Adam Wood

SEASIDE — Candidates vying for the Ward 4 seat on the City Council are focusing on emergency preparedness, housing, transportation and tourism.

David Posalski, Kathy Kleczek and Adam Wood are competing for the vacancy left by City Councilor Seth Morrisey, who did not file for reelection.

Posalski’s priorities are to support emergency responders, ensure transportation safety and reduce the effect of tourism on livability in neighborhoods. He wants to see the S. Holladay Drive corridor revitalized to improve living conditions, provide work and draw people off of U.S. Highway 101.

“My desire is to continue serving our community through the City Council as your commissioner for Ward 4,” Posalski said. “I hope to be an open ear and your voice on the council as I serve our entire community.”

Posalski served six years on the Seaside Chamber of Commerce board and Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission and three years on the Planning Commission.

He moved to Seaside in 2010 and opened Tsunami Sandwich Co.

“The opportunities provided by Seaside have blossomed into five local businesses for us,” Posalski said. His businesses employ over 50 people on the North Coast.

Kleczek’s priorities are disaster readiness and expanding health systems and services.

“It is time to develop disaster readiness plans that become part of the community’s collective conscience and include our Latinx neighbors in the conversation,” she said.

Kleczek is the former chairwoman of the Sunset Empire Transportation District board and the representative for the district on Northwest Transportation Options. She also serves on the Special Districts Association of Oregon’s board.

She established and runs her own business, La Luna Loca, in Cannon Beach, with originally designed, colorful clothing.

“The common thread between the business and the public service is that I could do something that was helping improve life for real people,” Kleczek said. “Being of service and contributing positively is the way I operate. It is what drives me forward. It is the reason behind my running for office as a Seaside city councilor.”

Wood’s priorities are community engagement, long-term housing and emergency preparedness, “to make sure we have plans in place to protect the community from anything from a tsunami to a pandemic or anything else that may arise.”

He said he would seek to find a reasonable capacity on vacation rentals. He wants to work with developers to help them build four- to 12-unit complexes so that people who work in Seaside can afford to live in the community.

A Bandon native, Wood is an assistant golf professional at the Highlands Golf Club in Gearhart.

“I am running so that I can make sure that every voice in the community is heard and listened to, and that we make common-sense decisions for the city now and into the future,” he said.