POULSBO — Gary Nystul knew even before he participated in the first U.S. Senate Youth Program in 1963 that he might go into public service. His father served on the city council and school board in Columbus, Mont.

Nystul went on to earn an accounting degree from Montana State University at Bozeman, became a CPA and joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, retiring in 2000 as a commander. He served as Kalispell’s city finance director from 1975-78 and a city councilman from 1982-2000.

In 2000, he left Kalispell to become budget manager of Kitsap County. He has been Bremerton’s auditor since 2003. He’s now unopposed for a position on the Poulsbo City Council.

His public service has drawn praise from his Kalispell colleagues.

“I’ve been on the council since 1989 and served with Gary for 11 years. I always got along good with Gary,” Councilman Duane Larson told the Herald. “He thinks things out pretty well. If I see something that I think is good for the city, I’ll support it. Gary’s more conservative in that vein. He thought things out and made good, rational decisions … I could recommend him. If he came back and I lived in his ward, I’d vote for him.”

But Nystul’s personal finances, as well as some political decisions he made as a councilman, drew criticism as well.

The Montana Department of Revenue filed four tax liens on Nystul for unpaid property taxes between 1993 and 1997, according to the Flathead County Treasurer’s Office. In addition, Nystul was as much as two years late on his property taxes when he sold his Kalispell home on July 10, 2001. The property taxes were paid upon sale — $3,548.58, in addition to $496.50 in penalties and interest.

The tax liens emerged as an issue when Nystul applied to be Kalispell city manager in 1998.

“I opposed him for city manager,” Larson said. “He wanted the city manager to be replaced — he was a fairly new city manager — and when the opening came available, he applied for it. I didn’t think it was right to cost someone their job and turn around and apply for it. Plus, they called a vote on a holiday weekend.”

Larson said the tax liens were an issue too. “I didn’t support Gary on that.”

Nystul said June 29 he didn’t have much recollection of his tax problems in the 1990s, only saying he’d had “one financial challenge” and that it was taken care of. Reviewing the list of liens and two-year overdue payments, he said, “It’s an event that happened. I wish it hadn’t but it did and it was taken care of. I haven’t had any of those events in 10 or 11 years.”

He would not comment on the reason for his delinquency.

Nystul was one of more than 100 applicants for the city manager job, was one of four finalists and the second choice for the job, according to The Daily Inter Lake newspaper. The council voted 5-3 to offer him the job, with one councilman calling him “one of the best financial managers the city ever had,” adding, “Gary has spent so much of his time on city business, that he has neglected his own business,” according to The Daily Inter Lake.

At the time, Nystul said he had some personal financial problems over the past few years, but had made arrangements to pay the state. “We’re addressing it, and we’re taking care of it,” he said at the time.

Nystul ultimately turned the job down — the council offered him a one-year contract at $57,500 a year with three months’ severance if not rehired, according to The Daily Inter Lake. The salary offer was $2,500 less than the amount offered to the first candidate, who turned it down, and at the low end of the advertised salary range of $55,000-$70,000.

Nystul left the council shortly after to become Kitsap County’s budget manager. He and his wife bought a home in the Poulsbo Place neighborhood.

In an exit interview with The Daily Inter Lake, he said he contributed to improvements in city utilities; upgrades to city streets and public safety, including the purchase of a new fire engine without any bonded indebtedness; and commercial development in the city’s downtown.

He dealt with issues familiar to his Poulsbo counterparts, among them annexation and growth management.

“I think communities rely on quality volunteers to make them better and I am willing to contribute,” Nystul told the Herald. “I really want to contribute to helping preserve the quality of life in Poulsbo and the community.”

Nystul applied for appointment to the council in January and November 2010. He served on the city’s Design Review Board and his wife has been active in their neighborhood social committee.

Nystul is one of three independent municipal auditors in the state; the others are in Seattle and Spokane. He works at the pleasure of a six-member Audit Committee established by the Bremerton city charter.

As city auditor, Nystul has performed 25 audits or reviews since 2006, according to his department website. His study of the cost of allowing city employees to take home city-owned vehicles led to a change in the policy; the policy is now limited to employees, such as public works and police,  who may have to respond to emergencies from their homes.

Among other audits or reviews, he found that the City of Bremerton’s ownership interest in the Norm Dicks Government Center had not been recorded, warranty items had not been addressed after Memorial Plaza Park was completed, and a policy manual for the management and maintenance of the city’s fleet of vehicles had not been completed by 2010 even though it had been requested by the fleet manager in 1996.