By Harry Gatjens

After spending the past three-and-a-half years attending Edmonds City Council meetings and commenting on them, I decided to apply for the open council position when Michael Plunkett resigned. This was my second try for an appointment to a council seat, and I also wrote a story about the first experience. But I learned a lot from the first time to the second time, so I thought I would provide some insight.

One of the initial pieces of advice I received was that “it wasn’t about who’s best qualified, Harry, it’s about who can align the four votes.” You need to have four votes of the current councilmembers in order to win the appointment, and I was told that I should meet the current councilmembers and try to convince them to vote for me.

That was the kind of backroom politics that I had seen in the past and was the kind of thing that I was hoping to avoid. I said I would meet with the current councilmembers, but only to let them know who I was and ask that they listen to all applicants with an open mind. I didn’t want anybody to commit to me in advance; I just wanted them to commit to vote for the person who they thought would do the best job.

Before I decided to run, I had had on earlier interaction with Michael Plunkett that was less than pleasant. I asked him if I had done something to annoy him and he said yes. I then asked if he wanted to get together and explain to me what the issue was and he said he would at a later time. Three weeks before the filing deadline, we met and talked over the issues he was annoyed about. After meeting, we came to a resolution on the issue and he offered me good advice. He then suggested that I might be well-qualified to apply for his position and encouraged me to do so. I was amazed that we have gone from a state where he was unhappy with me to a point where he suggested it might be good for me to apply for his position.

One of the things that I think is very important as a member of the council is to be able to disagree with other councilmembers, resolve the issue and still be able to work together as a team. My interaction with Mr. Plunkett gave me hope that would be a possibility with the current council.

I have a nice base of support from people who have followed my articles in My Edmonds News and who had come to “Coffees with Harry.” All of these people encouraged me to apply but said they sometimes wondered if I was crazy for doing so. They had gotten to know me as someone who tried to state things as they were and use a reasoned approach in evaluating options.

After the application deadline, I discovered that a total of 18 people had applied. This was a daunting number but I felt confident that first, I knew the issues and second, I had the best interests of the citizens at heart.

By the time we got to the interviews, the field had dropped to 15 — still a large group of contenders. The interviews were split into two nights and I was assigned to the first night. Unfortunately, the night of our interviews the council had another issue take an extraordinarily long period of time, so our interviews started 90 minutes late. The advantage for me was I had the opportunity to go out and get some dinner and the councilmembers ended up being stuck there for five hours of meeting and interviews

All candidates were asked to stay out of the council chambers, where the interviews were being held, so that later interviewees would not have the advantage of knowing the questions in advance. This led to one of the more rewarding parts of the process, which was sitting outside the council chambers with other candidates. We had great discussions, not confrontational at all, but more learning about each others’ issues. I found this to be very interesting.

I was a little leery of what to do if asked my position on any issue where I disagreed with the councilmember. I had asked a number of people what to do in this situation. Several had advised that I answer the question to maximize my opportunity to get the job. Others, including the staff at Chanterelle restaurant where I held my Coffee with Harry series, said “Harry, stand by your principles. If you have to compromise your stance and feelings in order to get the job, you don’t want the job.” These young people, who represent the future of Edmonds, inspired me not to adjust my answers to the way I thought councilmembers wanted me to.

I felt well-prepared for the interview and I think I did a good job of answering the councilmembers’ questions as I was familiar with each issue they asked me about. I also had some of what I thought were unique ideas. I emphasized that councilmembers’ number-one obligation on anything they vote for was to think, “Is this in the best interest of the citizens?” I also spoke of my programs to get more citizen involvement, and used my work experience to provide examples of my ability to provide both leadership and build consensus. If you care to watch my interview, it is here.

With 15 candidates, the council had a large number of people to choose from — several of whom I thought were well-qualified for the position. So the next thing that all of us who applied had to do was wait a week for the actual vote.

The week after the interviews and prior to the council vote I was advised to get letters of recommendation from Edmonds people who were involved in city issues. I was told that other candidates had done so and it might be in my best interest. I again found this to be a somewhat distasteful way of approaching the issue, but I followed the advice. I felt fortunate that all of the people I asked to endorse me wrote very enthusiastic letters of support for me. It is rewarding to find that people are willing to go the extra mile to help you out.

The vote was held during the following Tuesday’s Edmonds City Council meeting. Each councilmember first gets to nominate someone. Once those people have been nominated, the council takes a vote. They can only vote for you if you had been nominated.  If one of the nominated people gets four votes, that’s the majority and that person is elected. In the first round, five of us were nominated with one person nominated by two councilmembers. The vote in the first round followed exactly the nominations — each person voted for the person they nominated. In the second round, two council members, including the one who nominated me, switched their votes to Kristiana Johnson, thus giving her the four-vote majority she needed to get the position.

Unlike the last time I had applied for a council position, several of the councilmembers took time to explain the reasoning behind their voting. This had not been done the first time I applied, and it was refreshing to hear the councilmembers’ logic in their choices.

While I didn’t really feel that I was going to get appointed, I have to admit I was more disappointed than I thought I would be. I believed that I was well-qualified, attended all but three council meetings in the last three years, understood all the issues and had done an excellent job in the interviews. Yet, only one councilmember found me to be the appropriate candidate.

On the day after the election, I went to Chanterelle and told the staff I need to sit in the loser’s lounge. I invited some supporters to come join me and some did. The most rewarding part was that one of the waitresses came up to me and said, “Even if you think this is a loser’s lounge, you are still a VIP here.”

I don’t regret the experience at all. I enjoyed trying to do the best I could for the city and I can’t fault the council’s selection. I wish them all the best and hope that they keep the best interests of the people of Edmonds in mind during all of their decisions. The citizens deserve that.