RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SPECIAL SECTION:
SouthWhidbey 2011 WOMEN IN BUSINESS See page 11-13
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 84 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Two vie for coveted seat on Langley City Council BY BRIAN KELLY
Voters’ forum
South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — Two eager candidates — but somewhat reluctant campaigners — are hoping to win over voters in the race for Position 4 on the Langley City Council. Neither Thomas Gill nor R. Bruce Allen have ever served in elected office before, but both say they would bring a fresh perspective to the city council. For Gill, it’s not for a lack of trying. He ran unsuccessfully for a council seat against Russell Sparkman two years ago, and also twice sought an appointment to the city’s policy-making body without success. “I have great hopes for the future of Langley. I’ve seen what we’ve been, where we’ve made some errors, and where we’re going,” Gill
Brian Kelly / The Record
R. Bruce Allen, candidate for Langley council Position 4. said. Gill, 28, grew up in the village and came home to live here in 2008 after college. He soon became a familiar fixture at city hall — volunteering to help out with the city’s computer network, an effort that now includes getting council meetings online
— and is one of the few Langley citizens who attends nearly every public meeting in town. “I wanted to see what was really going on and make my own informed decisions,” Gill said. That’s a plus that not every candidate running for
Brian Kelly / The Record
Thomas Gill, candidate for Langley council Position 4. the council can point to, he said. “I’m the only one who actually goes to the council meetings. I’m ready to hit the ground running, if elected.” Gill’s persistence as a ready volunteer recently paid off with an appointment to
the city’s Planning Advisory Board. He’s also had an up-close view of things he’d like to see changed; Langley’s historic aversion to development, and the lack of transparency that sometimes afflicts city hall.
There will be a voters’ forum for the upcoming November election later this month in Langley. The forum is planned for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24 at Fellowship Hall at Langley United Methodist Church. Those seeking office will offer a short summary of their views and why voters might want to elect them followed by questions and answers from those in attendance. Voters can ask questions of candidates for the city council, mayor, South Whidbey parks and the Port of South Whidbey board.
SEE COUNCIL, A10
Travel plan for suspected murderer is short on details
The Royal Couple
BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Brian Kelly / The Record
Molly Rawls was crowned South Whidbey Homecoming Queen at halftime of Friday’s game against Cedarcrest. Elementary teacher Debra Davies, who was homecoming queen in 1975, presented the new queen with the honors and flowers. Zach Comfort was proclaimed Homecoming King. For more photos of homecoming, turn to Page A2.
Turns out, the “complete itinerary” is not-so-complete. Accused murderer Peggy Sue Thomas left Whidbey Island on Friday on a six-state road trip to visit family and run some personal errands in her former home states of Nevada and New Mexico before she faces arraignment later this month in Island County Superior Court. A Superior Court judge approved the controversial trip — which has drawn headlines in the Washington Post and the Daily Mail, the second biggestselling daily newspaper in the United Kingdom — for Thomas on Oct. 3 after her attorney said she had pressing matters out of state that couldn’t be handled by anyone else. At the time, Craig Platt, Thomas’ attorney, said the 46-year-old former hairdresser and beauty queen wasn’t a flight risk and he promised to provide a complete itinerary to local law enforcement officials if the court
Peggy Thomas loosened the conditions of her bail and let her leave the state. Eleven days later, just before 5 p.m. on the day Thomas was expected to leave Washington for Idaho, Platt gave Thomas’ one-page itinerary to Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks. What’s noticeable is what’s missing. A copy of the itinerary, obtained under a public records request by the Record, shows the travel plan includes only dates — and not times — of when Thomas will be traveling, contains no details of her airline flight from Spokane to New Mexico, and doesn’t say exactly where Thomas will be staying Oct. 19-20. SEE DETAILS, A28