LEAVENWORTH — Current Leavenworth Mayor Carl Florea said hopes to remain in his position, leading the Bavarian Village.
Florea filed for the city of Leavenworth mayor’s seat Monday with affordable workforce housing and city street repairs at the top of his mind if re-elected. The pandemic stalled his efforts on priority issues he originally campaigned on in 2019, like affordable workforce housing, Florea said.
“We’re threatened in this community of Leavenworth of the high cost of housing, we’re (workforce) being displaced. We know that the vast majority of our downtown workforce has to commute to come into town,” Florea said. “Community is about diversity, having a full range of income, ages and interacting together.”
Florea moved into the mayor’s seat in 2020 after winning the November 2019 election. After only a few months of handling the reigns of the city, Florea was thrust into navigating the bustling tourism town during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
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“I’ve done it now for four years and I think I did an adequate job facing tough situations, like the pandemic, and dealt with it in a way that kept our citizens and downtown safe,” Florea said. “I was a mayor during a pandemic and got through it with flying colors. Leavenworth hardly skipped a beat with people wanting to come here. Fortunately, we made it through without being a super spreader site.”
The pandemic shaped some of his administrative moves during his time as mayor, including closing downtown Front Street to traffic to avoid visitors crammed on narrow sidewalks and allow for social distancing. The city doled out permits for downtown businesses to use sidewalk and street space to move their patrons outdoors. Although the move initially was met with criticism, it was a “blessing in disguise,” Florea added, and the city has taken action to close Front Street indefinitely after the intended temporary closure received positive feedback from businesses and tourists alike.
A petition circulated during the pandemic in May 2020 to remove Florea from office, citing Florea’s promotion of a political agenda. The petition received roughly 2,180 signatures.
“A lot of the business community thought it was a bad thing to do. By the time the pandemic was to the point we could reopen (Front Street), some of the very people who said it was bad to close it were the first ones who stepped up and said ‘Don’t you dare open it back up, we love it this way,’” Florea said. “It’s a real progressive, a real positive for our downtown and our residents. It gives all of us a better flavor for it (downtown).”
Changes for the Bavarian Village under Florea’s administration weren’t all pandemic-related. The long-time Oktoberfest tradition, circa 1998, in Leavenworth took a new shape, under the city’s leadership, other than the former organizers, Projekt Bayern, with the promise of being family-friendly. The change up led to a lawsuit tug of war over the title of “Leavenworth Oktoberfest” and the two simultaneously hosted Oktoberfests, one in Wenatchee and one in Leavenworth. The goal was to “resize and refocus” Oktoberfest with a “smaller footprint,” Florea said.
“It had grown and gotten so big, creating some problems that needed to be addressed. We wanted more involvement from locals, we wanted it to be family friendly, wanted it to be spread out more,” Florea said. “I know my opponent thinks it was wrong to take it away from Projekt Bayern, but we have to keep growing and learning and reinventing ourselves as we keep going forward.”
Florea is running up against Wenatchee Valley College sociology professor and former Leavenworth city administrator, Richard Brinkman, in the Leavenworth mayor election.
Beyond his resume leading the city over the last four years — Florea points to his drive for being community oriented for why stepping into the mayoral shoes is in his wheelhouse. Florea has been a member of the Cascade School District Board of Directors, Leavenworth Planning Commission and Leavenworth City Council, among other boards.
“That’s what my whole life has been about; working in the community and for the community. My whole life has been about building community, sustaining community,” Florea said.
