Candidates competing for the Seaside City Council in the November election are focusing on housing and homelessness, tourism and infrastructure.

Two incumbents — City Councilor Randy Frank and City Councilor David Posalski — are seeking reelection, while an open seat is available after City Councilor Tom Horning chose not to seek another term. Mark Hopman, who manages a hotel, and Seamus McVey, an advocate for the homeless, are the contenders to succeed Horning.

Ward 1 and Ward 2

Frank will face Heidi Hoffman, a former police officer, in at large Ward 1 and Ward 2.

Frank, who was first elected to the City Council in 2012, is a former business owner. As someone who grew up locally, he said he knows the city well and has watched it transform from being largely dependent on logging and fishing to a tourism-driven economy.

He seeks to balance the importance of tourism with the well-being of residents and businesses.

“Council has to take a look at the overall picture because, and this is true of any city, we don’t have the money to go and fix every single issue we see. But we have to prioritize and decide how to attack what — and if we can do a little bit here and some there,” he said. “And what’s more important, I think people need to understand the balance of how we operate.”

Frank said it is important for city councilors to have a broad view and understanding of the city and how local government operates. He also said councilors need to be accessible and in communication with their constituents.

“A lot of feedback comes off the streets, word of mouth, or running into somebody at the post office or around town,” he said. “Some of that comes through what we’re doing, and also through social media, just people’s input … This isn’t a paid position, so we volunteer, basically, to represent the best interest of the goodwill of the people.”

Hoffman, a former lieutenant with the Lakewood Police Department in Washington state, is a pottery maker and pet sitter. She moved to Seaside in 2016 after four years of living in the city part time.

Hoffman cites the housing crisis as her top priority, and hopes to bring a perspective of empathy.

While she values the city’s efforts to curb homelessness, most recently with the Esperanza Village micro-shelter, she notes that space in these facilities is limited and she worries about houseless people not having access to showers, laundry and food.

“For me, it’s just an act of empathy,” she said. “You should take care of everybody, or do your best to take care of everybody and get them hooked up with the resources that they need.”

Hoffman also wants to focus on infrastructure, especially making sure that the city’s bridges are able to evacuate people in a tsunami. She wants to have conversations about tourism and hear from residents about their perspectives on events such as the Hood to Coast Relay and fireworks.

“I think these things all just need to be discussed, and from all points of view, not just the people that are making money off the tourists,” she said.

Hoffman said many of the people she’s talked to believe the City Council is not responsive to everyday concerns.

“They think it represents a few very well-to-do business owners and the regular Joes don’t get heard,” she said. “I don’t own a business here. I don’t own a vacation rental. I don’t have a financial dog in the fight. So yeah, I’m just the kind who will stand up and say, ‘I disagree, and let’s have a conversation about it,’ instead of just letting things get kicked down the road.”

Ward 4

In Ward 4, Posalski is facing Meagan Hughes, a real estate broker.

Posalski, who owns Tsunami Sandwich Co., was elected to the City Council in 2020. He spent six years on the Seaside Chamber of Commerce board before serving on the Planning Commission.

“I am running this term to help finish more of the great work that has been started,” he told The Astorian in an email. “The council has accomplished many things this term including adding ambulance service, buying the Estuary Park property, beginning planning for the North 40 park, established a homeless camping area outside of residential zones, and improved roadways and fish passage in streams and seismic retrofitting of fire and police facilities.

“In the works, we have housing projects, clean water plans, additional street projects, and updates to the homeless camping arrangement. I hope to keep our momentum of completion of council goals functioning well.”

Hughes has lived on the North Coast for the past 15 years. In addition to real estate, she owns a small bakery called Rainy Day Boards and Bakery.

“My clients predominantly are full-time Seaside residents or North Coast residents, part of our working force, people looking for affordable housing,” she said. “So I do feel like I’ve got a pretty good intimate knowledge of how our housing works in our community and what our housing needs are, what people are looking for that they can’t find.

“Affordable housing is a huge issue to me, because I think it affects us in many different ways. It affects our ability to have a workforce, to run a business. It affects our ability to have access to medical care and child care and all of the services that a functioning, healthy community needs.”

Hughes views access to child care as another important issue. She also hopes to prioritize support for the homeless population, and wants to see more long-term plans on how to transition houseless individuals into permanent housing.

As a member of the Library Board, Hughes became more invested in local government over the past year when library issues began to frequently appear before the City Council.

She said she started to notice that many of the same people were bringing the same issues to the City Council meeting after meeting, and she didn’t see much action in response.

“The very top priority for me is having a responsible government, having a government that listens to the needs of its citizens and can take that and turn it into action,” Hughes said.

Ward 3

In Ward 3, Hopman and McVey are vying to replace Horning.

Hopman is the general manager of Best Western’s Ocean View Resort. After visiting Seaside his whole life, Hopman permanently relocated to the city in 2004.

“You can sit on the sidelines and criticize and critique,” said Hopman, who has served as the vice chairman of the Seaside Chamber of Commerce. “Or you can get in and make positive changes and do something for your community … I’ve either visited or lived here my entire life, and so I wanted to help guide Seaside into the future through sustainable development.”

Hopman said he’s focusing on homelessness, the lack of affordable housing and infrastructure, particularly the city’s aging sewer and water treatment plant.

As a hospitality leader, Hopman values tourism, but said the tourism industry and the needs of residents and workers are not mutually exclusive.

“We need our guests to come in and recreate in our town,” he said. “And in order to do that, we need to have employees in all our different establishments to service those guests.

“I offer leadership and listening, but my ward, the ward I’m running for, is Ward 3. There’s five wards, and they all have to work together to get things accomplished, and I believe that I can work with the other wards in order to accomplish the things that need to be accomplished.”

McVey, an independent contractor for Clatsop Community Action, began his own mental health and recovery program in Seaside in 2018.

He lost a campaign for at large Ward 3 and Ward 4 to City Councilor Seth Morrisey in 2022.

McVey collaborates with Clatsop Community Action to provide services at the Columbia Inn shelter in Astoria and will participate as on-site staff at the new Esperanza Village micro-shelter.

“For far too long, housing — homelessness in particular — has not been addressed at nearly the level it should be,” he said. “If we know that the county itself and Seaside in particular are so far behind what’s needed, we really should be doing more to push for that.”

McVey wants the city and Clatsop County to take an active role in encouraging developers to provide affordable and workforce housing and move away from developing more expensive apartments that are often less financially feasible for workers in Seaside.

“My campaign is for the people of Seaside,” he said. “It’s to be able to serve my ward in the way that’s going to actually represent them. I feel like we have a lot of the people who are representing the hotels and are representing the businesses and tourism, and I want to represent the people who are making those things possible.

“The hotels, the shops, the restaurants aren’t going to continue to function if we don’t have people there to run them. And when I’m out talking to people and I hear, ‘I may have to close my restaurant because we can’t afford to keep staff, because I can’t afford to live here,’ that’s a big problem to me.”