Two former Ocean Shores councilors vye for vacant seat

For the final time before November’s General Election, city council candidates in Ocean Shores met Wednesday to answer questions on various city issues.

Voters in Ocean Shores might already be familiar with those platforms. Both candidates for Position 3 — Susan Conniry and Lisa Griebel — have past experience on the council, although neither one currently holds a seat. They both filed for Position 3 after current Councilor Frank Elduen vacated the spot in lieu of a mayoral bid.

After serving on various local boards, Conniry was elected to the council in 2017 and served a four-year term before losing the seat in the 2021 election. Since leaving the dais, her involvement with city council has continued through frequent attendance and public comment, and she’s continued to host community meetings of her own. She’s the executive director of North Beach Project Connect in Ocean Shores, a nonprofit aimed at connecting people with various services.

“I’d like to go back to the council,” Conniry said Wednesday. “I enjoyed my four years of being a public servant. I do have a servant’s heart. I’m looking forward to winning this election, being back on the council and serving you once again in that capacity.”

After her appointment to the city council in 2016, Griebel retained her seat in the 2017 election and served a four-year term. She opted not to run again because of increased responsibilities in her job as a school administrator, but she said more free time recently allowed her to file candidacy in 2023.

Griebel is the principal at Harbor Learning Center, an alternative high school in the Aberdeen School District. She said skills developed during a 32-year career lend to the ability to be a productive member of the council.

“I’m ready to get back to the community here and work some more,” Griebel said. “I believe that with my values of hard work, caring for others and my problem solving skills and the ability to create a positive culture, make me the best choice for seat three.”

During the two-hour forum hosted by citizens’ advocacy group Voice of the Shores, candidates answered questions derived from community surveys and read at random by moderator Gina Rawlings.

Fresh waterways

Throughout city forums this fall, questions about the condition and maintenance of the 23-mile lake and canal system in Ocean Shores have been at the top of the list. The city this year came up with a plan to manage proliferation of aquatic plants, and a comprehensive plan to address other aspects of the waterways is also in the works.

One question asked how candidates would propose to pay the inevitable price of continued maintenance.

Conniry said part of the problem is the difference in viewpoint between boaters, whose motors tangle in clumps of vegetation in shallow water, and anglers, who in some cases have pointed to the plants as valuable habitat and expressed concern about the effects of herbicides on fish.

Whatever the solution may be, Conniry said, conversations should “bring all the science together, the fisherman and the boaters, to make sure the decisions we make are going to suffice for both groups.”

She suggested some of the funding might be able to come from community donations by forming a special interest group to advocate for the waterways.

Griebel said the city’s fresh waterway system “helps all of us, not just the people that live on the fresh waterways.”

“We need to start with what the plan is, and what the cost is, and then start looking at how we are going to take care of it,” she said, mentioning the Grays Harbor Conservation District, into which Ocean Shores recently voted to incorporate, could be a “big piece” on the path to funding waterways maintenance.

Drinking water

Earlier this year, several Ocean Shores residents expressed concern about a “black slime” found coming from the faucets of some residences, which spurred the city to conduct testing and begin updates to part of its water program. Some residents then continued to report the black slime.

Representatives from the state Department of Health said at a public meeting the black slime was most likely due to mold buildup and a purely aesthetic concern with no threats to health.

One question Wednesday asked candidates if city measures to deal with the problem were sufficient.

Griebel said testing measures and hydrant flushing helped the problem, but the issue should be kept at the forefront.

“If there’s just one person in our town who’s having problems with our water then I think we need to work on that and find a solution,” she said. “Everyone deserves to have high quality drinking water.”

Conniry said the black slime concern, as well as other potential threats like saltwater incursion, should warrant regular public information updates from the city about water quality.

“I think this is a wakeup call, and I’d like to see the administration really take it seriously and make sure that you know that they are taking it seriously,” she said.

Library funding

One question Wednesday evening asked candidates if they supported continuing to fund the Ocean Shores Library through the city’s general fund.

The library was formerly funded by periodic ballot levies until 2017, when it was moved to the general fund, which currently devotes about $500,000 yearly to its operation.

Griebel, a former library board member, remembered the hard work of campaigning to secure levy funding for the library.

“Having it in the city budget is that certainty that it’s going to continue and be there for everybody,” Griebel said. “It serves a super, super important piece.”

Conniry also recognized the important service of the library. She said the library’s strong community support means putting it to a levy measure would pose a low risk of losing its service while freeing up funding for something else.

“What if there was something else we needed to fund, and we could not fund the library?” she said.

In a November 2022 email to the city council, during a debate over whether or not to raise ambulance utility fees, Conniry suggested the city move the library funding to a levy measure and place funding for EMS services back into the general fund, where it was before the 2017 swap, to avoid the increase in fees.

“The conversation about the library is an interesting one,” Conniry continued at the forum. “If we put it out to a levy, would you all vote for it? I believe you would. I don’t think there’s any difference between how it gets funded, you just want it funded, and you want it to be there. It needs to be protected, however it’s funded.”

Budget priorities

Amid discussion over funding for various items, one question on Wednesday asked candidates about the budget process itself.

Conniry said she would want to increase accessibility to the public of the city’s budget process to hear the priorities of citizens. As it stands now, she said, many people are intimidated to ask questions about the budget in a formal council setting.

“We need to reach out, we need to do something better than we’ve done before,” Conniry said.

“A town hall, run correctly, would be a perfect way to go before we start into the budget process. Where everyone, in a room like this, would be able to come together, they would hear the different things that the city is considering, what the staff wants. … We would like to have a situation where all citizens feel comfortable to come in, discuss budget priorities with us, so that the council has a way to start, because we would’ve already heard from you.”

Griebel emphasized the collaborative aspect of the budget process.

“As a city council group we make decisions and set priorities about what we want to spend our money on. It’s not just up to me, it’s a group decision,” Griebel said.

Aside from experience on council, Griebel said she gained budgeting experience from serving as a school administrator in an “extremely large district” that endured multiple budget cycles and crises, and was part of a committee that had to make “tough choices about budget cuts that impacted kids and staff.”

Citizen engagement

Candidates also addressed issues of public engagement with the city council beyond the budget process.

Both candidates said they would support bringing back regular events that gave the public an opportunity to converse with three council members at a time.

In those types of meetings, Griebel said, listening is an important skill for council members, one she developed as an educator.

“When city council members can do that it puts more people at ease and it makes them more willing to share what’s going on and more willing to trust a decision that’s made,” Griebel said.

“It’s super, super important for anyone that works for our city or someone that works in our city government to treat people respectfully. It’s not a big ask, and it’s super important.”

Regarding the council chats, Conniry said, “We need to make it so it’s a little bit more give and take, it was still a little bit too formal.”

“We need to engage where essentially we’re coming down off the high horse and essentially just talking one on one. If we do that, they’re gonna work, and I would love to see that come back,” she said.

Another question asked was about the role of constituents in city government.

“The only reason I sat on the council before and the only reason I will sit on it again is because you all believe in me enough to vote me into office,” Conniry said. “What I do isn’t relevant unless I’m serving you and listening to all of you.”

Griebel said constituent input is “an important part of the input we take, but it’s not the only input we take.”

“To me, it’s bigger than constituents. The role of the city council is to move our city forward. And our city is bigger than just those of us that live here,” Griebel said, later adding that councilors should “make a decision that’s best for the entire city. When we make a decision that’s only best for one party … that’s not a sustainable decision. We’re a community, it all works together, and we have to make decisions that are best for everyone. Sometimes those decisions can be unpopular.”

Healthcare

Healthcare, particularly the push to bring an urgent care clinic to Ocean Shores, has been a frequent topic at forums this election cycle and in years past. One question Wednesday asked candidates to weigh in.

Conniry said an urgent care clinic would be a “great thing to have” but conversations around healthcare in Ocean Shores need to be broader.

“Our bigger issue with healthcare is not whether or not we get an urgent care, its whether or not we can save our hospital,” Conniry said, referring to staffing pressures and capacity issues at Harbor Regional Health in Aberdeen. “If we don’t have a hospital that puts another twist on the issues we have. Healthcare in America is broken, and it needs to be fixed. How can we look at getting something here in Ocean Shores when we can’t even fully staff our hospital?”

Griebel said the city could market the livability of Ocean Shores to attract healthcare workers, and the push for healthcare should involve other groups and agencies like Seabrook and the Quinault Indian Nation.

“I don’t think it’s an issue the city can solve on its own,” Griebel said. “I don’t think we’d be able to build a building and staff our own healthcare facility. I think it’s something we need, though, as a city, to be part of that conversation.”

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