Pacific voters will decide in the Nov. 5 general election who they want to fill four open City Council positions.

Vying for the No. 4 seat are two first-time public office seekers, Stacy May Knudtson and Gary Nitschke. Incumbent James McMahan is not running for reelection.

Knudtson, 51, a mother of five, earned her place on the ballot with 230 votes, or 36.05 percent of the primary vote. Nitschke, 47, who has lived in Pacific for 12 years, was second in the primary with 229 votes, or 35.89 percent.

Stacy May Knudtson

Even though she had never before run for public office, Knudtson was not deterred from declaring her candidacy.

A frequent, vocal member of the audience at council meetings for the past year, Knudtson – a full-time driver for WorldPac – said she felt compelled to enter the contest once she learned that McMahan would not run again.

“He’s such a good councilman. It’s going to be a real loss to the City,” Knudtson said. “When I found out he wasn’t going to run, I decided at that point to learn what it takes to help out with the City.”

Although a novice to the ways of City government, Knudtson said, she’s ready to learn.

“I really am committed and dedicated,” she said. “I’ve proven that I’m not just going to stand by, I’m going to educate myself and learn. I’m not someone who is going to sit back, I’m going to do something. I don’t just attend the meetings to be a body in the audience, I want to learn and to understand.”

Knudtson – who has earned the endorsements of the King County Democratic party, the 30th District Democrats, the Auburn Chamber of Commerce and the Valley Professional Fire Fighters International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1352 union – said that, if elected, she would like to make her presence felt by improving the quality of life for residents of Pacific.

“I’d like to help with the senior center,” she said. “I know attendance is down 50 percent from last year, and I’ve got all these ideas running around my mind on how to bring seniors back to the center. If I’m elected, one of the committees I’d like to be on is Human Services.

“I’d also like to see more things for our youth to do,” she added. “There are playgrounds for the little kids, but what do we have for teenagers, or 12-year-olds? There are lots of new families moving in, what do we have to offer them? We need stuff here so they don’t have to go to Auburn or Federal Way.”

Most of all, Knudtson said, she hopes to inspire residents to give back to their community.

“I’d like to see more volunteerism throughout the city,” she said. “People can complain about a problem, but if they don’t offer to help, it won’t get fixed. We have to educate ourselves and help.”

Gary Nitschke

For more than two years, Nitschke has been a constant at Pacific City Council meetings and workshops.

“I moved across the street from City Hall, so I started going to meetings,” Nitschke said.

Although several residents have asked him to run for office – including former mayors Cy Sun and Richard Hildreth – he said it wasn’t until this year that he decided to go for it. “I’ve been going to all the meetings, so I have a good understanding of how it works,” he said. “I’ve been consistent about going to the meetings.”

Nitschke, who trained as a musical instrument repair man, is a laborer and a jack-of-all-trades.

His strength, he said, is his ability to swiftly diagnose a problem and educate himself on how to fix it.

“If I need to learn something, I’ll go to a class and learn it,” he said. “As I went to meetings, I noticed they needed grant writers. So last fall I went and took a class on grant writing. And I got my CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) certification just in time for the ice storm.”

Nitschke has volunteered his time to many of Pacific’s events, such as its annual Earth Day clean up.

“It gets me out of the house and into the community,” he said.

Among the several pressing issues facing Pacific, he said, is the state of the city’s roads.

“One of the things we need to work on is the infrastructure,” he said. “We need to get the roads up to par and safe.”

Nitschke said he hopes to win a council seat so he can help guide Pacific residents.

“I like to help people out and get them pointed in the right direction to get the resources they need,” he said.