Neil Nelson.

I just returned from the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) Annual Conference that Port Townsend City Council encouraged me to attend. Since it was paid for by our tax dollars it only seems appropriate that I should share what I learned and observed. 

AWC is an organization that supports all cities and towns in WA by advocating for their interests, providing training, legal guidance, and risk management, and helping local governments work more effectively. The June 24-27 conference in Kennewick included various sessions of training and topics providing support for city managers, councilmembers, staff, etc. As a new council member, I learned a ton of stuff at the conference that will help me work more effectively for our community.

One thing that stood out was the information from the 2024 Chapman University Survey of American Fears, which showed the single greatest fear that Americans have is that the country is run by corrupt government officials. At 65.2% it beat out the fear of loved ones becoming seriously ill at 58.4%. 

Conquering fear is a huge part of my personal story that has presented itself in the last 10 years. For me conquering fear is about making the unknown familiar. I was scared to death of flying but because I forced myself to learn what the heck is going on in a cockpit of a plane I now love it.

Until I became involved with the city, I had the idea that most, if not all governments were somehow corrupt. At the Port Townsend level, I was convinced that real estate agents and lawyers were nefariously shaping our community to their needs. 

At the conference I interacted with well over 400 elected officials from across our state and I saw at a state level something I have learned about our city since landing on city council: There is an amazing amount of civically minded volunteers trying to give back to our communities. There is no significant conspiracy going on behind closed doors. The headlines we all read are not the real story, not by any stretch. The news at the national level sure makes it easy to believe that our elected officials are self-serving at best and that some are downright evil. It just isn’t so.

I sat in numerous training sessions learning that elected officials from across the state are facing the same issues everywhere: tight budgets, homelessness, housing, state regulations, the list goes on.  I heard conversations sharing ideas from truly concerned and engaged elected officials about how to solve problems.  I am convinced that most of our elected officials across the state are exactly what we would hope them to be:  community members trying to do what is best for our communities, the best they know how. 

I heard discussions about the challenges of continuing while dealing with community members that don’t take the time to really understand exactly what elected officials really do. I saw individuals caring enough to persevere simply because of personal commitment to the wellbeing of their communities. Exactly what I see at our local level. I also realized that our community is doing quite well when compared to other communities across the state.

Locally I have heard that we often vote unanimously because we are brainwashed to carry the PT flag.  I see the headlines related to ethics violations. I see the comments on Facebook about how inept city council is regarding how we spend money, deal with potholes, and ignore the needs of the community in favor of personal agendas. I get emails lamenting our city staff and our ability to collectively manage our city. I started on our planning commission just as skeptical as the next guy but there really are two sides to every story.

I am in no way trying to say that our city is perfect… not by any stretch.

I am saying take a moment to really start finding the truth about our various local officials and volunteers. And take the time to learn about how our city works. Please don’t let headlines or Facebook be your only source of information. Dig deeper and get to know our city better. Take the time to get familiar with our city website, cityofpt.us. We are amazing.

One of my goals inspired by this AWC conference is to start promoting more transparency.  I am very often available to talk. I intend to encourage my fellow council members to follow John Mauro’s lead with more informal public interface such as his coffees. I intend to continue doing my best to promote the positive aspects of Port Townsend. There is more good than bad, and in today’s political climate I would like to hear more about the good. I get enough bad from everywhere else.

Neil Nelson is a businessman and a member of the Port Townsend City Council. Reach him at Nnelson@cityofpt.us.