August 2026 Message from City Manager John Mauro

August 5, 2026

I’ve been writing City of PT newsletter articles for nearly seven years now – my rough count is that I’ve written 76 of them.  This might be the hardest one of them all, but here it is: this is my last one. My family and I have decided to embark on a new adventure on Bainbridge Island, as I’ve accepted the role as City Manager for the City of Bainbridge Island, starting on September 8. 

Port Townsend is not an easy place to leave, and I’m glad that moving to a nearby community will allow my family and I to keep connected and easily visit the people and place we love.  I’m also glad to leave while the City is in one of the strongest positions it’s ever been in – with stable finances, a remarkably talented staff team, major progress on infrastructure, healthy institutional partnerships, and a thoughtful, civil, and visionary City Council.

We’ve been through quite a lot together over the past almost-seven years. I won’t take space here to reflect in much detail, but if you’ve been paying attention, you know what I mean.  We’ve overcome truly difficult challenges – whether it be a pandemic, financial uncertainty, or long-neglected maintenance and repair – and are well-positioned for success into the future. 

But we certainly still have work to do.

Whether you’ve read just this newsletter or read them all, whether you think the City is in a better or worse place since 2019, or whether or not you can pick out City Hall on a map, I want to appreciate you for reading this and keeping informed and engaged.

We need your help to get where we’re going.  We need your help so that Port Townsend can remain a community that stewards its high quality of life, values inclusivity, and builds resilience in the face of huge ongoing challenges – challenges like profound inequities in access and affordability, incivility and polarization in public discourse, climate disruption, federal political uncertainties, among others. 

What’s become clearer to me over these past seven years of service is that a community that prioritizes public forums and spaces to gather, to listen to each other, to disagree honestly but civilly, and to work things out over time will get to where it wants to go.  I have faith in you, Port Townsend.  I’ll be carrying a big piece of you in my heart.  And I’ll be watching – and rooting for – your enduring success.