Challenger J. Mike Rudd said a positive message helped him top incumbent Jan L. Richardson in the race for Clallam County Parks and Recreation District 1’s Position.
Rudd earned nearly 60 percent of votes vast for the position on the board that oversees the facility formerly known as the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center (SARC).
Rudd had 6,146 of ballots cast, about 58.5 percent, to Richardson’s 4,310 votes after a Nov. 9 ballot tabulation.
Rudd looks to hold a political office for the first time on the five-member board.
“I’m certainly pleased that I won,” Rudd said last week.
“I think the YMCA is a wonderful asset managing (the former SARC facility),” he said. “I’m an active member of the Y; I see how it’s working from the inside. I met with the (YMCA of Sequim Executive Director) director (Kurt Turner); I think he’s got a nice vision of where he wants to take it.”
A retired director of client and legal services, Rudd, 64, said his positive messaging likely helped him gain the near 58-percent haul of ballots.
“It was a positive message, and that message resonated with the voters,” he said.
Richardson, a 79-year-old retired Sequim resident, served the past eight years (two terms) on the commission.
In a written statement following the initial election results Richardson wrote, “I felt relieved after reading the results. After 15 years of letter writing, eight of those while on the old SARC board, I’m free to just enjoy working out at our community recreation center.”
While he said does not have a favorable opinion of the national YMCA organization, Richardson wrote that “our local Y’s management has out-performed the Y’s national standards, and with the help of the new Clallam County Park & Recreation board, will continue to be an outstanding asset.”
In the Peninsula Daily News’ 2019 general election Voter’s Guide, Richardson said he would charge the YMCA more than the $20,000 a year it pays to lease the 34,000-square-foot former SARC building. Rudd said he would not recommend changing the current relationship with the YMCA.
Richardson also said the facility needs to be renovated and expanded.
“The question is, how would the money for an operations levy or capital project be financed,” he wrote.
Rudd said a capital project proposal would depend on details of the request.
“Its positive impact on the community will determine my position on any funding request,” Rudd wrote.
The parks and recreation commission oversees policies and contracts with the YMCA to manage the facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave. SARC closed in October 2015 and reopened on Oct. 30, 2016, under Olympic Peninsula YMCA management — the organization’s third facility on the peninsula, and first with a swimming pool.
