COUPEVILLE: Town mayor candidates debate at forum (WNT)

Luisa Loi reports from a candidate forum in Coupeville for the Whidbey News-Times.

Ferries, Growlers and deer birth control were among the topics discussed by incumbent Coupeville Mayor Molly Hughes and challenger Meg Olson at Wednesday’s mayoral candidates forum, where they answered questions submitted in advance by community members.

The atmosphere at the Coupeville Recreation Hall was cordial and relaxed as the candidates and the moderator slipped in some humorous comments and made the audience laugh in a few instances between fanciful alarm sounds. The event was hosted by the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce.

They Said It

Olson… but believes it’s time for someone else to offer new ideas. She wants to change the administrative plan so that there is a town administrator position that is separate from the position of mayor — thus reducing the mayor’s hours and salary. Additionally, she wants to change the ending fund balance to 12-15% rather than 11% of the general fund and explore more revenue streams —like increasing tax streams that are mostly fueled by tourism.

Hughes said she has four more years of energy and ideas left in her to serve as mayor, particularly now that it finally “feels like Coupeville again” after years of reeling from the pandemic, and believes that working full-time makes her a better mayor. Her priorities include investing and putting community efforts into parks, working on the climate adaptability plan and ensuring the town is being fiscally responsible — which she said the town has been successful in doing.

When asked about balancing the needs of local businesses, residents and tourists, the candidates agreed that they are equally important as they affect one another. Hughes said that for a town its size, Coupeville is in a good financial position and has a good variety of jobs available, not just tourism-related businesses, and construction is a significant source of sales tax income that can be used to address different needs.

However, when it comes to transportation, Hughes believes tourism shouldn’t come at the expense of the residents’ basic needs.

“I want the Department of Transportation to know that ferries are not a tourist attraction. They are critical to our way of life,” she said. “We need them to go to doctor’s appointments, to visit family, to get to our jobs, and now more and more people are not able to work at home anymore.”

Olson agreed, adding that the state has the duty to keep the ferry system usable as they are an integral part of state highways, and she said she would voice that concern to the governor’s office and federal officials.

The candidates were asked different questions regarding public safety and agreed that public safety isn’t just about crime or homelessness — instead, it can look like maintaining roads or ensuring that utilities are running safely.

According to Hughes, the reason why Coupeville is dealing with homelessness better than other municipalities is because deputies know unhoused community members by name and deal with them individually. Olson said the mayor and local law enforcement should be familiar with the different agencies on the island that help homeless people.

When asked about how she would protect Front Street and other historic properties from disasters like the recent fire in Maui, Olson said she supports the fire and EMS levy and that communities should be prepared to respond to a fire situation in areas where wood structures are attached to each other. Additionally, she finds communication between the local firefighters, the neighborhood emergency teams, the town, the county and the state to be crucial to fire preparedness.

Hughes said the city has had discussions with the local fire department on how to respond to a fire scenario, testing whether the fire truck could make turns and learning that the equipment could hit all of the buildings on both sides of the street from different directions. She trusts that the neighborhood emergency teams and the public works crew are properly trained to deal with emergencies.

Another safety concern raised by voters was deer. Hughes and Olson said they looked into deer birth control and sterilization procedures, which the audience found funny. These methods are, however, quite expensive, and the candidates had no other solution other than being open to ideas from the community.

When asked whether she believes businesses on Front, North Main and South Main streets are healthy and successful, Hughes said she finds the town to be economically healthy, though she acknowledged that losing businesses like the lumber store was a significant loss. Olson, who owns Kingfisher Bookstore on Front Street, agreed that the town is financially thriving but said she would like to work on solutions to better connect businesses that are located in separate areas of town.

Olson’s growth management plan priorities include meeting deadlines, protecting affordable housing while keeping the character of the community and creating a sea level rise adaptation strategy. Hughes would focus on preserving reserve buildings and upgrading design guidelines, conducting a transportation study to look at safe and multimodal transportation, and updating guidelines on housing, climate and critical areas.

Another resident asked how the mayor would accelerate the protection of the shoreline in Penn Cove and Front Street. Hughes’s approach would be to use taxpayer dollars to hire experts who would look at ways to adapt to sea level rise and protect the private properties that make up most of Coupeville’s shoreline.

Olson said the town needs to create adaptation strategies for public property and share any knowledge on how property owners can protect themselves. She finds protecting the wastewater plant to be particularly important, which the town would do by ensuring strong ending fund balances and by planning budgets in a way that takes into consideration the evolving effects of climate change and the fact that utilities are only in part funded by tax dollars.

Hughes said that throughout her mandates, the town has done extensive work to improve water and sewage systems. Currently, she said, the city has been considering treating water “to a higher level” and using it for agricultural purposes rather than discharging it into Penn Cove.

When asked about the town’s relationship with the Navy, Hughes said there has been a positive partnership between the two entities in addressing groundwater contamination. There is not much she can do about the jet noise, however, as she said her job is to have the best relationship possible with the Navy and keep up with what the base is up to.

“Coupeville is not gonna change the Department of Defense,” she said, a statement which Olson agreed with. She explained that having a positive relationship means the town can get the Navy to do small things, like not flying on the weekends.

Olson added that the government of Coupeville should stay out of discussions regarding the future of the Naval Outlying Landing Field in order to maintain that relationship and be able to make small requests.

“I really don’t see a strong role for the mayor of Coupeville telling the Navy how to run its business,” she said.

On the Ballot in November 2023