Seven candidates, including two incumbents, have filed to run for three positions on the Vashon Park District board.

When the week-long filing period closed last Friday, the roster of candidates included current commissioners Scott Harvey and Bill Ameling, who are vying for Position 5 along with Peter Ray. Joe Wald, the current board chair, did not file to run again. In addition to Ray, the islanders who have stepped forward to serve the district for the first time are Rick Skillman, Karen Gardner, Bob McMahon and Joshua Weil.

Skillman and Gardner are running for Position 1, the seat Ameling currently holds.

Rick Skillman is a retired hospital CEO who said he filed for that position specifically to challenge Ameling.

“I think he has contributed a great deal, and I think it is time to have someone else there,” he said last week before Ameling filed for a different position.

Skillman stepped up, he said, because of problems at the district, noting that he did not want to place blame, but to acknowledge issues and move ahead.

“We have lost public trust in the park board and its ability to manage resources,” he said.

Speaking to his ability to oversee a budget, Skillman said he has an MBA in finance and that his last CEO assignments were at hospitals that were struggling financially that he was able to help turn around.

Beyond being good with numbers, Skillman said he has good external and internal communication skills.

Skillman, who filed early in the week, has lived on the island for 20 years and noted that politics can be messy at the local level.

“We have room for a lot of different opinions. The idea is to respect those opinions,” he said.

Like Skillman, Karen Gardner was one of the first islanders to file last week for the November election.

“I love the parks on Vashon and care deeply about Vashon’s future,” she said.

Gardner has lived on Vashon for three years and has had property on the island for five. While she has not been politically involved on Vashon until now, she said the concerns for the district are well known and she believes she could be helpful.

Gardner is a retired computer scientist. After she retired, she said, she was free to follow her passion, returned to school and earned a degree in horticulture. Currently, she is finishing up further education on soil science and is conducting a bioremediation project in a forest at the south end of the island, using microorganisms in an effort to sequester arsenic in the soil.

“I have a deeply embedded love of plants and growing things and the environment,” she said.

Position 3, to be vacated by Joe Wald, also has two candidates, Weil and McMahon.

Joshua Weil, the father of children ages 4 and 10, says the park district is of great value to his family. As a volunteer with Voice of Vashon, he and others have discussed the park district and its challenges, he said.

“Vashon deserves an amazing park district,” he added. “We need to change where it is currently and move it in the right direction.”

Weil filed on Thursday, before three of the candidates had entered the contest. He noted that many people had criticized the district, but at that time only two people had filed.

“I think people need to step forward and put themselves into the mix,” he said. “I am going to be part of the process of making this better.”

Weil has lived on the island for five years, but before that worked overseas for 15 years on conservation, humanitarian and development issues in the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia. Currently, he works for Conservation International, a global conservation organization, where he oversees risk management and its compliance portfolio.

In the course of his work, he said he has overseen multi-million dollar budgets and ensured that work was conducted in a transparent and ethical way.

His work in the former Soviet Union focused on civil society issues, aiming to give citizens a voice and influence.

Looking ahead to the park district election, he said he hoped many people would sign on to run.

“The more the candidates the better,” he said.

Bob McMahon has lived on Vashon since 1986 and is retired from a 40-year career in shipyard management, where he oversaw projects, personnel, procurement and budgeting and had hundreds of people reporting to him.

While he and his wife enjoy many of the islands parks, he said, last summer they both became active in the Friends of the Vashon Pool, a group working to extend the pool season and eventually cover it for year-round access. This involvement gave him a better understanding of the park district and the task of the commissioners.

“It would be fun and exciting and interesting to be on the park board and involved in a general way, not just for the pool, but all the parks,” he said. “I think it would be a great challenge.”

He stressed that he would not be a single-interest commissioner, but one who would see to what is best for the island and islanders in general.

“Let’s make it work,” he said.

Peter Ray, who owned a nursery for 24 years and is a videographer, has been attending and recording park district meetings since 2012.

“I have been involved and watching for almost three years now, and having seen the dysfunction of the board, I felt I could contribute,” he said.

Ray, also a member of the Friends of the Pool, said if elected, he would take a broad view.

“I do have a special interest in swimming,” he said, “but (a board member) must be fair to all sports and all activities.”

Currently, one of the problems with the park district is that its mission is not as clear as it should be, he said, and he also believes the board micromanages to a large extent.

“I would just as soon be part of a board that would step back and not be so heavy handed in how things are run there,” he said.

Ray noted that he filed for Position 5, which Harvey currently holds. He filed for that position, he said, not because he was determined to compete against Harvey, but because several people who watch the park district were paying attention to who had filed and wanted to ensure that if Ameling also filed, he would be faced with a primary election.

“It was in our sites that it would be really good for there to be a primary,” he said.

Ameling filed on Friday, switching from Position 1 to 5.

The primary is scheduled for Aug. 4. The top two winners will proceed to the general election, which is slated for Nov. 3.