Tracie Markley announces candidacy for Gig Harbor mayor, slightly delayed by virus
Tracie Markley is running to be mayor of Gig Harbor, a position currently held by Kit Kuhn. Markley, 44, is a first-term city council member who delayed a planned announcement after contracting COVID-19.
“I filed with the PDC on Feb. 4, which was ironically the same day as I started having covid symptoms and pretty much had my legs knocked out from under me,” Markley said, speaking of the Public Disclosure Commission. “I was planning on announcing that weekend, then I was just so sick.”
Markley had even created a Facebook page and a website in anticipation of her candidacy.
“There was no way I could put out a public announcement because I knew I would get phone calls and people would want to talk to me about it,” Markley said. “I was too sick to do any of that.”
Kuhn, who has been mayor since 2017, said he hasn’t decided his future, but is proud of his accomplishments. Candidates have until May 21 to file to run in the Nov. 2 general election, although they often file with the PDC earlier. Four council positions are also on the ballot; so far, no one has announced.
Grew up in Gig Harbor
Markley moved to Gig Harbor in 1982, when she was six years old, with her family and graduated from Peninsula High School in 1994. She worked in real estate and as a parks commissioner for two years. She was elected to City Council Position 4 in November, 2019, after running unopposed.
Markley said she wants to restore “trust” in a city government she said needs to change.
“One of the things that I am hoping to bring is some self-discipline, some civil discourse to deal with the issues that our city is facing right now,” Markley said. “I’m a very, very good listener and I am able to work with all people of all different backgrounds.”
Markley said she is referring to issues raised by a recent survey that alleged “broad and systemic” trouble in city government, with much of the concern directed toward the current mayor. Kuhn has said that the ‘city did nothing wrong’ in the treatment of staff, pointing to staff retiring as a reason for turnover.
The December, 2019 survey by an outside consultant portrayed a dysfunctional City Hall, in which the majority of employees distrust and fear the mayor and other senior leaders. A third of the 98 city employees who responded to the survey said they expected to leave.
In fact, more than 20 employees, including department heads and supervisors, have left the city since Kuhn was elected in 2017. Many of the 73 pages of complaints in the survey were about Kuhn, whom employees complained treated them with discourtesy and contempt, sometimes erupting in rages.
Pushed for survey
Markley was one of the council members who expressed alarm at the survey, the results of which led the council to consult with experts about switching to a council-manager form of government. But when the council voted Jan. 11 on putting the question to voters, Markley joined the majority in rejecting the idea, 4-3, saying it was too soon.
“I have thought long and hard about this subject,” Markley said then. “My gut feeling is this is not a good time to do this. I think we are going through quite enough as a city, quite enough as a nation. I think we need some stability.”
Markley said Monday, “My intent will never be to attack Mayor Kuhn, that’s not how I operate. I’m not that kind of candidate that is going to do smear campaigns and all of that, that’s just not who I am. However, it is really serious what is going on at the city. We have staff that are leaving on a continual basis, and this is not good.”
Kuhn was elected in 2017 when he defeated incumbent Mayor Jill Guernsey with more than 71 percent of the vote.
When reached by The Gateway, Kuhn said he takes the survey results seriously.
“Though I take the survey seriously in improving employee satisfaction, I was elected by the citizens to make some changes and I actually don’t feel like there is lost trust with our citizens,” Kuhn said. “I feel I actually have brought a lot of trust and a lot of transparency to city hall. That is one of the things I ran promising.”
‘Drag it into the light’
Markley said she still feels there is a need for greater transparency and said she would make it a priority to bring that to the position.
“If there is a problem, I don’t bury things in the dark. I drag it into the light and I want to talk about it,” Markley said. “I will listen and respect what they have to say. I feel that that is very lacking in our current administration. There is no trust, there is no respect. We’ve had these employee survey results for a few months now and council is still waiting to see what is going to be done about these results. We cannot just ignore them and pretend that everything is fine over there when it’s not.”
Kuhn said turnover occurs in most city governments.
“Most cities do have turnover. We also have a crisis going on,” Kuhn said. “I don’t feel I’ve shaken things up. One of the first things I did is I merged two departments: the planning department and the building department. That I feel was a good change.”
Kuhn also said his focus is not on re-election but the “city’s immediate concerns.”
“I’m actually concentrating on the city’s issues right now,” Kuhn said. “I would hope to share my thoughts in the upcoming months. Presently, I’m working on the crisis we have at hand.”
Kuhn said that focus is “more important than something in three months” and that his priority is reopening city hall to begin assisting businesses similarly reopen.
“To emerge from the crisis where our staff can come back to work, where we can support our community with the events and support our businesses and citizens,” Kuhn said. “A lot of what I do at city hall is to watch what our citizens are taxed and make sure that we are supporting the people that are actually paying our bills, which are the taxpayers. That’s something that has to be constantly watched, whether it’s staff, if it’s capital projects, if it’s services.”
Support for tourism
For her part, Markley said the city needs to help businesses recover from the impacts of the pandemic. She pointed to solutions like greater access to tourism grants.
“I would definitely support tourism grants. We’ve had some really great ideas coming out of the tourism department,” Markley said. “I really want to figure out ways to boost our farmer’s market, have our art festival come back, the Maritime Parade, how can we begin safely bringing back these community events.”
Markley also said that supporting events and programming that helps local businesses in times of need are a priority.
“I don’t want to see another small business close; it breaks my heart every single time I get another email that says that we are losing another business,” Markley said. “Fortunately, we haven’t lost very many through covid but the ones that we have lost, it’s so sad. Anything we can do to build up our local businesses, our small businesses, any support that we can provide for them policy-wise.”
CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that Tracie Markley was a member of the ad-hoc City Council committee that pushed for an employee survey. She was an original member of the committee, but later resigned from it and was replaced by Council Member Robyn Denson.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
