Dec. 27 — City of Puyallup seeks applicants for city council

The Puyallup City Council must fill vacated district 2 position in January

Chris Albert / of the Herald

This January the Puyallup City Council will be going over applications to fill a vacant city council position.

The District 2 position held by Councilmember Kathy Turner will become vacant when she resigns the district position to be sworn in for an At Large council position as of Jan. 1, 2008.

The council will decide who will fill the two year remainder of Turner’s district position term sometime this January, said City Clerk Barbara Price.

“It’s still up in the air about what date they (councilmembers) will interview applicants,” “Price said. “We’re still working on how we’re going to set up the interviews.”

Current residents in District 2 who have lived in the district for at least one year and are a registered voter may apply to for the position. The application is available on the city’s Web site and administrative office. All completed applications are due by 5 p.m. on Jan. 2 at the administrative office.

As of Dec. 21 Rick Hansen, Thomas J. Swanson and Michael Cina have applied for the position.

Hansen ran against Turner for the At Large position and lost after a hand recount.

“This is a great opportunity to serve the city,” he said. “Anyone who puts their name in should be commended for it. It’s a huge commitment.”

Hansen said he decided to apply for the council position because of the thousands who voted for him in the At large race.

“I truly owe the people who voted for me,” he said. “I don’t think I had a choice.”

After the application deadline closes, the city council will review the applications, they will then decide what kind of interview process they want to conduct for applicants, select an applicant and appoint them to the city council.

Staff has been providing any information they can about the position to interested parties, so applicants can make an informed decision about applying.

Regular council positions are part-time with a salary of $12,900 per year with benefits. Councilmembers are expected to attend council meetings, be prepared before hand and set policy through legislative action.

They also represent the city on a number of regional boards and committees. Among themselves they decide different committees they will serve on.

In Price’s 21 years working for the city, she can only recall one other time the council appointed a member.

“I think there is a lot of interest in the community,” she said. “It doesn’t happen in Puyallup very often.”

In 1996, Pheresa Smith resigned in October and Darrell Barstow was appointed in December to finish out her term. He had been elected to the position in November and kept the seat as an elected official starting in January.