POULSBO — Longtime Poulsbo city councilor Ed Stern was recently named vice president for the Association of Washington Cities. The position carries a one-year term, which prepare appointees to serve as the president of the AWC.

“I truly am humbled that the other 281 cities voted to have me become their vice president and in June 2019 to lead the organization for a year. It is very humbling,” Stern said.

When asked if there might be any conflict with his tenure as a councilor, Stern said it was quite the opposite.

“The whole idea of the position is to strengthen all municipal governments in the state of Washington, everything from Omak to Seattle and everything in between, and of course Poulsbo is part of that family.”

Stern said he was looking forward to preparing for his role as AWC president but that he would also continue to serve the city of Poulsbo as well.

Stern said he would “support the city’s agenda that we come up together, in a very democratic fashion among the 281 cities and then represent that to both the Legislature and then the governor’s office.”

He also explained his intent to work toward implementing “two economic development tools: to promote public broadband, which I’ve been doing for over 20 years, but do it for all the cities … [and] to generate legislation that would allow all cities to partner with the private sector to infill in blighted areas.”

Stern regarded his appointment as a continuation of Poulsbo’s history of producing government leaders.

“Poulsbo has traditionally generated a lot of leadership,” Stern said. “Mitch Mitchusson, back in the late 1980s, was president of the Puget Sound Regional Council, which included all four counties and 80 cities in the most populated area in the state of Washington. Sherry Appleton, who was on the city council in the early 90s, is now chair of House Local Government Committee in the Legislature.

“For a little city, Poulsbo has done more than its share of generating real state leadership,” he added.

—Nick Twietmeyer is a reporter with Kitsap News Group. Nick can be reached at ntwietmeyer@soundpublishing.com