Gig Harbor has new council member. Here’s what she said about growth, COVID, other issues

Mary Barber says her vision for Gig Harbor is something like Brigadoon.

She pictures people enjoying the waterfront, meals from local businesses and using the city’s trails for bike rides to visit friends, she told the City Council Tuesday.

Council members voted 4-2 to appoint Barber to the council seat vacated by Tracie Markley, who took office as mayor this month.

“I hope residents view me as an approachable listener who wants to hear from them about what their concerns are and what they’re hoping the city can do,” Barber told the Gateway on Wednesday.

Barber was one of four the council interviewed and eight eligible candidates who applied.

“I love Gig Harbor and want to make sure it stays an amazing place to live, work, play and raise a family,” Barber wrote in her application.

She’s been on the city’s Parks Commission for about two years.

During that time, she wrote, she “learned a lot about city operations, built relationships with staff, and gained a working knowledge of what it takes to achieve city goals. I understand the council’s job is to develop the city’s over-arching plan while trusting staff, using the skills for which they were hired, to implement that plan.”

Barber, 65, moved to the Gig Harbor area from Anchorage with her husband in 2014, and they renovated a home on Soundview Drive. Her husband was a colonel in the Alaska Air National Guard search-and-rescue program. She ran her public relations business, and they raised their sons in Alaska.

She’s worked in strategic communications and public relations for more than 40 years.

“My work experience includes food companies, cultural communications, corporate communications, and two political campaigns, including as a volunteer senior communication specialist on Senator Lisa Murkowski’s historic write-in campaign,” her application said.

Barber was born in Seattle and raised in Portland. Her husband’s family also has roots in the area, and he studied at the University of Puget Sound.

“We both feel like we’re back home, and one of the things we love most about the harbor is its quaint, smalltown feel and the walkable waterfront,” she told the council during her interview.

They realize, she said, that they moved to the city during a “population boom.”

It looks like that might be slowing, she said, but she thinks it’s important for the city to address its infrastructure needs going forward, such as parks, water, wastewater, public safety and traffic.

Asked what she wants Gig Harbor to look like in 10 years, Barber told the council: “I want to keep things the way they are right now, but we can’t stop time. … Quite simply, I hope it’s a clean, walkable, vibrant small town retaining the character that draws us all here today.”

She’d like to see an expanded trail system, people enjoying the waterfront, successful businesses and a preserved tree canopy, among other things.

Growth in Gig Harbor

When she was asked about growth, Barber told the council, she’s heard from residents “that we need to stop the growth of subdivisions that we saw in the past 10 or so years, we need to stop the clear-cutting of trees to build new homes and instead create a plan for how and if we will expand housing.”

Residents want more infrastructure to support the growth that’s already happened, she said.

She told the council she’s also heard complaints about permitting and that the city needs to support residents who want to renovate their homes instead of building new ones.

Barber was also asked how she felt about potentially changing the height restriction on the shopping center development on Judson Street to allow the building to be taller.

“I would not be in favor of changing that zoning,” Barber said. “I think that the view corridor is important and that one of the reasons people come here is for those protections.”

Asked about COVID-19 and the city’s roll in responding to it, Barber told the council she’s a vaccinated and boosted “supporter of science and the CDC,” who is “discouraged by those who refuse to do what they can as individuals to help stop the disease.”

Like everyone, she said, she’s tired of the pandemic and wants a more normal life.

“Masking, vaccines and physical distancing continue to be our best weapons, and we need to keep advocating for them,” she said.

Barber also said “our businesses are hurting” and that it’s important to listen to them and help however possible.

After the interviews, council members voted by writing down their chosen candidate and holding their votes up to their cameras simultaneously during the virtual meeting.

They were initially tied between Barber and Gary Glein, a long-time resident who spent his career in management and consulting. He and his wife initiated and developed the Skansie Park pavilion project, he told the council, and he’s a former president of the Downtown Waterfront Alliance who worked with the city on various projects. Glein’s uncle built the Eddon Boatyard.

In a second round of voting, Council members Jeni Woock, Roger Henderson, Brenda Lykins and Seth Storset voted for Barber. Council members Robyn Denson and Le Rodenberg voted for Glein.

Both Henderson and Lykins initially recused themselves from interviewing Glein, who they said had made donations to their campaigns. Later in the meeting, following executive session, both council members said they’d vote for the best candidates without a conflict of interest. The other council members, interim city manager and the mayor all said they supported that and trusted Lykins and Henderson would make an unbiased decision.

Barber will serve until the results of the November 2023 election are certified.

She’s one of four new members to the council. Henderson, Lykins and Storset were elected in November, joining incumbents Woock, Denson and Rodenberg.

“I’m really looking forward to working with the group of people who are on the City Council right now,” Barber told the Gateway. “I think it’s a very collaborative group that is hard working, but also has a lot of fun. ... It seems like it’s taking the city in a direction that I think it should go.”

One thing she wants to work on, she said, is finding a way to take council meetings to different places around the city: “so that it’s easier for residents to have access to what we’re doing.”

As for whether she’ll run when her seat is up for election, Barber told the council she’ll have to decide at the time.

“Right now, I would say it’s a strong maybe,” she said.

Her first council meeting is Monday.