Message from Councilmember Neil Nelson

February 5, 2025

Six Months on City Council

I want to start with a brief introduction of myself and how I came to sit on City Council.  I am a local builder, in town for 11 years.  I have been in the home improvement business for the better part of 40 years.  I initially went to run for City Council about four years ago because I was very frustrated with an inspection, and I was going to change things.  Hah, little did I know.  I started at the Planning Commission because frankly there was no way I was ready for the City Council at that point.  And immediately I began learning that, while often for a reason, few things  in our local government happen fast except for perhaps emergency repairs.

And changing things can be exceptionally difficult.

After six months on the City Council there are some things I have learned.  Some I love.  Others, well, not so much.  And I think in an election year more of our community might want to know a bit more about what serving on City Council can really be like.

Nothing is simple.  Every decision has potential for unintended consequences and there are two sides, or more, to every issue.  The deer issue is a great example.  I simply had no idea what I had done when I wrote a piece for the City newsletter about the deer being here first.  I thought it was a simple way to get introduced to the community.  Warm, fuzzy, easy.  Hah.  Turns out we are evenly divided on the deer thing.  Some of us want to kill all of them and feed them to the food bank. Sterilizing salt licks, tranquilization, relocation, leave them be, you name it there are all sorts of ideas about what we should do.   Every single solution has some unintended consequences, will cost money, will make someone unhappy.  I have now researched various communities around the Pacific Northwest.  Here is a great read from a local homeowners’ association:  https://sunlandhomeowners.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Sunland-Deer-Survey-Data-Analysis-Final.pdf  At the moment my best thinking is that we have bigger problems to solve and spend money on.  Sorry, there really is not a silver bullet solution for this one, save maybe just living where we are at.  At least until we have a bunch of extra money lying around and nothing better to do with it than solve our deer problem.

Things change slowly.  Let’s talk potholes for a moment.  Potholes suck.  We all know this like the back of our hands.  It seems like a simple solution: spend some money, gather some volunteers.  Should be fixed by the time I finish this piece.  Or at least within a few months.  Truth is we have a whole bunch of road problems because of how many miles of road we have, catching up on deferred maintenance, and just the sheer enormity of the problem.  We are dedicating a great deal of time, effort, and resources to the problem and it is getting solved.  Slower than we would like perhaps but we are moving forward better than ever ( https://www.jeffcobeacon.com/all-news/so-you-want-to-talk-about-potholes ).

We face some extraordinary challenges.  Homelessness. Affordable and workforce housing. Big problems that take serious thinking and creative solutions.  But there are other challenges as well. The golf course, swimming pool, infrastructure, climate change preparedness and economic constraints.   

We need more money.  I am a businessman and just a regular guy that never once in my life has ever had the thought, “We should give our government more money.”  Never.  But now that I am getting involved, I am finding out the truth of the matter is that many of those problems simply need more money to solve.  Yes, we need to be more efficient and smarter. This includes using more than our money, as we continue to double-down on pulling in millions of state and federal dollars for our local projects. But not only have I become more keenly aware of all these problems we face… and more, I have become aware of just what we have going for us.

We have an incredible community.   The volunteer spirit and the giving attitude is nothing short of amazing in our community.  And it is better than just finding more money to throw at problems.  In fact, it may very well be the best way to solve our problems without just throwing more money at them.  I am continually amazed at what we do have going for us in our little community.    

We have an incredible city staff.  Across the board and frankly, into the county as well.  I kid you not when I say every single person I have met at the City and County level is intelligent, hardworking, and dedicated to our community.  I’m not naïve.  The individuals that make up our City staff, workforce, Council, etc. are human.  And no human I know is anywhere close to perfect.  But seriously, we are blessed to have what we have here in our human resources, and I will spend the rest of my political career in this community working with the idea that we should support our people in working toward our common goals.  Trust me when I tell you, the vast majority of the individuals I am working with at the City level have exactly the same interests as everyone… fix the potholes, solve affordable housing, keep our open space,  balance our economic needs with the size of our community, manage our growth responsibly, and continue to keep this one of the most wonderful communities in the nation.

Being on City Council is both rewarding and thankless.  In six short months I have been cornered in every walk of my personal life.  Buying groceries, getting gas, working out, walking down the street, you name it.  I have been asked about all the regular stuff.  Potholes, swimming, pool, housing, homeless camps, and things I never even knew were a thing, like right to farm. I have been called names because I support not killing deer. I have listened to opinions about all this stuff and more, sometimes heated, sometimes most respectful. Always in my personal life. I was told initially upon being appointed that a good portion of my personal life was over.  Absolutely 100% truth.  At night I think about every conversation.  And good or bad I work through what I have heard.  I learn. I grow.  And I realized that this is exactly what I signed up for.  I am experiencing this part of life.  Most importantly I realized that every other member of City staff and City Council is doing the exact same thing… exactly.  And every day we go back for more because we care… we really care.  And I fall in love with Port Townsend all over again.