Gig Harbor Mayor Kit Kuhn says he won’t run for re-election
Editor’s note: This story was embargoed for a Wednesday publication but was inadvertently published online Saturday. Once Gateway journalists recognized this, it was immediately removed. We regret the error.
Mayor Kit Kuhn has announced that he will not be seeking re-election in November.
In a farewell op-ed for The Gateway, Kuhn confirmed his intention not to run.
“A city’s work is never done,” he said. “There is so much to accomplish and we all must contribute to be successful. It will be up to others to move the city forward, as I have decided not to seek reelection for the mayor’s position. I will continue to work diligently as mayor until my term is up in January.”
The sole candidate now seeking the office thus far is current council member Tracie Markley, who announced her plans to run in February.
In an interview, Kuhn said he hopes to make good use of the time he has remaining. “I’ve got eight months left and I care deeply about parks,” Kuhn said. “I want to finish up on the kayak dock and storage shed on Ancich park.”
“There are a lot of things that I still want to accomplish.”
Kuhn was elected as mayor in 2017 when he defeated incumbent Jill Guernsey. Kuhn won by more than 71 percent, or 2,366 votes.
“We had one of the highest voter turnouts in all of Pierce County at over 48 percent,” Kuhn told The Gateway at the time. “I feel the citizens spoke loud and clear with over 71 percent voting for a change in leadership.”
Restricting growth has continued to be a theme of his administration. Recently, he pushed back against a potential airport expansion and the creation of a passenger ferry route. He has been a fierce defender of what he saw as Gig Harbor’s small-town charm.
“Gig Harbor is a unique gem. It has a culture and charm that we all love and hold dear in our hearts,” he said after his election.
Kuhn had previously operated a jewelry store in downtown Gig Harbor, was a board member of the Chamber of Commerce and was the co-founder and president of Peninsula Hands On Art, a Peninsula School District program started 18 years ago that trained 200 docents to provide art education in schools suffering art-education budget cutbacks.
Among his accomplishments, Kuhn lists saving Soundview Forest — now a city park — from being clearcut for development, streamlining the permitting process by merging the Planning and Building departments, and persuading the City Council to change the city code to ban the practice of negotiating density bonuses for developers in exchange for amenities.
Discrimination claim
Kuhn had a rocky relationship with some of the city’s 100-some employees, many of whom complained that he yelled at and browbeat them when he felt stymied.
“He yells. He turns red in the face. He screams,” Lindsey Sehmel, a former city planner, told The Gateway in an interview last year. “In general, he’s just scary to be around.”
In an investigation published last August, The Gateway revealed the city had paid $27,000 to settle a discrimination complaint by the former tourism and marketing director, Karen Scott. Scott said she was bullied and berated by the mayor, as well as being told she should be a “cheerleader” not a player, in a staff softball game.
More than 20 employees, including department heads and longtime supervisors, have quit or retired since Kuhn became mayor in 2017. They included the city’s planning director and her senior planner, the former city engineer, the former operations manager, and last July, the parks manager. Three more city employees gave notice this month.
An employee survey commissioned by the City Council in December was scathing.
“The mayor has micromanaged and belittled his management and frontline staff to the point of destroying, what was once, a pretty healthy working environment,” read one comment. ”Employees are treated as if they are worthless and incompetent.”
The consulting company that conducted the survey of 98 city employees, InsightLink, agreed that “the City of Gig Harbor has a “troubled workplace environment.” It noted that fully a third of the city’s employees were looking for other jobs.
Last week, City Administrator Bob Larson announced a plan to hire an outside consultant to help develop “an action plan to address areas of concern” identified in the employee survey. The proposal, which Kuhn said he supports, was set to be approved at the March 22 council meeting.
The mayor defended himself and said that he did “nothing wrong” in treatment of staff.
Kuhn at the time said that he felt “his manner with employees is fair” believing that he strives “each day to be open, honest, supportive, transparent and let employees do the job we hired them to do.”
In an interview with The Gateway last week, Kuhn said the employee survey and criticism he faced did not influence his decision not to run again.
“No, it did not. Some decisions that you have to make with employees may not be popular as a whole,” Kuhn said. “I am elected by the taxpayers and that is really who I am responsible to the most. …
“It’s normal for cities to have turnover, and I wish The Gateway would focus on some of the good,” he said. “A lot of people leave for other reasons outside of our city. It seems to get lost. Every time an employee leaves, it seems to be blamed on the administrator, when maybe the person had another opportunity that came along.”
Moving on
About moving on with his life, he said, “I’m feeling good. It’s been a challenging four years and it’s time to move forward with my life.”
Kuhn said he doesn’t know if there will be any politics in his future; he wants to take it easy after he leaves office. “I’m just planning on regrouping,” Kuhn said. “Being with my family a little bit more. It will actually be the second time that I’ll have retired.”
One thing he said he won’t miss was running a city during a pandemic.
“You know, Covid didn’t help,” Kuhn said. “It’s very hard to run a city when you’re closed. It’s been hard for every elected official, no matter where you are.”
Kerry Webster contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 6:36 AM.
