Arthur challenges Howard for democracy’s sake

Main concern is voter turnout

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Bernie Arthur is running for City Council. But his biggest concern is getting people to vote in the first place.

“I watched the last election for City Council and only about 3,600 people voted,” Arthur said during a candidate forum hosted by the Port Townsend Kiwanis club on Oct. 9. “But the total amount of registered voters in the city is more than 7,000. That means more than half didn’t vote at all.”

Arthur, who has lived in Port Townsend for 50 years and worked as a business owner and boat builder, decided to run for City Council when he noticed that the incumbent, Amy Howard, was going to be running unopposed.

A self-described lover of democracy and of free thinking, Arthur wanted each incumbent running for re-election to have the opportunity to see how many people will vote against them.

“If you want to support Amy, that’s OK,” he said. “But she needs to know who doesn’t agree with her.”

According to the county’s election officer Betty Johnson, at the time of the 2019 primary there were 8,003 voters in the City of Port Townsend. The number of ballots counted for the city was 3,231. That’s only a 40% voter turnout.

Even though Arthur doesn’t have any campaign strategies—he doesn’t take donations, he isn’t doing any doorbelling and he hasn’t posted any yard signs—he hopes that people will turn out to vote this year, whether or not it’s for him.

“I’m curious about all the people in Port Townsend that didn’t even vote in the last election,” Arthur said. “I’m just testing the water. I’ll put my toe in and see what happens. It’s really up to the people of the city to vote.”

For Howard, having an opponent is not a problem.

“I’m grateful that Bernie filed to run against me,” Howard said at the Kiwanis candidate forum. “It gives me the opportunity to talk to all of you.”

Talking with the public is one thing Howard is hoping the City Council will improve upon in the coming years. Having come to Port Townsend to build a life, Howard decided four years ago that she wanted to give back to the community that helped her find her path. That’s why she ran for City Council.

“Port Townsend basically saved my life,” she said. “There are a number of community members and agencies in Port Townsend where I would literally not be here without them. It’s important to take care of the community that took care of me.”

As the incumbent, Howard is hoping to continue her work on the affordable housing committee.

The committee is looking to streamline city code and development regulations so that it’s easier for builders to build.

For Arthur, who was a builder, the city has an attitude problem when it comes to new development.

“You can’t make a set of rules that affect everybody,” he said. “You have to have some flexibility. The attitude of the city has to be a hand up, rather than a poke in the eye.”

But Howard thinks this is a long-lasting stigma that citizens have about the city, even though the City Council and staff are working hard to change the system.

“A lot of progress has been made in the last couple of years towards streamlining our processes,” she said.

Before, when people would come in with a building project, there was a lot of confusing and inaccurate information. The city has been working on making this easier to understand. Not only that, but they’re working to create more incentives for building as well.

“Just this year we adopted a multi-family tax exemption program,” she said.

But she also admits that it’s not a problem that can be solved overnight.

“It’s an issue that’s facing most, if not all communities across the country,” she said. “It will take some huge paradigm shifts and unfortunately we’re working at the speed of government. But it will also take commitment from the community as well.”

During the Kiwanis candidate forum, she reminded everyone that it isn’t the city’s job to build more housing. However, she agrees City Hall can work to make it easier for developers.

For her, this means having consistent, easy-to-follow policy.

But Arthur believes that the city’s elected officials get too bogged down in bureaucracy.

“I make a decision to do something and it doesn’t take me four or five years to make it happen,” he said.

He thinks the city relies too heavily on consultants and studies, instead of doing the work themselves.

“Every day you study something, somebody gets locked out of their housing or loses their job,” he said. “If you see a problem, just fix it.”

However, Howard thinks that part of the “speed of government” includes communicating with the public, something she has been campaigning for ever since her first run for City Council.

“We can’t do our jobs without being engaged with the public,” she said.

During her last run, Howard wanted an overhaul of the city’s website and communications plan. Those two things have both happened in the last couple of years. Now she wants to work on the city’s use of social media and increase of public forums.

“I want to bring city information to people where they’re at,” she said.

That’s why she was pleased when Arthur decided to run against her, even though neither of them are campaigning hard—Howard doesn’t agree with doorbelling and she finds the environmental impact of yard signs troubling.

“It’s a democracy,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if I would have an opponent or not, but it gives me the opportunity to speak with people at events. And Arthur is right. It’s important to know who disagrees with you.”