting featuring a presentation and public engagement on various city topics. She responded by saying a town hall would involve “more back-and-forth communication” and “more of a give and take.”

“The people who live here must have a voice, they must have a place to use that voice, and a mechanism for getting answers,” Emmert said.

Beyond town halls, Emmert said, “I want to be accessible, I want to be approachable, and I want to be a problem solver for you.”

Emmert, who became an Ocean Shores resident within the last two years, previously lived in Battle Ground, where she was a main force in starting the Just One Thing Battle Ground coalition, which created a “robust resource network to meet the immediate and long term needs of homeless individuals” by providing food, water, survival items and connection to services. The coalition started about four years ago and is still in action today.

After becoming a young mother, Emmert worked as a nursing assistant, and then attended Clark Community College, receiving a bookkeeping and office assistant certificate. She would go on to work for the IRS, Bonneville Power Administration, Enron Corporation, and others.

She said her experience in public and private sectors, coordinating projects and “getting things done,” as well as her past presidency of a car club, gave her the skills to be an effective councilperson.

“I don’t have to have all the answers. I don’t have to know everything. But I do need to know where to look it up,” she said.

She said businesses in Ocean Shores would benefit from a “viable chamber of commerce,” and that “current items on the budget should be looked at, and if possible, moved or set aside before asking citizens for a tax increase.”

In addition to being the candidate with political experience, Cline has also lived in Ocean Shores the longest, her full-time residency starting in 2015 after moving from Atlanta to Washington in the 1980s. She has two masters degrees in education, and later this year will enter her 28th year as a special education worker. She currently works for the Hoquiam School District’s special education program.

While Cline waited several years after moving to the beach to throw her hat in the ring for council, she was, and is, heavily involved with volunteering in Ocean Shores, including at festivals like Sand and Sawdust, Hog Wild and Razor Clam. She described volunteering as “a chance to talk to people in the community, see what their concerns are, see what needs they have,” part of what led her to apply for the vacant seat last year.

From her Position 4 seat, Cline usually remains quiet during city council meetings. She said people have confronted her before about her lack of conversation. She argued being verbose doesn’t always equate to effectiveness as a councilperson.

“What I do is I listen to people, and they come to me with concerns,” Cline said Tuesday. “When I get all of my information, if I have questions, I contact the people who can answer those questions ahead of time.”

When controversial issues come up at council, Cline said, she votes by “listening to all of those opinions and all of those ideas and then trying to make the best decision.”

Recently on council, she said, she supported the High Dune Trail and the Grays Harbor Conservation District, and cleaning up public waterways. She said she wants to find a way to bring sidewalks to Ocean Shores and improve the town’s walkability.

During a period of question and answer with the audience, all three candidates said they would support bringing an urgent care clinic to Ocean Shores.

Each candidate vouched for the library, saying they would keep the library in the city’s general fund, rather than on a levy, as was the case several years ago. That topic came up during public comment at a city council meeting earlier this year.

When prompted, the candidates also asserted the importance of addressing a current issue with the city’s drinking water supply, during which some residents have complained of black slime in their tap water. The city recently rolled out a survey to help gauge the issue.

Mary Jo Lohrenz, president of the Friends of the Library, said no other candidate forums have been planned at this time, but that it was a possibility for the general election.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.