Claude DaCorsi will not seek a third term on the Auburn City Council.
Two terms will do, Auburn’s deputy mayor told the Auburn Reporter on May 13, adding that the time has come to make room for the “next generation” on the city council.
Overall, DaCorsi said, he has accomplished “most of what I set out to do.”
“Most,” of course, doesn’t mean he won’t leave behind unfinished business.
He gives the council on which he has served high marks for policy making, and is confident that in that respect, it’s in a good place. It is no secret that over the next 10 years, the succeeding councils will be up against gale force winds in terms of the city budget.
In 2020, after the Berk Consulting Agency of Seattle studied the city’s general fund finances, it forecast that over the next decade, a gap would open between the revenue the city takes in and what it spends. That gap, the study concluded, would widen year by year, until by the end of the decade, it would reach a crippling $10 million unless the city acts.
In its most public act related to solving that problem since receiving that grim news, on May 17, the council voted 5-2 for the city’s first ever Business and Occupation Tax.
DaCorsi and Yolanda Trout-Manuel were the lone no votes.
“I have told council members they really need to be extremely focused on the budget, and on making sure they are doing what needs to be done to move the city forward, budget-wise,” DaCorsi said, adding that it will need to focus in great detail in the upcoming years on the revenues and expenditures of the city.
“Council members just coming in will need to dig in right away to understand all of the vital information related to the city budget,” DaCorsi said.
DaCorsi cited other reasons for his decision not to run again, including personal health setbacks that have cropped up in recent years, the need to spend more time at home to help his wife, Mary, who has her own health issues, and a desire to help his daughter with her business in Auburn in whatever ways he can.
Though he’s “moving aside,” DaCorsi said, he’s going to stay right here in Auburn.
And don’t expect him to suddenly go silent about the issues that matter most to him.
“The state Legislature is still going to hear from me,” DaCorsi chuckled.
“Hear from me” applies especially to the dearth of affordable housing in King County. Although DaCorsi retired six years ago from nearly three decades at the King County Housing Authority, the problem is never far from his mind and his heart.
DaCorsi serves on the King County Affordable Housing Committee, the Puget Sound Regional Council Growth Management Policy Board, and the National League of Cities Community and Economic Development Committee. He also served a four-year term on the governor’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board.
“I am still going to watch those meetings,” DaCorsi said, adding that he also intends to keep working closely with his former boss at the KCHA. He even hopes to do consulting on affordable housing.
Though only a few people knew of DaCorsi’s intention not to run again, word appears to have slipped out.
As of late May 13, two Auburn residents had already filed the necessary paperwork with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission to run for council Position 2: LaShund M. Lambert and Kent Sprague, though Sprague later informed the Auburn Reporter that he had decided not to run after all.
“I plan to endorse Pastor Lambert,” DaCorsi said. “I know he is a good fit for the city council, has compassion for the city and for its people, and if he is elected, I know he will do well.”
DaCorsi said he has no plans to seek higher office.
DaCorsi has lived in Auburn for 14 years. He and Mary have three grown children, 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
