By Scott D. Johnston
A crowd of candidates quickly emerged for the four Ocean Shores City Council seats when filing opened Monday morning with the Grays Harbor County Elections Department of the County Auditor’s office.
Eight candidates filed online in the first 80 minutes, including all four incumbent City Council members. Filing is open online and in person through Friday for the elections that include an August 1 primary and Nov. 7 general election.
For City Council Position 1, incumbent John Lynn will be opposed by Susan Conniry, who previously announced her intent to run for council after running two years ago for mayor against Mayor Crystal Dingler.
Position 3 is for a two-year term, the balance of the term that Dan Overton was elected to in 2015 and resigned from last year after taking a job in Olympia. Lisa Griebel , who was appointed by the council last year to fill that spot, filed for the position Monday.
Incumbent Jackie Farra filed to retain her Position 5 seat. She is opposed by Will Oaks. Steve Ensley, who retired as Ocean Shores city finance director last year, filed Monday afternoon. They were soon joined by Randy Scott, who was elected to the City Council in 2011, but did not seek re-election in 2015.
Gordon Broadbent filed to run again for the Position 7 seat he holds. Carlos Roldan and former council member Robert Crumpacker also have filed for that spot.
Races with three or more candidates will be on the Aug. 1st primary ballot. It seems likely that more Ocean Shores City Council seats will be part of the primary, because at least five more individuals have declared or suggested that they will run this year.
County filings
John Lester Farra of Ocean Shores has filed for the Grays Harbor Hospital District 2 Position 1 seat and will face Robert Torgerson, the Aberdeen Police Chief. As of Tuesday, Pete Scroggs was the only person who had filed for the Hospital District Position 2 seat. Also, incumbent Jack Thompson as of Tuesday was the lone candidate to file for the Grays Harbor Port Commission No. 2 position.
For North Beach area fire districts, two candidates have filed for Fire District No. 8 Position 1: Clinton Davis of Moclips and Stephanie Allestad of Pacific Beach. For Fire District No. 7, Joseph Fernandez was the only one to file for the seat as of Tuesday morning.
Once filing closes Friday afternoon, the North Coast News will post a complete list of candidates on our website, www.northcoastnews.com. Coverage of the City Council elections will be carried in future print and online editions.
North Coast News editor Angelo Bruscas will moderate a Town Hall Candidate Forum July 16 from 1-4 p.m. at the Ocean Shores Lions Club, sponsored by the Ocean Shores Block Watch & Disaster Preparedness group. The forum will be video recorded by North Beach TV and broadcast on the radio by KOSW.
