The Bremerton Beat

Yep, that’s the idea. We’re live blogging the mayor’s debate, for those of you who don’t want to come downtown to the Norm and see thing in person. Or maybe you will be at the event with your iPhone. Either way, join us at 7 p.m., assuming technology rewards our faith in it.

Bremerton’s five mayoral candidates met at the Cloverleaf this morning to explain their plans and views.

It’s from these that I’ll go back and write the story, which you’ll see later.

I don’t know if providing notes will be helpful or not, or whether I’ll do it again. I happened to have it work out this time and wasn’t interrupted during the debate, so for this one here you go. If there are any swear words in here, they’re accidental. No one said any.
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It happens in the news biz. You’re working on a story and tell your editor it might be a little long, only to receive the wince/sigh combo that only means one thing. “Space is tight in tomorrow’s paper.”

I had a conversation with Bremerton attorney Stan Glisson, who made a few points that I I thought people might be interested in. The Interwebs have unlimited space, so I’ll write them here.

I called Glisson because he’d written a letter a while back defending Municpal Court Judge Jame Docter, and the way the tickets are adjudicated in court. That said, he’s not a fan of the camera systems.

Glisson isn’t involved in the lawsuit over the traffic cameras, but he isn’t surprised to see some legal action.

“The frustration level people have is very high,” he said.

He researched the law himself a couple months ago after getting a ticket in the mail. He received the ticket a couple of weeks after it caught his car driving through the intersection. We’ve reported before that some people get out of the tickets by testifying in court – under threat of perjury – that they weren’t driving the car, it was someone else.

Obviously this can happen with a family member, friend, etc. borrowing the car. But the delay between the alleged violation and the ticket in the mail can lead to doubt about whether you were in the car or not, Glisson said.

Can you remember what you were doing two weeks ago?

So while you have the option to contest the ticket that way, “an honest person won’t do that if they aren’t sure,” he said.

While he isn’t a fan of the cameras, his opinion is that the city is interpreting the RCW legally when it set the costs of the red-light cameras within the rates for parking tickets. Red-light tickets are $124, the priciest parking ticket is $250.

“That’s why I believe Bremerton is safe in this class action,” he said.

In addition, I got a PowerPoint file from Bremerton finance director Andy Parks that he’d shown the council. I’ve attached it here (now as a PDF so it’s easier for more people to read.)

Download it by clicking here.

The first candidate filings are posted at the county elections site and Bob Winters, former city councilman, is running for a seat on the dais again.

He last ran in the Manette council district, but now lives near Kitsap Lake. Assuming Nick Wofford runs for re-election, Winters will be at least one of his opponents. Adam Brockus is running to retain his Manette seat.

Mike Shepherd, city councilman, was first to file for Bremerton mayor.

More as it develops.

Downtown business owner and former city council candidate Carlos Jara announced he will run for Bremerton mayor. Jara becomes the sixth candidate for the job being vacated by Cary Bozeman, who will be taking the CEO job at the port.

Jara ran in 2007 for the seat won by Roy Runyon. He and his wife, Christina, moved to Bremerton in 2004. He opened Puget Sound Box & Shipping near the ferry terminal and later turned it into Harborside Market. Christina Jara owns and operates the Isella Day Spa, also in downtown.

The couple lives in West Bremerton.

Former county commissioner Patty Lent confirmed Tuesday she plans to run for mayor of Bremerton.

Lent was commissioner from 2003-06, losing in the one-time “pick-a-party” primary in the Republican race against Jack Hamilton.

Lent’s confirmation puts the number of mayor candidates up to five, following Daryl Daugs’ announcement hours earlier. City council members Mike Shepherd, Will Maupin and Cecil McConnell Brad Gehring announced earlier.

Daryl Daugs, chairman of the 35th District Democrats, announced on his blog Tuesday that he intends to run for Bremerton mayor. It means he gives up the Democratic post.

Daugs ran for state representative in the 35th District, losing the race eventually won by fellow Democrat Fred Finn.

His campaign Web site from that run indicates that most recently he was a lead organizer for the Washington Federation of State Employees in Olympia focusing on system reform of Child Protective Services. He and his wife have been foster parents for 54 children.

One reason he decided to run:

“Not one of the people that has stepped up to run makes me very happy.”

Beyond that, he writes:

“For me … this is not political … it is personal. I grew up here. I cruised Pacific Ave in my 66 Mustang. I watched movies in the Roxy and the Admiral. My kids have all gone from grade school through high school here. I love and care for my community and the many friends and family that live here with me.”

Daugs joins Mike Shepherd, Will Maupin and Brad Gehring in the race. He’s the only one running, so far, who isn’t a member of the current city council.

Brad Gehring, Bremerton city councilman revealed today that he will seek the mayor’s position in the November election.

Gehring joins fellow council members Mike Shepherd and Will Maupin as candidates who have announced their intentions to run.

Other names surfacing as possible candidates include former county commissioner Patty Lent, who on Monday said she had not ruled it out.

Gehring said he likes both Shepherd and Maupin, but “I just don’t feel Bremerton needs to go in the direction they would take it.”

What has been done so far to revamp Bremerton has been “fabulous,” Gehring said, praising outgoing Mayor Cary Bozeman for laying the groundwork for re-establishing Bremerton’s economic strength.

Gehring said there needs to be more emphasis on private investment into the city and more effort to benefit small and medium-sized businesses.

First elected to the seat in 2003, Gehring was re-elected in 2005. He also ran for state representative in 2008, coming in third in the primary to Kathy Haigh and Marco Brown.

Former Kitsap County commissioner Patty Lent’s name has been among those bandied about as a possible mayoral candidate for Bremerton, but I had no luck contacting her until last night.

Lent attended the county commissioners’ meeting in which the commissioners restructured something Lent did while a commissioner. In 2005 she, Chris Endresen and Jan Angel approved a move that put the county as second guarantor on the loans for the Harborside Condominium project. Since the complex opened the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority has had little luck selling the units, laying the blame on a construction delay that led to the real estate and broader economic meltdown.

Lent took responsibility for the county’s decision in 2005. From Tuesday’s story:

Former county commissioner Patty Lent took responsibility for the current situation. She was a commissioner in 2005 when the board agreed to back the housing authority’s loan for the condos.

“It was an economic time that we thought we were well protected,” she said. Lent said the federal government was investing heavily in economic development at the time and the housing authority leaned into that role. She then praised the current commission for taking the step it took Monday.

“I was part of the problem in the past and you are really moving in a forward direction,” she said.

After the meeting I asked if she was running for mayor. “I haven’t decided, but I’m not saying ‘no,’” she said.

Monday night cleared one thing she said she had to do before deciding. “Tonight was a hurdle I needed to face.”

She described her choice in 2005 as a “poor decision,” but as she did in the meeting she said it was a time when the federal government was spending heavily on local economic development. “There was lots of money for revitalization,” she said.

City council members Mike Shepherd and Will Maupin have announced they are running and Shepherd has been campaigning for a while.

This story is being updated as the day goes on. By now it’s not new news, but it’s still news that Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman is resigning as hizzoner to become CEO at the Port of Bremerton.

The mayor said it was a tough decision, but that it was a decision made in his best interest. He said history will show whether it was the right decision for Bremerton. “Change is inevitable,” he said. Indeed. Mike Shepherd could have beat him in November and he’d be gone anyway.

So Bozeman will take his cheerleader role to the port, where he hopes to have much success in getting businesses to locate into the South Kitsap Industrial Area.

We’ll get more as it develops.