SEQUIM — The oft-divided City Council got together — mostly — on the funding of an affordable housing needs study.
But by the end of their long meeting, things became acrimonious, with a philosophical split between the “new” and “old” council rising again.
The call for a examination of Sequim’s affordable-housing stock, or lack thereof, came from Councilman Bill Huizinga, one of the three longtime members of the panel.
He, Walt Schubert and Paul McHugh are known as the “old” council.
Huizinga has served for about two years as chairman of the city’s affordable housing committee, and has said that a formal needs study is a must if Sequim is to apply for state and federal grants to help it make moderately priced homes a reality.
The authorization of the study, however, has been put off for weeks.
It was unclear whether the “new” council that took office in January — Ken Hays, Erik Erichsen, Susan Lorenzen and Mayor Laura Dubois — would support spending $12,540 to hire the Beckwith Group, a well-known firm that specializes in affordable-housing planning.
But the whole council voted 6-0 on Tuesday night to hire the consultant.
Erichsen, who has said the city doesn’t need the housing study, abstained.
But near the meeting’s close, the rift between old and new yawned open again.
The issue: How much to pay Police Chief Robert Spinks now that he’s been appointed interim city manager.
Spinks is temporarily replacing Bill Elliott, whom the council fired May 5.
Elliott failed to provide adequate job descriptions for city staff, failed to arrange for a workable sound system for the April 28 town-hall meeting and had made too little progress toward construction of a new City Hall and an Olympic Discovery Trail link in eastern Sequim, council members said.
When Spinks took the reins three weeks ago, he promoted then-Sequim Police Sgt. Sheri Crain to lieutenant so she could take over many of his chief’s duties.
