The Westport City Council filled a vacant seat Monday evening, unanimously appointing Frank Eshpeter, a retiree from a career in public schools with experience on a handful of commissions and boards.

Four Westport residents submitted applications for Position 5 on the council, which was vacated March 25 by Darcia Davis, who was forced to resign after moving outside the Westport city limits.

The council hopefuls detailed relevant experience in written applications to the city, and were queried with six questions generated from the council and mayor during public interviews at Monday’s regular meeting.

According to Eshpeter’s application, the five-year Westport resident worked for 20 years as a facilities operations manager with the Highline School District in Burien and for seven years as the assistant director of construction with the Puyallup School District. He served as a volunteer fire chief and fire commissioner for two fire districts in Pierce County, and is a member of Westport’s civil service commission.

Eshpeter, 74, told the council his ample experience with public organizations and knowledge of small communities equips him to serve on the city’s legislative body.

“This city is on the way back up,” Eshpeter said Monday in response to a question about his view on Westport’s top priority. “We went up and down through the crisis, and now we’re making a great recovery. I think we need to embellish that recovery, work with our businesses and our citizens in this city to make sure we’re growing back up the way they want us to grow.”

Eshpeter’s other experience relevant to Westport’s economy includes his time as president and board member of the South King County chapter of Puget Sound Anglers, an organization aimed at protecting and enhancing sport fisheries, and in a similar role with the Coastal Conservation Association, a fish advocacy group.

Membership in those groups gave him experience working with state and federal agencies on fishing-related projects, he wrote in his application, and in his jobs in schools he “worked closely” with local city governments and communicated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on “several earthquake and storm damage projects.”

Eshpeter said he has experience with making the most of budgets in small jurisdictions with limited funds.

Councilor Tom Aronson, who made the initial motion for the appointment, said Eshpeter’s established resume and history of public service was the driving factor in the council’s decision. He said council members entered Monday’s private executive session deliberations determined to reach unanimous agreement about the appointment before the vote.

“The people that were involved, or that were tossing their hat in the ring, were all awesome, and so it was a lively debate,” Aronson said. “But when you look at Frank’s resume and the thing that he’s done in his past and presently doing, the more you thought about it the easier the decision got. Everybody was kind of on board with that.”

Other applicants included Mark Sanford, a member of the planning commission since 2019 and former facilities planner with multiple state corrections departments; Tommy Cappa, a lifelong Westport resident and employee of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe’s business enterprise who lost a city council campaign in 2023; and Weslee Galvich, a former medical systems and IT manager with Providence Medical Group and resident of five years.

During public interviews with the council, each candidate gave their stance on a few topical issues facing the city, including short term rental regulation and management of state parks, and talked about past community involvement.

“I’m not opposed to short term rentals,” Eshpeter told the council. “I totally believe they need to be managed properly. When somebody applies, puts their application in, the background check needs to be done, names need to be written down.”

“I think if we can manage those properly, we can keep everybody happy and profitable for other people too,” he added.

Twice in 2023 the city council sent back proposed limits on vacation rentals crafted by the planning commission. Sanford, a member of that commission, said the city has made strides in the code enforcement area of regulating the rentals, but he would continue to look at restricting short term rentals to increase affordable housing.

Cappa said housing is the biggest issue facing Westport right now, adding later that he would like to see the city cap the number of short-term rentals allowed by zone.

In a response similar to Eshpeter’s, Galvich said the key to regulating short-term rentals would be to strike a balance, which could include caps “within reason.”

“We don’t need it to go away, we just need to manage it carefully,” Galvich said, who named growth management as the top priority for the city.

When asked about the condition of Westport Light State Park, she and Sanford talked about the need for more active management by the state. Sanford said he hoped the current proposal for a links-style golf course within the park would be approved.

Eshpeter talked about Westport’s potential.

“I think this city has so much room to grow back to its grandeur that it used to be, and I want to be a part of that,” he said.

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