SEQUIM — A longtime City Council member and former mayor is about to start a new chapter in his life.
Walt Schubert, first elected to the Sequim City Council in November 1999, has lost his bid for re-election to Ted Miller, a retired CIA analyst and lawyer.
In the all-mail Clallam County election that ended Tuesday, Miller won 1,265 votes, or 65.61 percent, to Schubert’s 663 votes, or 34.39 percent, for council position 2.
“I’m going to be moving on to other things, things I truly enjoy, like working with children and with the [Sequim] Food Bank. I want to create some stability there, and I want to help the staff at the Boys & Girls Club,” Schubert said Friday.
After the election, “there was quite a feeling,” Schubert said, “of a burden lifted off my shoulders.”
An updated tally released by the county auditor at 4:30 p.m. Friday also confirmed that Don Hall, a 77-year-old former Sequim council member, beat city Planning Commissioner Mike East for City Council position 3.
Hall’s vote total was 927, or 54.4 percent, while East’s was 777, or 45.6 percent, in the race for the council seat to be vacated at the end of the year by Paul McHugh.
Hall believes voters favored him because of the work he’s done as a volunteer in the past two years, and because he’s worked with the often contentious City Council on city projects.
East was critical of the council’s newer members during his campaign and vowed to “bring common sense” to the body. After the election, he said he’ll continue attending meetings and offering input.
SARC races
Two other Sequim races that generated heat in recent weeks were for seats on the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center Board of Commissioners. For SARC board position 1, two-term incumbent Susan Sorensen was re-elected, and won 5,788 votes over challenger Jan Richardson’s 2,346.
In his bid for position 2 Bob Macaulay, a retired school administrator appointed to the board last year, defeated Noelle Levesque, winning 5,108 votes to her 2,383.
Both Macaulay and Sorensen have called for fiscal caution when it comes to keeping SARC healthy, while their opponents favored spending more of the facility’s reserves on new equipment and programs.
Sales tax
In another controversial Sequim contest, a sales-tax hike passed by a wide margin. The two-tenths of 1 cent increase — which will raise sales tax inside the city to 8.6 percent — won 1,171 yes votes while 836 voted against it.
Starting in 2010, the sales tax boost will generate a projected $600,000 in yearly revenues, all of which will be used to improve sidewalks and streets.
Miller, a supporter of the tax increase, said it’s badly needed to fix Sequim’s crumbling roads and put sidewalks in some of its older neighborhoods.
“We don’t want a slum section of the city. We want all of Sequim to be nice,” the council member-elect said Friday.
As for the incumbent he defeated, Miller, 63, called Schubert a good man who’s been “dead wrong on land use.”
Schubert, mayor from 2002 through 2007, promoted growth and development in Sequim by keeping building fees low, Miller said. For his part, Miller wants to see developers pay higher impact fees — and he doesn’t believe raising those fees will hurt the city.
“People prefer much slower growth,” Miller added.
Schubert proud of development
Schubert, reached late Friday afternoon as he was driving out to Freshwater Bay for some relaxation, said he’s proud of the economic development that happened during his tenure.
The housing construction and the opening of stores such as Wal-Mart and Costco Wholesale inside Sequim meant jobs and better local shopping, he said.
“Ten years ago the town was in great jeopardy of not doing well, period,” Schubert said. “We changed all that by lowering fees, and making it a town where people would want to come, instead of telling them, ‘We don’t want you here.'”
Schubert, 69, has one more city budget to contend with — the 2010 spending plan must be adopted by December’s end — and then he’ll attend no more council meetings.
He added that he’ll continue to run his business, Action Property Management, for another couple of years while returning to his long-deferred pastimes of flyfishing and woodworking.
Schubert and his wife Sherry have raised eight children, natural and adopted, and recently welcomed a ninth — a foster son — into their home. Kahn Mills, a Sequim High School junior, will be with them at least until he graduates, Schubert said.
“He’s a wonderful kid. We’re having a lot of fun with him.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.