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★★★★★
Cerina Murphy, State Committeewoman
If you didn't make it to our August 25th Movie Night - The House, you can view the trailer on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/wqbPZPPJQVE?si=aR1y7Wx1pBpuErt
I need news stories centered on criminals being released early to blast out on social media. Or any cases that show what the legislation that passed is actually doing in our community. I'm hoping to get organic conversations started online about criminal reform before we announce the movie showing. Please send me anything you come across!
I have Leadership Institute Class recordings if anyone would like to watch them.
- Conservative Podcasting
- Social Media Marketing
If there are any candidates who need help with social media, please reach out to me and I will help you with your online presence for your campaign. If any volunteers would like the trainings to be able to help our candidates, let me know and I will get you access to them.
The next State Committee Meeting is in September just before the Republican Action Conference. WAGOP recently said, “We're excited to announce that Dan Quiggle will be our keynote speaker for the dinner on Saturday!” Sign up if you are able and book your room! It will be held on September 5-7 at the Yakima Convention & Event Center. You can learn more and register online at https://wagop.org/wagop-action-conference-2025.
★★★★★
Alice Tawresey, Bainbridge Island
Primary Election, August 5: There were two items on the primary ballot: the library levy and the South Ward Bainbridge City Councilmember race. As of Saturday, August 1, there are 6977 registered voters in District 3, and of those, 21% or 1465 have voted. There are 200,169 voters are eligible to vote in the library levy election. And, so far, 18.9% have voted. So, the Bainbridge turnout is predictably the highest.
None of the 3 candidates for city council demonstrate conservative or Republican ideas. The primary controversy is whether to allocate all of the Growth Management Act-mandated growth into the Ferry Terminal and High School Road districts.
City-owned low-income housing construction project
The public has begun to react to the planned 95-unit low-income rental housing that the city plans to build on the old City Hall (Police Station) site. Comments about the density of the building, its bulk, and the likelihood that residents living there will be commuters to Seattle rather than on-island workers. A further area of controversy is that there will be parking for only 50% of the total number of rental units. The theory is that residents will be able to walk to work, shopping, restaurants, schools, etc. However, many of those businesses and services are at least one mile away and do not necessarily lend themselves to public transportation. How do you do a week’s worth of shopping on the bus? Or pick up the kids at daycare and stop by the grocery store for a gallon of milk and fresh vegetables?
Tell the city council members that this building is not in the right place. It should be on vacant property at Winslow Way West; it should require 1 parking space for each living unit; preference should be given to people working on Bainbridge. Here are the emails for the city council members:
bfantroy-johnson@bainbridgewa.gov
khytopoulos@bainbridgewa.gov
amathews@bainbridgewa.gov
jquitslund@bainbridgewa.gov
lschneider@bainbridgewa.gov
cmoriwaki@bainbridgewa.gov
jdeets@bainbridgewa.gov
bking@bainbridgewa.gov (City Manager, Blair King)
Taxes are going up from multiple governmental agencies
There’s much discussion about affordable housing on Bainbridge Island. And yet, multiple agencies are increasing property taxes. There is a direct relationship between rental rates and sale prices of homes and the property taxes that are payable to the City of Bainbridge Island, the Bainbridge Island School District, the Bainbridge Metropolitan Park District, the Bainbridge Fire District, and the Kitsap Regional Library District.
The Washington State Legislature passed a law allowing these taxing districts to collect more from their regular property tax levy, going from 1% increase to 3% increase. If that was not enough, several of these governmental agencies are asking the voters to approve excess or supplemental levies. For example, the Kitsap Regional Library is asking for a levy rate increase of 44%, going from $.27 to $.39 per thousand dollars of assessed value. The School District plans to ask for an additional $1.9 M on the November ballot, and the Bainbridge Regional Park District is asking to raise an additional $519.675 on the November ballot as well. A little bit here, a little bit there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money!
★★★★★
Christie Schultz, Bremerton
I am very sad to report Bremerton SD lost a music teacher due to drowning near Whidbey Island! He taught at Crownhill Elementary and Mountain View Middle School. He drowned while on his boat near Whidbey Island. These things happen. If you are a parent of a child at those schools, let them know and be gentle with them. Send prayers and best wishes to the families. Contact Bremerton SD if you have further questions.
July 2: Bremerton City Council
There has been an extension on the contract with Cascade Natural Gas for the city, for one year. A lot of people got up to speak regarding the homeless situation, and some were angry that the city has prohibited camping in the streets. People dying in the streets were mentioned as per homelessness problem.
July 9: Bremerton City Council
They discussed FIFA plans for incoming tourists. A "playbook" would be coming out in August or in the fall. Mentioned: Accessing a data-base for Rentalscape System which would make it easy to access local Bed and Breakfasts, and homes for rental. We will have a lot of people wanting to hang here in Bremerton, just a short ferry ride away. This explains the flurry of "civic beautification" going on downtown Bremerton.
As per Google AI: Bremerton has been selected as an official FIFA World Cup 2026 fan zone, meaning it will be a hub for World Cup activities and celebrations …. Bremerton will be one of nine locations in Washington designated as a fan zone for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted in Seattle.
MVMS reports from parents say that the behavior has improved with a new principal at this schools. There will be an Open House on September 2 @ 4 PM at MVMS for parents and incoming 6th grade orientation. 8th grade is now offers French I.
July 10: Bremerton School Board Meeting
Move in has begun to the new Arman Jahr site (trailers) next to the Viewridge site. It was mention that it might take over a year to upgrade BHS electrical system; the two new elementary school electrical systems will be done simultaneously. Budgets were discussed for ALL three of these sites. Materials have to be ordered ahead to be there and fit the construction timelines.
July 15: Town Hall with Anna Mockler (City Council, Anna.Mockler@bremertonwa.gov)
The "Homeless Industrial Complex" was made clearer by listening to what these four people had to say, this was just for Bremerton, not including Kitsap Housing Authority. More about this town hall may be read in the full report upon request. It was very informative. Federal, city and state funding is all involved. www.kcr.org is the website for homelessness issues, and the director is Tony Ives (aives@kcr.org).
Ms. Mockler will have another Town Hall on September 8 regarding consolidation of environmental groups in Kitsap.
Candidates for Mayor
Mayor Wheeler (incumbent) has done a great job spending money on beautification of downtown Bremerton, but we still don't have a functional triage/emergency shelter for street campers. Marwan Cameron runs a podcast "The Conduit" and seems well spoken and intelligent, look for it on YouTube; however his reputation is not a good one. Jeff Coughlin is an astrophysicist and former director of SETI and the Kepler missions. (Wow, how did he wind up in Bremerton???)
Bremerton School Board is taking time off until September 7, 2025.
Bremerton School Board meetings may be followed at the following link:
https://bremertonschools.diligent.community/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Id=561
July 16: Bremerton City Council Meeting
Mayor Wheeler made his usual glowing report of the ongoing construction and beautification of Bremerton. "Vegetable soup" anacronyms were reeled off as needing 3 million plus in the budget report, again there is no way for a lay person to follow this.
Public comment was allowed. Sadly this portion of meetings has begun to resemble a circus side show, screamers and chronic complainers. Central theme is "dignity for the Homeless on the streets" These advocates were not in evidence at Ms. Mockler's town hall on July 14.
Ms. Mockler gave a report on Wright Creek wetlands. Drill teams for girls mentioned as extracurricular for next year. Much commentary from members about gay pride, which concerns 10% of our population.
July 23: Bremerton City Council Work Session
There was considerable discussion of various entities (NGOs and non profits) who work with the city in homelessness/recovery. Given statistics on “who is served” and with only 5 put into shelter in the month of July, it’s probable there are more people working for recovery NGOs than there are homeless addicts in the City of Bremerton.
There was a lot of data in this session video concerning our homelessness issues in Bremerton, and it is all in the video of this evening’s session. They seem to be trying to get data (4 CYA!) in light of the recent Exec Order on resolving street camping.
Kitsap County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan and Hazards was presented and discussed, it has considerable data in it regarding downtown Port Orchard and Enetai, and geotech (references for development, land prone to liquification or landslide in quakes, etc) This plan was passed in the next session (Aug 6).
In Bremerton, 6th Street is still torn up, and all citizens are urged to find another route. We hope that in the rebuild, they are considering a bike lane. Be aware that for the next year, the City of Bremerton will be focused on "beautifying downtown" with the FIFA cup coming to Seattle. Your tax dollars hard at work.
★★★★★
Rosemary Schuessler, Central Kitsap
SPOTLIGHT: Kitchen Table Advocacy – How to Influence the Legislature Without Leaving Home by Nancy Churchhill: https://substack.com/home/post/p-169613953
Central Kitsap Community Council:
Central Kitsap School Board Meetings
July 20, 2025 (Regular Meeting):
Agenda:
Home Schooling
Local links:
PCO & Volunteers Opportunities:
- If you would like to help with phone calling and/or in person canvassing in my precinct 151 or any open precincts in Kitsap County, please contact me. Additional information is available at: https://www.kitsaprepublicans.com/pcos
- Volunteer positions available for the Website & Social Media Committee. Please contact me.
★★★★★
Linda Popp, North Kitsap
Kitsap County Auditor/Elections
I attended a Hash Test Audit, and a Logic & Accuracy Audit put on by the Auditor’s Office.
Each election the computers that tabulate ballots or serve as Accessible Voting Units are tested to ensure that nothing in the program has changed since its last use. This is called a "Hash Test." The results are online if you’re interested.
With the Logic & Accuracy audit, the tabulation system is tested for accuracy. Using vote totals provided by the Washington Secretary of State's Office, ballots are marked, scanned, and then tabulated. Those totals are compared to the votes dictated by the Secretary of State's Office to make sure the tabulation system is counting ballots accurately. There is no internet access to the tabulation system. A certificate verifying the tabulation system's accuracy is signed by elections officials and witnesses—which I had to sign. The SOS had to be there because of the Special Senate Election on the ballot.
If you want to see what is going on during ballot processing, you can view the link to their live Ballot Processing webcams here: https://www.kitsap.gov/auditor/Pages/webcam.aspx
Capital Tour
On July 16th I was thrilled to go on a tour of our State Capital with Michelle Caldier, and Bethany Gray, Marty Mioni, and Faye Henden. It was a great tour—we got to go places that the general public doesn’t get to go—it was really interesting. We won this opportunity as it was one of the auction items at our Lincoln Day Dinner. All four of us chipped in together, ahead of time, and was able to win this item. Stay on the lookout for other wonderful experiences like this for next year as well!
Garage Sale Fundraiser
Two weekends in July the 23LD & KCRP had a garage sale at Patty Schlack’s home. So many donations, we had such a great turnout! Irene Randall was the chair of this event, and I’m told by everyone that she was like an Energizer bunny, constantly working! I worked a few days during the sale, and it was really great—with lots of energy and comradery happening! A very fun event, that we just happened to make a lot of money on! Thank you Irene and Patty! They pulled in over $2,100 to split between the 23rd and KCRP! What an amazing effort!
Candidate Support
July 22nd I met with Tim Rovik, who’s running for NKSD School Board Director. Scott Henden, and Tim’s wife, Paula were also there. There was a lot of brainstorming for things for him to do for his campaign.
During the PCO Meet & Greet we did a LOT of red-dialer calls on behalf of the Michelle Caldier Campaign. It’s really easy, if you haven’t done this before, please connect with Genevieve and she’ll get you hooked up for when they’ll be doing it again for the General Election.
NKSD Board Meeting
(They’re on summer schedule and basically have one meeting a month right now.)
A Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) has been developed between Eastern Washington
University (hereinafter “EWU”) North Kitsap School District (hereinafter "School District") to govern our relationship in administering the College in the High School Program for the 2025-2026 academic year. It is intended to establish operational rules for enrollment in courses offered at high school sites and to define the conditions under which School District students (“Student’ or “Students”) may enroll in EWU courses.
Courses include: American History, Spanish II, French III, English 101, Spanish 103, English 201, English 170, World History, & General Psychology. There is no fee for a public high school student to enroll in or register for a EWUHS course. EWU will maintain course enrollment records for state funding to cover the costs of public high school students enrollment in EWUHS courses.
NKSD BOARD RESOLUTION NO. 07-01-25
WHEREAS, the North Kitsap School District Board of Directors is committed to providing the public full access to records concerning the administration and operations of the District in compliance with the Washington Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW; and
WHEREAS, the Board recognizes that the District continuously generates a tremendous volume and diversity of records; and
WHEREAS, the District is composed of numerous departments and schools, many of which maintain separate or multiple databases or systems for retaining and records; and
WHEREAS, attempting to maintain a current index of all the District’s records would take an inordinate amount of time better spent performing other District functions, including but not limited to serving students and fulfilling public disclosure obligations, and maintaining an index would thus be impracticable, unduly burdensome, and ultimately interfere with the operational work of the district; and
WHEREAS, this Resolution supplements Resolution No. 06-01-015.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that consistent with RCW 42.56.070(4) and for the reasons described herein, the North Kitsap School District will not maintain a current index of all the Districts records and that a copy of this resolution will be made available upon request.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that execution of this Resolution is conclusive evidence of the Board’s approval of this action and of the authority granted herein. The Board warrants that it has, and at the time of this action had, full power and lawful authority to adopt this instrument.
ADOPTED by the Board of Directors of North Kitsap School District No. 400, Kitsap County, State of Washington, at an open public meeting held on the 31st Day of July 2025.
APPROVED: North Kitsap School District No. 400 Board of Directors
NKSD Budget Highlights
Olympic College Running Start Purchase Order 2025 - 2026
- Goal: Success for all Students
- Budget Implication: $1,850,000.00
Kingston High School Potable Water Line
- Goal(s): Empowering Infrastructure
- Budget Implication: $82,678.10 - Capital Projects Levy Fund
Summary: This project will provide potable water to the baseball and softball fields at KHS. Included in the project will be a drinking fountain with a hose bib located adjacent to the concession stand, and a hydrant style hose bib at each field. This project will also include the installation of permanent power to the concession stand that serves the two ballfields, eliminating the need to use a portable generator.
This project will be funded by proceeds from the voter-approved 2024 Capital Levy and supports the community desire for equitable access to facilities and programs across the school district.
Construction Management Advisory Services for the 2024 Levy District-Wide Safety, Security and Equity Improvements Project (Project)
- Budget Implication: $207,352.00 - Capital Projects 2024 Levy Fund
Summary: OAC was selected through a competitive RFP process from a pool of four qualified construction management firms. Their role will be to provide part-time, advisory-level support to the District’s in-house Capital Projects team throughout both the pre-construction and construction phases of the project. OAC’s involvement will be consultative only, with the District maintaining primary responsibility for managing the design and construction teams. This project is funded by the voter-approved 2024 Capital Levy, passed in November 2024, reflecting the community’s commitment to ensuring safe, secure, and equitable access to school district facilities and programs.
Delivery of the 2024 Levy District-Wide Safety, Security and Equity Improvements Project (Project)
- Budget Implication: $321,699 - Capital Projects 2024 Levy Fund
The project will be carried out at Suquamish ES, Hilder Pearson ES, David Wolfle ES, Richard Gordon ES, Vinland ES, Poulsbo ES, Poulsbo MS, Kingston MS, Kingston HS, and North Kitsap HS. The project will include the addition of secure entry vestibules, site circulation improvements to support better site safety and accessibility improvements, a minor addition and light TI to support equitable facilities programming, and associated system improvements.
July 16, 2025 Poulsbo City Council Meeting (provided by Barry Taft—thank you Barry!)
Public Comments:
- Comment requesting de-escalation workshops for police, likely due to the shooting this summer.
- Parking tickets or threats of parking tickets for people parking under city hall. An individual parked in city hall parking lots and he was complaining there weren’t any sign’s or notifications stating they couldn’t park there.
- Request that a law be passed to prohibit officers from wearing masks. (Is this an effort to dox our police?)
- State has authorized cities to set their own speed limits. (Look for Front Street and a few others to drop to 10MPH.)
MLS Enterprise LLC. requests night work approval for aerial fiber optic cable installation along the west side of Front St. Approximately 1400' in total will be installed. Front St. and the affected intersections (Sunset St. NW & Jensen Way) receive large volumes of traffic during peak commuting hours. This work would create significant delays to the public if performed during the day. This work is estimated to take two working days by the contractor. Move to approve night work request by the contractor.
Fireworks Advisory Committee Appointments: Ballot measure that will make it illegal for fireworks to be sold, used or held in Poulsbo. A yes vote would mean no fireworks in Poulsbo, a No vote would mean fireworks as they are now. The Mayor recommends that Council appoint Michael Fitzpatrick to the Fireworks Advisory Committee, to draft an "For" argument and Chris Black to the Fireworks Advisory Committee, to draft an "Against" argument for the upcoming fireworks advisory ballot measure.
Civil Service Commission Appointment: The Mayor recommends that Council appoint Scott Knutsen to the Civil Service Commission, for a term ending on December 31, 2030.
ADU Impact Fee and GFC Discount with Resolution No. 2025-07 and Ordinance No. 2025-12. Requested to discount ADU and FGC fees, 07 and 12 voted on and approved. In response to the recently adopted ADU code changes as required by the legislature, Engineering staff is presenting recommended updates to Engineering, Public Works and Building Department permit processing fees, general facility charges and impact fee charges for ADUs. The amended fee sheet and adopting resolution for Engineering fees and the enacting ordinance and associated code changes are included for code based fee changes. Takeaways: If the reduction in fees became too great they could raise taxes to cover the shortfall or reinstitute the fees prior to discount.
Downtown Parking Enforcement Contract and Budget Amendment
The City passed a Downtown Parking Resolution on March 19, 2025 to proceed with signage, employee parking and enforcement with paid parking in 2026. The City released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for enforcement services on April 30, 2025 that included light enforcement and robust enforcement with optional management. The RFP was scheduled to close on May 28, 2025 and was extended to June 4, 2025. The City received a total of 3 responses to the RFP. On June 11, 2025, the City Council provided staff with enforcement direction and determined they did want to move forward with 3rd party enforcement this year, rather than hiring city staff to provide enforcement services.
Staff scored the three responders and interviewed two to determine that LAZ was the most qualified based on their customer focus, ambassador style program and ability to evolve the program. In addition to ambassador services, LAZ will provide a Manager, Customer Service/Administrative Support and 1 parking enforcement officer, with a pool of officers in neighboring jurisdictions to use as needed. LAZ will also be assisting with signage and administration of the employee parking program. To continue to move forward with implementation of the parking program as approved by Council, staff is requesting that council approve the budget amendment for the enforcement contract and for the sign installation, maintenance and improvements to the employee parking lots. Staff will provide the final Scope, Contract and Budget Amendment prior to the Council meeting.
The contract is for 3 years, and the budget amendment is only for the remainder of the year costs. The proposal is for the program to evolve based on the needs of the city. VOTED on and accepted.
STEP (Shelter, Transitional, Emergency, and Permanently Supportive) Housing Report and recommendations, ECOnorthwest.
On January 15, 2025, Poulsbo City Council approved the use of $15,000 in local affordable housing tax dollars and $10,000 in Department of Commerce grant dollars to hire a consultant to produce a STEP needs assessment and prioritization plan that (1) assesses the current and future availability of STEP Housing in North Kitsap County including recovery housing (2) calculates the unmet need for STEP Housing in North Kitsap County (3) identifies promising models for addressing unmet needs (4) suggests a prioritization strategy for Councilmembers to help guide funding decisions that includes opportunities to partner with other governments and access County and State funding. ECOnorthwest was selected to create this assessment and plan. Representatives from ECOnorthwest will present to Council, this evening, about their findings and recommendations.
Takeaways: North Kitsap is required to provide more shelter options for emergency shelter, recover housing and permanent supportive housing. North Kitsap is lagging.
Stake holders are Poulsbo, Bainbridge and Silverdale who would create an ILA (inter local agreement) then create and manage a plan to address these requirements. It was suggested that some of the tribes should be involved.
Revised Lease with Gambit Recovery to Operate Nelson House
The City of Poulsbo contracts with Gambit Recovery to operate a recovery residence at the City's Nelson House. The current lease prohibits anyone with a felony conviction from living in the home. Over the last few months, Housing, Health and Human Services Director Hendrickson has recognized a need to house individuals with nonviolent felony convictions that have met their legal obligations and are actively working on recovery through Recovery Center and drug court. This change has been reviewed and approved by legal counsel and Washington Cities Insurance Authority.
The relevant section of the revised lease: "Prior to admitting residents, Tenant shall prepare a resident eligibility policy for the Landlord review and approval. This policy shall include but is not limited to: prohibition against renting to convicted felons unless candidate has met all legal obligations, has been a member of the Recovery Center for at least six months, is a drug court participant, and the conviction does not prohibit contact with vulnerable populations nor was the candidate convicted for a violent felony as defined in RCW 9.94A.030. Prohibition against renting to convicted sex offenders. Prohibition against overnight guests. Preference for Poulsbo residents and/or members of the North Kitsap Recovery Resource Center."
Nordic Cottages Transfer of Funds
Transfer funds general fund to their working fund for $2.5 Mill for Noll road and Nordic and $11 mill for the Perc project. The City intends to combine debt issues including funding debt for the Nordic Cottages. A Reimbursement Resolution Certification has been completed for the project. At this time to address the cash flow it is necessary to transfer funds from the General Fund. This will not be considered an internal fund transfer as it is moving governmental funds for government projects and will remain in the capital fund but can be re-allocated at Councils direction.
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