Kwarsick will keep Coupeville job if elected Langley mayor

The sole candidate in the race for Langley mayor said he will keep his day job if he is elected to the top post at city hall.

Larry Kwarsick is a part-time planner for the town of Coupeville, and also the planning director for Langley.

While he earlier promised to give up his consultant job with Langley if he’s elected mayor in November, Kwarsick said last week he would continue working for Coupeville.

Kwarsick said the Coupeville mayor and the town council approve of his plan to keep working as a planner for Coupeville, a job he’s had since 2003.

“They are very supportive,” he said.

Kwarsick also owns his own land-use consulting business, Sound Planning Services.

Kwarsick, 63, has said he will serve as a part-time mayor. He again stressed he would work energetically as Langley’s elected mayor, but would not expect the city to pay him a full-time salary.

“I’m going to be a part-time mayor and I’m going to provide a full-time effort,” he said.

“I have no intention of burdening the community with the salary of a full-time mayor or the benefits of a full-time mayor,” Kwarsick said.

The issue of the mayor’s pay has blossomed as a campaign topic in August’s Primary Election. Langley voters will decide if they want to keep the current set-up of governance, where citizens vote directly for a mayor, or instead adopt the council-manager form of government, where a professional manager would run city hall and the council would pick one of its own as a ceremonial figurehead for the city.

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