The race for the Bainbridge Island City Council’s District 1 at-large position features two candidates pushing their serious environmental bona fides.
Ron Peltier, 64, is a 50-year islander and resident carpenter who’s familiar to many as the outspoken leader of Islanders for Responsible Development, the grassroots group that fought the Visconsi shopping center proposal at Highway 305 and High School Road.
Pegeen Mulhern, 60, is a maritime business attorney and more recent arrival (1991) from the East Coast who comes with a thick resume of public service; here in Washington, as a volunteer in the community in schools, church and Girl Scouts — and also as co-founder of Islanders for Responsible Development.
Mulhern’s occupation — she’d be the sixth lawyer to join the seven-member council if elected in November — is hard to overlook.
And it’s something that’s been brought up to her during her public events: “Do we need another lawyer?” Mulhern recalled someone asking.
“I think we need another person on the island who’s been involved in a lot of different community activities and has a broad range of connections and friends and community to represent on the council.
“I think we need another woman on the council; I think we need another mom on the council,” she added. “And being a lawyer, I don’t see how it could hurt. I understand how regulations work; I work with agencies on a regular basis; I represent people’s interests.”
Mulhern noted much of her public service has been for the environment, from working for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund or the late Judge William Lee Dwyer, “one of the most environmental judges in the state of Washington.”
A major issue, no doubt due to the Visconsi shopping center and the extended discussions surrounding the rewrite of the island’s growth plan, has been development.
Worries about growth have been something Mulhern’s heard during her door-to-door campaign, mostly done in past weeks with a broken toe on her left foot.
“Everyone is concerned about the pace of growth,” she said.
With the recession over, Mulhern said, some have been surprised that projects put on hold earlier are now back in the works.
“That’s why you can’t run for council now without being ready to tackle the planning code, and address the environmental protections, resources and infrastructure. Sewer, water have to be top of the list. Traffic.”
It’s familiar turf, to be sure. Mulhern noted her work alongside her opponent during the community fight against the Visconsi development.
Instead of trying to get the proposal rejected by the city’s hearing examiner, Mulhern recalled how she, instead, took on the more practical approach of getting conditions added to the approval of the project that would lessen impacts on nearby neighborhoods and the rest of the island.
Peltier makes no bones about his role in fighting the project. What’s followed, since the start of his campaign, have been his comments blasting a “pro-development culture” at city hall.
He’s questioned whether city staff who approve permits are qualified to make environmental determinations and has raised doubts about their commitment to stewardship of the island’s unique character.
He’s also accused staff of being a “rubber stamp” for development.
That charge came in response to the Visconsi development, which Peltier said should have required a more intensive environmental analysis before it was green-lighted by city officials.
An environmental impact statement was not completed for the new shopping center, he recalled.
“Which I think is wrong for the largest commercial development on the island in 25 years. It should have had a full environmental impact statement.”
Peltier’s opposition to the new shopping center remains strong.
It’s bringing unwanted and redundant new businesses to the island, he said, ones that will compete with downtown merchants.
Some critics have called for a boycott of business at the shopping center, and Peltier said he’s on board.
“That’s something that citizens have a right to do. I’m not one of the organizers of the boycott, but I support it,” he said.
The most distance between the two candidates that’s arisen during the campaign has been over Proposition 1, the city’s proposal for a $15 million, 20-year bond sale that would pay for a new combined police station/municipal court on land just north of city hall. The Nov. 3 ballot request needs a 60-percent “yes” vote to pass.
Peltier has come out firmly against the proposal — the only council candidate in a field of five on the ballot to do so.
Peltier said the motivation for getting a new police station on Madison Avenue seems to be more about creating a new city campus than public safety.
“The number one priority should be: [determining] where’s the best location for the police.
“I don’t think that’s the driving motive behind the $15 million bond,” Peltier said.
Mulhern, by contrast, isn’t taking sides.
“I’m glad that it’s being put to the voters. I’m not really putting a position out there because I think both sides have some good arguments,” she said.
The District 1 at-large position carries a four-year term. Councilman Steve Bonkowski, the current councilman in the District 1 seat, decided to not seek a second term.
Ron Peltier
Age: 64
Education: BHS; took courses at Olympic College
Current occupation: Carpenter
Website: www.peltier4council.com
Fun fact: “I have traveled on 12 trips as a photographer with NW Native canoes, starting in 1993 on a two month trip to Bella Bella, B.C. and back. The mural on the side of the new Suquamish Tribe’s casino parking garage is from a photo I took off Cape Flattering in the Summer of 2013.”
Pegeen Mulhern
Age: 60
Education: Boston College Law School, JD; University of Washington, MLIS; Colgate University, BA
Current occupation: Maritime business attorney
Website: pm4bicc.org
Fun fact: “Bernie Sanders was our landlord; he was the mayor of Burlington (Vermont) when we owned our schooner, and he was in charge of our dock. Negotiating with Bernie for the lease, his socialism was right there: ‘The people need more money… I can’t give you a 10-year lease, something better might come along.’ He was always very adamant that we had to do what was right for the people.”
