POULSBO — The Bremerton City Auditor, an arts educator and volunteer for the disabled, and a Naval Shipyard trainer have applied to become Poulsbo’s newest City Council member.
The three candidates will interview next month, alongside any other applicants who apply by 4:30 p.m. Nov. 29, for the seat left vacant at the end of this year by longtime Councilman Dale Rudolph, who’s term would have expired at the end of 2011.
The Poulsbo City Council reopened the application process during a Nov. 3 meeting after the originally scheduled interview session on Nov. 6 was pushed back to December due to council members being out of town. The city first announced applications would be due Oct. 22.
The change led one candidate to withdraw her application.
The candidates so far are:
• Russell Shiplet, 50, Naval Shipyard deputy training director and former teacher and coach. Shiplet is a one-year Poulsbo resident and emphasized his ability to work as part of a team. He listed education, financial accountability and economic development as his highest council priorities.
“I’ve always been interested in city council and what it is that we can do to better serve our community. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to be able to give back to my community,” he said.
• Gary Nystul, 65, Bremerton City Auditor and 18-year councilman in Kalispell, Mont. Nystul is a nine-year Poulsbo resident and said he hopes to maintain Poulsbo’s unique cultural features. Communication with citizens, financial health and planning for the future are his council priorities.
“I live here, I have an interest in the community and am willing to volunteer if that’s their choice. I don’t have an agenda,” he said.
• Janetmarie Valiga, 61, art educator and community volutneer. Valiga is a six-year resident of Poulsbo and said she wants to continue a legacy of service to Poulsbo started by her parents in the 1980s. Jobs, transportation and infrastructure are her top council priorities.
“I want to have somebody represent the disenfranchised. There are so many people here who are elderly, handicapped, unemployed … I want to see people really be helped by their government,” she said.
Ann Stewart withdrew her bid for the seat Thursday afternoon after the city decided to extend the application process. A six-year Poulsbo resident, Stewart wrote in a letter to Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson that the decision to reopen to applicants seemed to imply the council had a certain applicant in mind.
“I find this deviation from the set procedure for the application process to be disturbing and inconsistent with standard practice in the business world,” she wrote.
Valiga, who was at the meeting at which the process was extended, also expressed dismay that the process was changed.
The seat will be the second on Poulsbo’s city council to be chosen by peers instead of publicly elected. Councilman Jeff Bauman, appointed to the council at the start of 2010, assumed council responsibilities after then-Councilwoman Erickson was elected the city’s mayor. Nystul also applied to the council at the time.
The interview process, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, is open to the public.
An applicant will be chosen in January, after Rudolph has left the council.
