Two candidates are vying for an open seat on the Seaside City Council.
City Councilor David Posalski resigned in November because he was moving outside of city limits and would no longer be eligible to serve on the council representing Ward 4. His resignation was effective Dec.20.
At a candidates forum Wednesday night, Padraic Ansbro and Brandon Kraft both touted their past and current work experience and connections with the Seaside community as reasons why they should be appointed to the Ward 4 seat.
Kraft oversees four coastal hotels as a regional manager for Lincoln Asset Management. He is serving his second term on the Seaside Planning Commission and said he has come to see cities as a sort of larger version of the hotels he manages.
“The building is the city limits,” he said. “Each room is a resident or a business.”
There is necessary infrastructure, the need to keep the hotel — or city, in the analogy — attractive in a variety of ways to residents and visitors.
“It’s also listening to the resident or guest complaints and being able to mitigate [issues], solve them … and, a majority of the time, it’s just to make sure that you sit there, you listen,” Kraft added. “You want to let them feel that they’ve been heard. That you actually do hear them.”
Ansbro serves on the commission for the Bob Chisholm Community Center. He is a U.S. Navy veteran and is a hypnotherapist and reiki practitioner. Among his concerns if appointed he listed livability and housing availability, emergency and tsunami preparedness, infrastructure needs and tourism that “supports the community without overwhelming it.”
“What I’ve learned is that consensus starts with listening, not persuading,” he said. “I focus on slowing the conversation down, clarifying the actual problem and identifying what our shared goals are. Once people feel heard, it becomes much easier to move from positions to solutions.”
The Seaside City Council plans to interview both men at a meeting on Monday and will select a new Ward 4 representative then. Whichever man is appointed will serve through the end of 2026. In November, the Ward 4 seat will be up for election and any qualified candidate will be able to run for a regular four year term that would begin in 2027.