LANGLEY: Candidates with technology expertise vie for mayor (SWR)

Kira Erickson reports on the Langley mayoral race for the South Whidbey Record.

A newcomer to the political arena with vast experience in executive leadership faces off against a candidate familiar with years of policy and the city’s inner workings in the race for mayor of Langley.

Kennedy Horstman, the chairperson of the city’s citizen-led Dismantling Systemic Racism Commission since 2020, is vying for the position alongside Thomas Gill, a Langley council member with nearly two terms under his belt. Scott Chaplin, who was appointed mayor in 2021 when Tim Callison resigned from the role, is not seeking election and plans to run for a position on the council instead.

They Said It

When [Hortsman] was approached by friends, neighbors and other politically involved people to run for mayor, her first reaction was, “only crazy people want to be in political office.” But upon further reflection, and from her vantage point on a city committee, she observed an organization – the city of Langley – that could really use some help.

“I’ve been watching what’s been happening politically,” she said. “I’ve been watching the polarization. I’ve been watching how faith in our democracy, and our government, has been eroding, and I felt really powerless in the face of that.”

She expressed that it’s important for the Village by the Sea to forge strong relationships outside of the city limits, especially when looking at addressing systemic issues such as affordable housing.

“I’ve had experience building bridges between different teams and different organizations, and I think that’s going to be really critical for the city moving forward,” she said.

Horstman believes Langley needs solid leadership. The city has talented and committed staff, she said, and organizing, coordinating and inspiring that is especially important.

A call center support specialist and central station technician for Whidbey Telecom, Gill feels he is skilled at understanding complicated rules and regulations set forth by the state and other entities and relaying that information to people. He has been diligently following city council meetings for the past 14 years.

“There seems to be an issue, at least for the last couple of mayors, of people who come in from the outside, and it takes them a long time to get up to speed,” he said. “And we’re talking in some cases it takes the entire first term to kind of understand how things operate.”

As a person of a younger generation in the workforce who lives in rental housing, Gill feels he may be more in touch with the issues residents face these days.

“We’re kind of at a crossroads,” he said. “We need to make changes in how we as a city and possibly even as a greater community live, or we’re gonna end up basically backing ourselves into a corner where all of our labor has to be imported and the people here have little to no ownership stake in the community.”

Both Gill and Horstman expressed similar viewpoints on many of the same issues, such as the prioritization of the Langley Infrastructure Project, much-needed technological updates and the importance of simply listening to one other.

“Our utilities have been neglected, and we’re paying the price,” said Horstman, adding that managing and executing the infrastructure project well is really critical.

Gill pointed to a looming deadline as a cause for concern. Several of the funding sources for the projects expire at the end of 2024. Seeing the infrastructure project go through, he said, can shine a light on the possibilities of reducing utility rates which in theory can also lower the cost of living in Langley.

With a background in technology, Horstman foresees several improvements that could be made, especially to the city’s general information technology infrastructure, which she said is “roughly circa 1996” and needs to be addressed.

Gill thinks the city’s prevalent public records woes could be better handled by having a publicly accessible repository for all public information that does not require redactions that could be searchable through the city website or on a computer terminal at city hall.

While serving on a city commission and during campaigning, Horstman has noticed people often don’t listen to each other, they react to one another. She said it takes attentiveness, listening and reflection to address larger issues such as affordable housing and systemic racism, which can’t be solved with a “sledgehammer” approach.

“I hope that having those insights inform leadership (and) can also change the way conversations happen, so that no matter what the issue is, we’re actually focusing on understanding each other and then on that basis, working towards a solution,” she said.

Her opponent shared a similar sentiment, citing a “massive reduction” in camaraderie in the workplace environment of the city.

“I envision being a mayor with an open door policy for staff, for the public,” Gill said. “You’ve got a problem, come see me. There’s no ego here to be the best possible. I want to make sure that we come up with the best solutions and we come up with the best opportunities.”

Both candidates said they plan to keep their day jobs if elected, although Horstman said she would likely take on a lighter client load initially.

“I am 100% in favor of keeping the city administrator role,” Horstman said. “It’s one of the reasons that I’m running. I think that Langley has suffered from a lack of professional management and consistency and continuity.”

Gill, on the other hand, said that keeping the position is a decision he would likely make sometime later on.

“It’s entirely possible that once I get my feet on the ground and have my bearings about me … it may be decided, well that job needs to be more of the clerk’s job with some administrator things on the side that either fall outside of my time constraints or my skill set,” he said.

On the Ballot in November 2023