The Beacon 2025 Voting Guide
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Photo by Manny Becerra, unsplash [/caption]
By Beacon Staff
We are, at the time of publishing, 27 days into the federal government shutdown. We’re mere days away from SNAP running out of money, and there are no guarantees that federal employees are going to see a paycheck any time soon. With this kind of uncertainty, it feels good to know there is at least one small act of democracy we can still do that could make a difference in the lives of local people.
This year, Beacon staff listened to hours of League of Women Voters forums to create this guide. Here you’ll find information about the role of each elected official, quotes from candidates and explanations of the context of some of the questions the moderator posed.
The guide is laid out in the same order as your ballot, though we’ve only included contested races, and we weren’t able to cover the Fire Commissioner race this year.
As always, we love getting your feedback. If you used this voter guide or would love to see us cover elections a different way next year, please let us know at info@jeffcobeacon.com
City Council Position 1
Election analysis by Angela Downs
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Fred Obee [/caption]
Elections are November 4, and there was no City Council position 1 forum, so KPTZ held a 25-minute conversation on October 27 with the candidates, Fred Obee and Dylan Quarles, on Attention Now! with Taylor Clark.
City Council members serve four-year terms, and their responsibilities are regulated by the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Section 35A.13. The seven members of the council set policies for land use, zoning, and city services, create local laws, approve budgets, review city agencies, and hold public meetings.
Fred Obee has lived in Port Townsend for 22 years and worked here for nearly 30. He’s been a journalist, first covering courts and county government for the Leader, later becoming their General Manager. He was then the Executive Director of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, a statewide interest group. He retired last year.
“I have always been interested in government, followed it closely over the years, and when the opportunity to run for the city council came up, I thought I'd go for it,” Obee said.
Dylan Quarles grew up in Port Townsend and took a facilities position with the Fort Worden PDA, then assumed management of their locksmith department, focusing on safety and security. He managed facilities operations for one of the state's largest mental health nonprofits, now called Sound Behavioral Health. He has been involved in union organizing, is an author and small business owner.
“I think Port Townsend is uniquely positioned to find solutions that will work for us locally, and I want to be a part of that,” Quarles said.
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Dylan Quarles [/caption]
Obee emphasized the importance of open and transparent government, and Quarles encouraged people to be more active and engaged in city matters. Both stated they felt a deep importance around communication and closing the gap between the city and its members through accountability and responsibility on both sides.
Obee mentioned the challenges of council members inheriting their predecessors' decisions, including property lines, road layouts, and city infrastructure. He feels these decisions have led to some of the most prohibiting and conflicting issues to live in Port Townsend. He suggests one step forward is to invest in training and staffing so people come away feeling like they’ve been treated well by the city, and that incentives should be explored.
As a budget manager for his entire career, if elected, Obee would like to join the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. He believes financial decisions should be made to maintain the proper level of reserves at a stable level.
Quarles wants a position on a committee where he could bolster tourism in the shoulder seasons, namely, Halloween and Christmas. Seeing a missed opportunity, Quarles said, “I’m a paranormal author, and I sell many, many books about haunted Port Townsend.” He also states that a Christmas Market in Port Townsend is long overdue.
Potentially one of Quarles’ strongest stances is implementing impact fees on new construction and new development. He feels it's important to negotiate where those impact fees kick in, likely by square footage. But the focus question is on protecting the future from how new development impacts the infrastructure, from flushing toilets to traffic on roads.
Port of Port Townsend, Commissioner District 2
Election analysis by Scott France
Candidates for the Port of Port Townsend District Two commissioner race squared off in a League of Women Voters online forum on October 21, making their case to voters.
Clayton Burleson is seeking to unseat Carol Hasse, who seeks a second four-year term.
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Carol Hasse [/caption]
The Port owns and operates the Boat Haven Marina, Point Hudson, the Herb Beck Marina in Quilcene, the Jefferson County International Airport, and five boat ramps.
In 2023, the Port purchased Short Family Farm in Chimacum and is exploring future use and development of the property in a way that supports the local agriculture community, advances the public interest, and addresses the Port’s financial needs.
The Port commissioners are the district’s policy-making and regulatory body. Commissioners are responsible for making decisions on the district's policies and operations, including internal and external matters.
Hasse helped launch the Wooden Boat Festival in 1977, and was named The Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Spirit and Culture in 2012, and was chosen Jefferson County’s Citizen of the Year in 2021. She has owned Port Townsend Sails since 1979.
Burleson retired from a career in the marine and offshore industries as a marine surveyor, engineer, and director of construction for large facilities, including pipelines.
Deeming both to be “strong candidates”, moderator Shelly Rees Randall asked each to talk about their leadership skills.
Burleson said that his experience leading a marine crew of 260 people gives him relevant leadership experience. “It's a big job to keep a large group of people motivated and working. It's constant contact and encouragement, knowing the job everyone has to do and how to do it, and working with them to help make their jobs easier, safe and productive.”
Speaking about her leadership experience, Hasse said, “My most profound experience in leadership has been aboard vessels where I've been Captain or watch captain,” she said.
Hasse said that the predominant feedback she hears from the public about the Port is that, “The course we are on is serving them, and that we're headed in the direction that the taxpayers wanted us to go when they voted for the tax levy. They feel comfortable that we have righted the ship.”
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Clayton Burleson [/caption]
She pointed to the completion of the Point Hudson jetty, the replacement of the Gardiner boat ramp, and the replacement of fuel tanks at the airport.
Hasse said that the Port needs to “maintain affordability for moorage, boatyard, airport and upland business leases is a big concern. Also responding to and planning for climate change, rising temperatures, drought and sea level rise, and growing small business activity without affordable workforce housing.”
Burleson said that his biggest concern is that “capital costs for the upcoming improvements for the planned programs are unfunded beyond 2026. It's a very serious issue. Management is hopeful.”
“The Port has the legal authority to drive economic development almost without restriction,” Burleson said. “The difficulty that faces us here in Jefferson County is there's been a number of potential employers that want to build facilities in the county that have backed out due to a limited amount of water and power. And our labor force is limited, but is increasing. So we can either exploit our forests and fishes or we can support small businesses.”
Hasse said that the Port Commission is working hard to support small businesses. She pointed to the current development of the airport’s light industrial park with 11 ten-acre sites that would allow space for expansion for local businesses. “We’re making sure that new business opportunities meet the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and cultural aspects.”
Burleson’s top priorities for the Port are to increase parking capacity at the Boat Haven Marina and to ensure that more affordable housing is available in the county. He would like to see moorage capacity increased by providing dry moorage, which would increase revenue, though it would also increase labor and capital expenditures.
Hasse would like to expand the boatyard to the southwest, which would accommodate dry moorage.
Citing the dwindling supply of electricity and rising costs, Hasse said, “I'd like us to explore ways of making electricity and having microgrid storage so that we're more resilient in times of power outages.”
Both candidates agreed that implementing a strong sea level rise protection plan is vitally important. Hasse backs the Port’s current thinking to implement a mix of protection measures that would address solutions for different elevations. She said that “there are ways that beach nourishment and plantings can protect us, and the use of tidal gates to connect to an existing seawall.”
Burleson noted the challenge of funding protection infrastructure due to the likelihood that the robust federal funding of recent years will mostly or completely go away. Nevertheless, he said, “The important thing is that every proposed engineering and maintenance project should constantly be aware of future construction that will deal with sea level rise.”
Both candidates are concerned about the county’s affordable housing crisis and have floated potential solutions.
”I want to work with our City, County and PUD partners to change our housing tax laws so that of people who are using homes as an investment or commodity, and visiting them once or twice a year or so, they would be taxed differently. That would open up more housing,” Hasse said.
Burleson also suggested local government action. “The best thing the Port can do is to advocate for landowners to bring land into development, and for us to convince County planning personnel that maybe the current model for residential housing is to come up with alternatives (to some building codes). There's no reason we can't deviate.”
The final question of the forum was to ask each candidate why they chose to run for the position.
“I found that I have a passion for this work of being a port commission, and a passion for this community and its working waterfront, Hasse said
Burleson said, “I have more time and plenty of energy and skill set, have worked around this Port for 15 years and understand its issues and needs. It would be a welcome task to take on some of these challenges.”
Public Hospital District 2, Position 3
Election analysis by Nhatt Nichols
On October 16, Shelly Rees Randall moderated the League of Women Voters forum for the hospital commissioner race, a contest between incumbent Matt Ready, who has served on the commission for 11 years, and challenger Stu Kerber.
In our state public hospital district, Jefferson Healthcare runs the only public hospital. It is thre job of the commissioners to set the district's general policies, which are implemented by the hired professional district administrator and by hospital medical staff and personnel. The commissioners serve a six-year term and do not receive a salary, but are reimbursed for their time in meetings and for health insurance.
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Stu Kerber [/caption]
Of the five total members of our hospital commission, three are in the middle fo their term and are not up for reelction. Those three are Mari Dressler, Kees Kolf and Bruce McComas.
In addition to the seat currently held by Reay, longtime Commissioner Jill Winstra Bueller is stepping down and Patty Rodin is running unopposed for that position.
Transparency and Community
Both candidates spoke at length about the importance of transparency and community; this is no surprise as earlier this year Ready was the “whistleblower” over a decision to combine Jefferson Healthcare with Clallam County’s Olympic Medical Center. The decision was being discussed during executive sessions, which means the public was not included in the debate, which Ready did not feel provided enough transparency to the public, so he leaked the information.
During the debate, Ready stood by his decision. “I blew the whistle on the secret negotiations with Olympic Medical Center to form a private nonprofit corporation called the Peninsula Health Alliance, a plan illegally concealed from the public under the real estate exemption of the Open Public Meetings Act, and unfortunately, illegally approved by the other commissioners in a secret straw poll outside a public meeting.”
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Matt Ready [/caption]
He also noted that over the last 11 years, he pushed for universal health care and advocated for the district to maintain the most generous Charity Care policy in the state.
Kerber, whose wife, Hilary Whittington, served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer from 2011-2020, also brings a desire for transparency, adding that it also needs to be professional. Kerber’s other focus is on solving barriers to access for care, and keeping Jefferson Healthcare fiscally sound.
“I have a skill set that I believe really complements the existing skills of board members. My professional background is in finance, commercial banking, and solving organizational challenges,” Kerber said. “Ultimately, I've been successful professionally because I build relationships and I solve problems.”
Both candidates noted that they opposed the hospital being acquired by a religious entity
Federal Cuts Inspire Citizen Concern
Rees Randall then asked the candidates what types of concerns people have been expressing during their campaigns.
Kerber said he noticed concern over the changes in the financial landscape for hospitals, with decreasing reimbursements, increasing regulation and increasing expenses. “I think that's one the hospital is well situated to navigate, but that presents significant headwinds,” Kerber said.
Ready said that the number one concern has been the federal financial health care bill that is going to cut funding for public hospitals and Medicaid. “there's going to be 1000s of people cut off of Medicaid in our county. And this is going to lead to potentially an additional 2-3 million of charity care and bad debt that the organization is going to have to provide, in addition to the $11 million of charity care and bad debt we already have,” Ready said.
Kerber agreed that the future looks difficult. “The coming changes are going to impact hospitals, and especially rural hospitals,” Kerber said. “we're looking at up to 3000 people losing Medicaid. The hospital will still need to care for those people, but will not receive the offsetting reimbursements.”
Kerber also noted that the hospital is seeing expenses grow by 5.7% each year, excluding wages, and that it has just over a 2% operating margin. With 9.2 million dollars going to support the hospital’s charity care program last year, that creates a potential fiscal challenge.
Ready brought up that another challenge is healthcare worker recruitment. He mentioned the internship program that Jefferson Healthcare operates in partnership with the Port Townsend School District to create a health workforce without having to help outside workers find housing in Jefferson County.
Kerber also praised the internship program, saying, “I spent time this summer meeting with the superintendents of Port Townsend and Chimacum school districts to understand their relationships with the hospital better and also where there were opportunities. We've got a great mentoring program, but there are opportunities in the community to develop some secondary training after high school, so we can essentially provide a career path for our students.”
Port Townsend School Board, Position 4
Election analysis by Scott France
Port Townsend voters will have a chance to select between two former Port Townsend High School graduates for the position of School Board Director-at-Large Position 4 in the election on November 4.
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Amanda Grace [/caption]
School board members serve 4-year terms. Three school board members are elected based on geographic area and two are elected to at-large positions, meaning they can live anywhere in the district.
The Board of Directors page on the School District website states that the directors are elected to:
- Hire and evaluate superintendents
- Set policies that set standards and a framework for governing the district
- Reviews progress on district goals
- Adopt a budget every year
- Approve textbooks and other instructional materials
- Represent you and advocate for the school district
The candidates presented their cases to voters at a League of Women Voters forum on October 23.
Neither candidate has served on the school board previously.
Amanda Grace is a former educator and Early Childhood Multicultural Education specialist. She is a former Head Start and community teacher and the former director of the YMCA Childcare Center. She is also the immediate past chair of the Jefferson Community Foundation and owns Good Man Sanitation.
Timothy Hawley began his 23-year teaching career with stints in China and Siberia, teaching English conversation. He currently works in early childhood development.
Hawley would like to get families involved in their students’ education.
If elected to the board, Grace says that her key priorities would be maintaining safe and healthy schools through improved facilities and bond support, particularly upgrades at Port Townsend High School and Ocean School.
“I want to strengthen academic outcomes and mathematics so students are prepared for college, trades and life, Grace said. “Prioritize classrooms, student support services, and the ability to recruit and retain excellent teachers.”
Both candidates touched on the encroachment of politics and cultural concerns in the classroom.
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Timothy Hawley [/caption]
Hawley said that he hears from some parents who are concerned about certain books in school libraries. He mentioned a book called Gender Queer that he claimed is in the Blue Heron Middle School library, “about man-boy relationships. We can probably find some other cultural or artistic literacy value that doesn't contain some of the erotic illustrations that are in this book.”
Port Townsend School District librarians confirmed that the book is not in any of the school’s libraries.
“I don't believe politics belongs in schools,” Grace said.
Sweeping changes to the curriculum are not motivating to Grace, she said. “I believe in listening to our teachers, talking to students, listening to families and taking a broader perspective on what best practices are for our students, and under the direction of and in cooperation with students, families and the teaching staff. We know that future outcomes are dependent on early intervention and children having access to learning as early as possible with books, literacy, music, and social and emotional development.”
On the issue of cell phones in class, Hawley suggested that students have a half hour at the beginning of each school day to use their cell phones, then put them away for the rest of the day.
Grace voiced concern that cell phones “can be and are disruptive in the classroom, but I think it's important to embrace technology when it comes to educating our children. I don't know that we do our children a service by not allowing them access. If it needs to be addressed, the district will address it but I think it is fine that it be addressed at the school level.
Desired Accomplishments if Elected
When asked by moderator Shelly Rees Randall what he hoped to accomplish if he were elected to a 4-year term, Hawley said, “It'll depend on what I'm seeing as a school board member. I'm interested in individualized learning programs.”
Financially, he sees a need for an overall savings reserve and a focus on special education funding. “We're short by $3.4 million to where we really want to be on money for our special education needs,” Hawley said.
He said that it is important that the superintendent and school staff know that they are supported by a loyal team.
“I would like a bond passed to support facility upgrades,” Grace said. “I want the school to adopt a youth mathematics curriculum that elevates high school students' outcomes in mathematics. I think with funding cuts, there's going to be a lot of navigating uncomfortable spaces. And one thing that I really pride myself on is the ability to have hard conversations in public and with groups of people. For me, at the end of four years, we have minimized the impact of limited funding and will have a new facility built and a new mathematics curriculum.”
This has been updated to reflect that the schools in Port Townsend do not have a copy of Gender Queer in their libraries.
Quilcene School Board, Position 2
Election analysis by Nhatt Nichols
The Quilcene School Board has made headlines state-wide with its decision to ban children from playing on sports teams that do not align with their chosen gender, discussions around removing LGBTQ+ books from the school library and exploring using curriculum from the controversial conservative organization Praeger U.
In this election cycle, two seats are on the ballot. Shona Davis, who holds an at-large seat, has chosen not to run for re-election, leaving Quilcene Community Center director Richard Fitzgerald to run uncontested.
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Naomi Stern [/caption]
The other seat, position 2, currently held by Jon Cooke, is being contested by Naomi Stern.
School board members serve four-year terms: three are elected by geographic area and two are elected at-large, allowing them to reside anywhere within the district.
School board members are responsible for hiring and evaluating superintendents, setting policies that establish standards and frameworks for governing the district, reviewing progress on district goals, adopting an annual budget, approving textbooks and other instructional materials, and representing and advocating for the school district.
Cooke and Stern had the opportunity to present their cases to voters at a League of Women Voters forum held on October 22, moderated by Shelly Rees Randall.
Cooke says he is seeking reelection because, as a former wrestling coach and teacher, he’s concerned that students are not getting the support they need in basic skills, and he’d like to see more pathways for students to thrive, including Career and Technical Education programs.
Stern, a parent of two elementary school-aged kids, is an active classroom volunteer. She decided to run after hearing community members' concerns over potential book bans.
“I started paying more attention to the school board and felt like this would be a really fantastic way to give back even more to the community that I love raising children in,” Stern said before citing the importance of connecting citizens with the school board decision-making process.
The role of a school board member
Cooke has enjoyed the experience of being on the school board and learning about school policy. He also stressed that, “it's important also to stay in your lane as a school board member; your focus is on monitoring the superintendent as opposed to how the teachers like to teach or telling the principals what to do.”
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Jon Cooke [/caption]
As for advising staff, Stern takes a wider view of the role of a school board member, noting that schools are governed by Washington State law. This is an important point, as the current ban of trans students from the sports team that aligns with their gender goes against Washington State law, and could jeopardize Quilcene School District funding.
“I would advise, whether it's teachers or the superintendent or the principals, would be to lean into the laws of the state of Washington and back up with laws of the federal level, making sure that everyone is included,” Stern said. “I trust teachers to make the right decisions as far as what they are presenting in the classroom.”
Rees Randall then asked the candidates if they believed that Quilcene School could be a neutral and safe place for all ideologies and religions.
Both candidates agreed that it could be, with Cooke mentioning that the current feedback from a student group is that they feel safe and welcome at the school.
Stern stated that her goal is to ensure that the school board looks at partisan politics and religion soley from a cultural and learning perspective, and that it’s important for students to feel protected in their identities and beliefs.
Overcoming Division and Conflict
With the Quilcene School Board and community being so divided on policies, the talk turned to how to heal that division, and Rees Randall asked each candidate to provide an example of how they have personally dealt with conflict.
“As a wrestling coach, you have parents who are overly excited about their child,” Cooke said. “Sometimes you have to talk to the parents and say, ‘Okay, this is fine, but you know, you need to watch how you approach your child and the other wrestlers,’ especially on the other team.”
Cooke also said that being a great listener can help.
Stern agreed with Cooke that listening can be the key to resolving conflict. “I had a veteran that I once worked with who had terrible PTSD and was difficult for everyone to work with. Working with him became one of the most joyful parts of my day,” Stern explained, because she was able to take the time to really listen.
Cooke and Stern also agreed that safety should be a high priority for students, and both mentioned that the large classroom windows overlooking 101 should be upgraded so that drivers cannot look directly into the classroom.
