Elections 2023: City council position 2 interviews with Black, Butler

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of interviews for contested Sequim elections in the Nov. 7 General Election. This week it’s Jim Black and Dan Butler running for council Position 2, currently held by Kathy Downer who is running for Position 1 against incumbent William Armacost.

Neither candidate has run for local office before. Each candidate was asked the same questions as their opponent with Black’s interview conducted at the Aug. 24 People’s Forum in the Sequim Prairie Grange. Butler’s interview was conducted days later on the phone as he was unavailable that night due to a previous engagement. Some of the interviews were edited for clarity and length.

• What’s your personal and professional background? How long have you been in Sequim?

Black: I retired in 2019 and moved to Sequim with my wife. We have two boys. I started as a software engineer in Wisconsin. Then (we) came to Seattle in 1985 and worked for Boeing and several other companies as a contractor. I worked on a project for 15 years for Puget Sound Energy. We built a (customer relationship management) billing engine.

Butler: I was raised in the Northwest and returned here (three years ago) in preparation for retirement with my wife. We have two adult children and three grandchildren.

Professionally, I worked for a faith-based nonprofit, internationally overseas for most of the last 45 years primarily in eastern Africa. Most recently, we were in eastern Europe and Central Asia doing language research and development for communities that speak a minority language.

Currently, I’m administrator at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church part-time and with SIL International (Summer Institute of Linguistics).

• What prompted you to run?

Black: I worked in downtown Seattle for 22 years. I saw Seattle go from really nice downtown to what it’s turned into today, which is basically a homeless encampment.

So when I see these signs here (such as errant RVs and encampments in Sequim), I don’t want it to start up and become the same problem here. People are sleeping at the Transit Center, at city hall, Safeway. There’s graffiti. People are really upset about it.

When I see what happened in Seattle, San Francisco … I moved here to retire and enjoy my retirement and I don’t want to be like those places.

Butler: There was a (council seat) going to be unopposed and I was encouraged (by the Sequim Good Governance League) to consider my name to stand so people of Sequim would have a legitimate choice rather than an uncontested seat

• How has your career and personal life prepared you for a role on the Sequim city council?

Black: On the Puget Sound Energy project I worked on, the management of the team was exceptional and the members on the team were very good at their specialties. All high level and detail designs were thoroughly reviewed in team sessions. The result was that our software was extremely reliable and met the customer’s requirements. That approach to teamwork required a level of integrity and attitude where we were all vested in the solution. Working on a team with exceptional people who have a team attitude can solve problems and produce great results.

It’s the same with the city council. We need a team working together with a genuine intent to identify root problems and come up with the best solutions for them. We need to come up with comprehensive solutions and not just treat symptoms.

Even with non-partisan roles of Sequim city councilors, difference of opinion will exist and yet we need to identify and focus on primary goals and meet somewhere in the middle to address them, as it seems was more common in the past.

We need that on the city council.

Butler: I’ve spent most of my career and professional life in management and leadership of an international nonprofit working with multicultural teams and done a lot of listening and leading by consensus. I’ve been working on the Sequim Planning Commission for the past few years and what we need now is council members who are listening to the community and each other, and finding mutually beneficial ways forward.

• Housing is a hot topic in city council meetings. How should council address it?

Black: There are issues with permitting. It’s expensive and it makes it prohibitive for people to build houses. That’s one big thing and we should have the staff look at it. If that’s hindering building, it’s usually because of the money.

Butler: Development of projects using land trusts (i.e. Habitat for Humanity’s current project) seems to be something with great potential. I would like to learn more about that and explore more how that can be further developed.

Incentivizing lower fees for developers and permits for certain developments can be something the city can look at and I know they have been looking at.

I personally have a lot to learn in this and the city does, too. There are a lot of cities with experience, and we can learn from their experience. We may not need to reinvent the wheel here.

• What do you like in the City of Sequim and what needs to change?

Black: I like people the most. The people are friendly. People will stand behind you once you get to know them. The people are great. Good neighbors. I don’t see much that I don’t like.

My primary concern is the management of the homeless drug addiction and mental health problem. My other other serious concerns here are affordable workforce housing and more local jobs.

Butler: I like Sequim’s small town atmosphere, small town culture, the natural beauty and its physical location.

(Regarding change,) Sequim is growing and as a city needs to keep up with that growth, anticipate it.

(With the) Comprehensive Plan, (councilors need to be) primarily working on that in order to keep up with growth. Growth is inevitable. It’s not negative. The city needs to be in front of it.

I’m impressed with the city because they are in front of that and implementing projects to stay ahead of it.

• Affiliations/ anything to add?

Black: I was a Boy Scout scoutmaster in Bellevue for eight years and really enjoyed that. I attend church. I came from Milwaukee, WI, an industrial town and worked my way through college.

(On coming to Sequim) We had a friend not too far from here who hiked it, and we were just open to new places and it wasn’t too far from our boys. If we go to see them it was just a few hours away.

Butler: I go to church at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, served on the Sequim Planning Commission since March 2021, and I’ve been volunteering the last two years for the Reach for Hospice fundraiser. Historically, I have been a sailor.

I also made a naive vow to not shave when Russia invaded Ukraine until that was over. I’m looking quite scruffy now… It’s where I worked the past eight years. My role was to oversee projects in that area and I had colleagues in that area.

2023 General Election: Important upcoming dates

Clallam County’s General Election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 7. View the Online Voters’ Guide at VoteWa.gov. Below are important activities and dates:

• Wednesday, Oct. 10 – At 9 a.m., testing of the Accessible Voting Units will be conducted in the

Elections Center, Room 072, of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.

• Thursday, Oct. 11 — At 2 p.m. a logic and accuracy testof the county’s ballot tabulation system will be conducted in the Elections Center.

• Thursday, Oct. 18 – Ballots for the General Election will be mailed to all qualified voters in Clallam County. A sample ballot is posted at clallamcountywa.gov/elections.

• Tuesday Nov. 7 – Election Day. Shortly after 8 p.m., results will be available in the Clallam County Courthouse lobby and online at clallamcountywa.gov/elections.

• Wednesday, Nov. 8 – At 9 a.m., a random batch audit will be conducted in the Elections Center.

• Monday, Nov. 27 — At 1 p.m., the Canvassing Board will hold an open public meeting for pre-certification of the General Election in the Elections Center.

• Tuesday, Nov. 28 – At 2 p.m., the Canvassing Board will hold an open public meeting to certify the General Election in the Elections Center.