Gig Harbor should consider dumping strong-mayor system. Voters, you can change it

Changing a city’s form of government should never be done lightly, whether switching from a council-manager to a strong-mayor system or vice versa. Tacoma voters were appropriately cautious in 2015; they rejected a proposal to scrap the council-manager system, created more than 60 years ago.

But if there’s one city in Pierce County where changing the form of government is ripe for consideration, it is Gig Harbor.

And if there’s a perfect moment to talk about change, it is now, as legal settlements and allegations of unprofessional management swirl around Gig Harbor’s strong-willed strong mayor, Kit Kuhn.

The city has come a long way in the last 15 years. The opening of the second Narrows Bridge greatly increased the peninsula’s profile and accessibility. Gig Harbor is the Puget Sound’s second-fastest-growing city by population percentage.

In size and sophistication, the Maritime City has arguably outgrown its strong-mayor system. Each of its West Pierce municipal neighbors — big (Tacoma and Lakewood), medium (University Place) and small (Fircrest) — has city managers running day-to-day operations, accountable to the elected city councils who appoint them.

Adding Gig Harbor to the city manager club deserves to be studied, debated and sent to voters for a final verdict.

The storm of questions surrounding Kuhn, brought to light by Peninsula Gateway Editor Kerry Webster, may help push the idea off the back burner.

The first-term mayor is known around City Hall for loudly castigating employees, bucking his own chain of command and not allowing trained staff to run their own departments, according to a Gateway investigation.

Multiple employee grievances have been filed, and staff turnover is high.The police union accuses Kuhn of running a “totalitarian regime.” At least one discrimination complaint, filed by a former city tourism/marketing director, was quietly settled with a $27,000 payout.

Former staffers are now coming out of the woodwork. “He has created fear in everybody,” former city planner Lindsey Sehmel told The Gateway. “In general, he’s just scary to be around.”

In a 4-3 vote last week, the City Council approved a contract for an outside firm to conduct an employee morale survey — an attempt to expose “all this stuff just festering in the darkness,” as council member Tracie Markley described it.

Kuhn opposes the survey, calling it an “overreach” by the council.

The trouble is, under a strong mayor system, he may be right — another argument for Gig Harbor to explore a council-manager system instead.

Under Washington law, there are two ways to change the form of government in a non-charter code city like Gig Harbor: (1) The City Council passes a resolution. (2) Local citizens submit a petition with signatures equivalent to at least 10 percent of votes cast in the last general election.

Either way, voters would decide the matter in a special election.

Among those who want to pursue a change is City Council member Jeni Woock. She’d like an expert from the non-profit Municipal Research and Services Center to give a public presentation on switching forms of government. That’s an excellent idea.

Ultimately, Woock wants the council to put it on the ballot, perhaps in an election next April. “I would love for citizens to get involved,” she told us, “but I don’t know if anyone will take the lead on that.”

We hope Gig Harbor residents do take the lead, because a citizen-driven campaign will be better received. If the council initiates a change, many will see it as a power grab.

There’s no question that Kuhn has fans; the retired jeweler is hard working, publicly approachable and attentive to customer service. He didn’t defeat a sitting mayor with 71 percent of the vote three years ago by accident.

Kuhn’s boorish management style creates an opening for Gig Harbor to discuss the value of a professionalized system of government. But if the system is changed, it should be done for long-term reasons, regardless of a mayor whose term ends next year.

It’s time for Gig Harbor voters to have that opportunity.

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 2:20 PM.