Nate Nehring (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

Nate Nehring (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

When he’s not legislating, Nate Nehring’s a tireless volunteer

He tutors, volunteers at a summer camp and food bank, and was invited to join the Gospel Mission board.

This is one of 12 finalists for the Herald Business Journal’s Emerging Leaders award, which seeks to highlight and celebrate people who are doing good work in Snohomish County. The winner will be named at an event on April 12.

Name: Nate Nehring

Age: 23

Profession: Snohomish County councilman

After he first joined the Snohomish County Council, Nate Nehring rode along with sheriff’s deputies in his district to look at what were considered nuisance properties.

”You get out of the car and go onto the property and you’d just have trash everywhere,” Nehring said. “You couldn’t see the yard, there was so much trash and feces on the ground with rats and other rodents going onto neighboring properties. It really was causing a nightmare for the rest of the neighborhood.”

Nehring has been in a position as a councilman to help make changes within the county to address the problem. He helped draft a new law that would target nuisance homes along with places where drug use, prostitution and other crimes were occurring.

His efforts as a councilman and also as a volunteer in the community have garnered him a nomination for the Emerging Leader award for 2018.

“He (has) put in countless hours, connected with people throughout the county in both business and residential allowing them to have a voice in government through himself,” wrote the person who nominated Nehring.

As a councilman, Nehring can point to several efforts where he believes he’s made the community better. One is his work on creating a ban on supervised heroin-injection sites. The City of Seattle, King County and King County Health District announced several months ago that it wanted to create a couple of these sites. Nehring took up the charge to prevent the idea from catching on in Snohomish County.

He convinced the council to first pass a moratorium on these sites and eventually an outright ban.

“When the County Council met to consider my ordinance, dozens of citizens testified in support of the moratorium,” Nehring wrote in his nomination form. “There was no one who testified in opposition to the moratorium.”

Outside of his work on the council, Nehring said he tutors students with special needs, volunteers at Providence hospital’s summer camp for children with disabilities and volunteers at the Marysville Community Food Bank. He also is involved with Next Gen Stanwood-Camano and the Friends of Stanwood Parks and Trails group. He said he’s also been asked to join Everett Gospel Mission’s board of directors.

In his time in government, he wrote, “it seems that the norm is to use deception in order to best position oneself for political gain. I am strongly opposed to that concept.”

He points to a recent budget at the County Council where he came out against adding any new taxes in light of higher property taxes due to the McCleary decision and Sound Transit 3. He called it nerve-wracking to call people and tell them he couldn’t support tax increases, but he felt he did it the right way by being honest and upfront.

“People don’t come to you asking to cut things, right?” Nehring said. “People come to you to ask you to fund things. It’s very challenging to tell people no when you have limited amount of resources and a lot of people fighting for a piece of the pie. It it can be very difficult to explain to someone why that’s not your position.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

The livery on a Boeing plane. (Christopher Pike / Bloomberg)
Former Lockheed Martin CFO joins Boeing as top financial officer

Boeing’s Chief Financial Officer is being replaced by a former CFO at… Continue reading

Izaac Escalante-Alvarez unpacks a new milling machine at the new Boeing machinists union’s apprentice training center on Friday, June 6, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Boeing Machinists union training center opens in Everett

The new center aims to give workers an inside track at Boeing jobs.

Some SnoCo stores see shortages after cyberattack on grocery supplier

Some stores, such as Whole Foods and US Foods CHEF’STORE, informed customers that some items may be temporarily unavailable.

People take photos and videos as the first Frontier Arlines flight arrives at Paine Field Airport under a water cannon salute on Monday, June 2, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Water cannons salute Frontier on its first day at Paine Field

Frontier Airlines joins Alaska Airlines in offering service Snohomish County passengers.

Amit B. Singh, president of Edmonds Community College. 201008
Edmonds College and schools continue diversity programs

Educational diversity programs are alive and well in Snohomish County.

A standard jet fuel, left, burns with extensive smoke output while a 50 percent SAF drop-in jet fuel, right, puts off less smoke during a demonstration of the difference in fuel emissions on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Sustainable aviation fuel center gets funding boost

A planned research and development center focused on sustainable aviation… Continue reading

Helion's 6th fusion prototype, Trenta, on display on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Helion celebrates smoother path to fusion energy site approval

Helion CEO applauds legislation signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson expected to streamline site selection process.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.