General election candidates for Position 6 on the Ocean Shores City Council Peggy Jo Faria and Richard Wills met Wednesday evening at the Ocean Shores Lions Club before about 70 interested members of the public and city government officials to answer questions on city issues including water, economic development, city code and others.
Attendees also had a chance to meet the candidates after the 75-minute forum hosted by Voice of the Shores, a community group that meets weekly to discuss civic issues in Ocean Shores. Voice of the Shores members surveyed the community to collect questions, which were presented at the forum moderated by Gina Rawlings, Voice of the Shores organizer.
The event was the first in a string of upcoming candidate forums scheduled to be hosted by Voice of the Shores in advance of the Nov. 7 General Election, including those for three other city council seats, the mayor’s race, and possibly races for school board, said group organizer Jane Shattuck.
“The aim is to connect the candidates with the public, enabling them to make well-informed, educated choices as they complete their ballots. These forums are fueled with the desire that such engagements will bolster increased voter participation. Lastly, it serves the purpose of associating a recognizable face with each candidate’s name,” Shattuck said in an email.
Rawlings stated at the outset the forum was not an endorsement of either candidate.
The race for Position 6 is somewhat of a rematch: When a resignation left the seat vacant last August, Wills and Faria applied to fill it. The council ultimately appointed Wills by a 4-1 vote to take the seat, where he has served since.
Wills, who retired as a First Sergeant in the Army where he served for 24 years, said he has attended every council meeting except three since moving to Ocean Shores in 2016.
But only 11 months after his appointment, with the seat once again up for grabs, Faria was the only person to throw her hat in the ring — this time seeking support from Ocean Shores voters rather than the city council.
“This upcoming election is of utmost importance to the taxpaying residents,” Faria said in her opening statements Wednesday. “Many feel as though their voices are being lost in the shuffle. To be clear, this election is not about me, this election is about you and your right to be heard.”
Fresh waterways
The condition of the city’s 23-mile system of freshwater canals and lakes came up several times Wednesday night. According to data presented by an environmental consultant at a city meeting earlier this year, aquatic vegetation exists at “problematic” levels in 59% of Ocean Shores waterways, posing barriers to navigation and recreation, while algae blooms can create foul-smelling water and can sometimes be toxic.
Wills, a five-year member of the Ocean Shores Fresh Waterways Corporation, flexed his technical knowledge on the subject during the forum. Wills’ resume says he has devoted many hours of research to “understanding shallow water body health and dynamics.”
After one question expressed concern about chemical treatments in the canals, Wills assured that those chemicals are completely harmless. While physically removing weeds using the city’s mechanical harvester is also a viable option, Wills said, it can only address a fraction of the problem at a time.
“We’re always going to need some form of herbicide treatment,” Wills said.
Faria noted she was “not a professional waterways expert, therefore I think it’s very wise for us to consult with experts,” but said she believed there were other avenues of caring for the waterways like aeration and equipment, also noting that the city recently incorporated into the Grays Harbor Conservation District, a grant funded landowner-assistance program focused on environmental health and restoration.
She said some residents on the waterways have “very sadly” been restricted from removing weeds from the edge of their properties.
“The voice of the people I think is what counts,” Faria said.
Later in the forum, Wills said he believed the city should devote more money on maintaining the waterways. The city council has budgeted $315,000 over the next two years for aquatic plant management, including $185,000 for harvesting operations and the rest for herbicide treatment.
“That’s a start, but it’s just barely a start,” Wills said.
He echoed that the city should take advantage of grants through the conservation district, and other money could come from increased recreation activity in Ocean Shores.
“Solving the waterway issue is not a $100,000 process, it’s not a $1 million process, it could be a 40, 50, 60 million-dollar process,” Wills said. “It needs to be done a little chunk at a time. Meanwhile the city is doing the best they can with the help of the Fresh Waterways Advisory Board and the Fresh Waterways Corporation.”
He added: “Until we get the money, I think we have to keep putting Band-Aids on.”
Business and economics
Two questions from the community on Wednesday asked candidates how the council could foster economic growth and encourage new businesses to come to the city.
Faria said her background suits her well to address those issues: Before retiring and moving to Ocean Shores in 2016, she worked for Costco for 13 years, her time split between work design associate and supervisor, and later as project coordinator for the corporation’s marketing department, where she worked to promote the company’s image and facilitate media and community outreach projects.
She has also been an active member of various economic organizations and business associations, and a chamber of commerce, her resume states. She said those skills could be applied to the city if she were elected.
“Marketing ourselves as a destination location community would be very critical,” Faria said.
Earlier in the forum, she said her time spent visiting many beach towns on both the east and west coasts has allowed her to see a “clear picture of the amenities and services beach towns such as these offer to both the visitors and the residents.”
Those services should include expanded high-speed internet and healthcare, specifically an urgent care clinic, an initiative many Voice of the Shores members have pushed for, even convening hospital and county commissioners to talk about the issue earlier this year.
Faria also said she would like to expand usage at the city’s “beautiful convention center.” Data about Ocean Shores Convention Center usage could not be obtained by press time through the city’s website or requests to city officials.
Wills countered by saying he thought the convention center was already mostly full, and that the city already has high-speed internet.
He said the city should use recreation opportunities as a tool to drive economic growth, stating his support for the expansion of the new High Dune Trail, the first phase of which will soon be completed, with a larger trail potentially on the horizon.
Wills said the city has previously considered bringing in light industry to the area, but that could be problematic because of the city’s lack of water supply.
“It’s not the city’s job to incentivize new businesses,” Wills said, adding that some cities encourage businesses through tax breaks but he wasn’t sure if that was a policy he would support. He said the two primary functions of the city council are to decide on the budget and legislate ordinances.
Faria disagreed, saying, “I do believe that it falls upon the city as an entity to market itself in a friendly, outgoing way to encourage people to come in.”
Code updates, RV camping limit
Several questions Wednesday night centered around city code — both updating the code in general and on the merits of a rule capping RV camping on undeveloped lots to 90 days.
“I wholeheartedly support allowing the RV lot owners to please, come here, enjoy our town,” Faria said, adding that they would contribute by paying water and sewer hookups. She said a group of RV owners recently interviewed city council candidates about their stance on the code. “These are people who are bringing revenue to our city and we should embrace them and include them.”
Wills doesn’t “see anything wrong” with extending the allowable camping period. Wills said the RV camping issue “desperately, direly needs input from the citizens” and that he’s heard many people at city council meetings speak both for and against extending camping periods, and should therefore be added to a future ballot for voters to decide on the matter.
Both candidates said outdated city code should be updated, with Wills suggesting and Faria concurring that the city hire a professional service to rewrite and cross reference the code.
In addition to serving on the council for the last 11 months, Wills served five years on the city’s planning commission, and wrote or contributed to many of the city’s ordinances during that time, he said.
“All I can do is promise you that, if elected, I will continue doing the very best job I know how to do as a council member,” Wills said. “My end goal is to help move Ocean Shores into the 21st century, providing all the staff, amenities and services that the citizens, business owners and residents deserve to have.”
The next Voice of the Shores candidate forum will feature mayoral candidates Jon Martin and Frank Elduen at the Ocean Shores Lions Club at 6 p.m on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.
Clayton Franke / The Daily World Peggy Jo Faria, candidate for Position 6 on the Ocean Shores City Council, speaks at a forum at the Ocean Shores Lions Club on Wednesday, Aug. 30.
Richard Wills, candidate for Position 6 on the Ocean Shores City Council, speaks at a forum at the Ocean Shores Lions Club on Wednesday, Aug. 30. (Clayton Franke / The Daily World)
