MONROE — Former Monroe City Council member Patsy Cudaback and current City Council member Heather Fulcher clash in the race from the city’s next mayor.
Monroe’s current mayor, Geoffrey Thomas, chose not to seek a fourth term.
Safety, public spaces, maintaining Monroe’s sense of community and handling the city budget are top priorities for both candidates.
The Monroe mayor position is part-time and pays $48,000 a year. As of Friday, Cudaback had raised $17,844 for her campaign, according to state filings. Fulcher had raised $8,377.
Patsy Cudaback
Cudaback has been chief operating officer at the YMCA of Snohomish County since 2018. In her role, she oversaw the organization’s growth from an annual revenue of $23 million in 2020 to $47 million in 2024, she said.
She was elected to the Monroe City Council in 2009 and started her first of three terms in 2010.
If elected mayor, she would continue the culture Thomas created during his time in the position, she said.
“Geoffrey’s been in there 12 years, and he really did a good job changing the culture — to have it be nonpartisan, to have there be a really respectful council,” she said. “That’s what I adhere to. That’s the culture I want.”
Cudaback said she believes investing in infrastructure and fully funding the courts and police improves public safety, and she wants police who will listen to and connect with residents.
“We will make sure we have a police presence, that we have a safety net for people who are the most vulnerable,” Cudaback said.
She said she would work with nonprofits, the school district, and police and fire representatives to find ways to increase the feeling of safety throughout the city.
Cudaback would also work with these public entities, and others, to learn where money in the city’s budget should be allocated.
“Sit with the different organizations and say, ‘OK, give me three events, things that are so important to your organization,’” she said. “Whether it’s a school district, the business community, the Chamber: ‘When do you need me?’”
It is the community’s job to decide where the money should go, she said. It’s the mayor’s job to get the word out and make sure the budget supports “what you said it was going to.”
“They also have to see it,” Cudaback said. “They see an extra officer on the streets, or they see the park improvements.”
To improve Lake Tye Park, Cudaback wants to make walking areas more accessible and add a permanent outdoor stage for community events.
As mayor, Cudaback would work with other cities and advocate for funding at the State Legislature to widen Highway 522.
Cudaback favors completing the commercial development in the North Kelsey area off U.S. 2, she said. She hopes to make it a plaza-like town center where people can walk, shop and eat.
“It’s really networking and telling business, ‘Monroe is a great place to have a business,’” Cudaback said. “I want to make that a priority.”
Finally, Cudaback wants to find more ways for people to engage with city government, she said. The first step: invite people in and ask them to participate.
“We need to make sure people feel like they can have a part,” Cudaback said.
She also wants to create a “mayor advisory council,” with faith and business representatives, parents and others. “Like a think tank for the city, made up of people from all different backgrounds,” Cudaback said.
If elected, she would also take opportunities to remain accessible and go door-to-door, she said.
“Spend one weekend quarterly to get out and go to a different neighborhood and say, ‘Here are three things we’re thinking of. What do you think?’” she said.
Cudaback is endorsed by Mayor Thomas, Monroe City Council members Jason Gamble, Kevin Hanford and Kirk Scarboro, and County Executive Dave Somers.
Heather Fulcher
For more than a decade, Fulcher has owned Monroe Coffee Co. on West Main Street in Monroe.
She served on the Monroe Planning Commission and the Economic Development Advisory Board before being elected to her first of two terms on the City Council in 2019.
As mayor, Fulcher wants to break down an “information wall” between city staff and the council.
She understands council members should not give staff directions,but the council more often finds things out through rumors, instead of from staff, she said.
“We have brilliant people on council,” Fulcher said. “I think that giving them the right information gives us a better working team. Instead of being presented something at Council and saying, ‘Just agree with it.’”
In the city, Fulcher wants to install more lighted crosswalks and traffic cameras to improve safety, she said, to protect pedestrians and catch “crazy drivers.”
“Just having a camera in a zone gets people to slow down,” Fulcher said.
She also wants to add sidewalks and construct islands with trees down the center of major streets, she said.
“It changes a neighborhood,” Fulcher said. “It makes people feel like it’s more of that hometown feel.”
Also, to improve safety, Fulcher wants more police officers hired ahead of time, she said.
“We have a lot of officers who have served us a while, who are getting ready to retire, but we don’t hire ahead like we should,” Fulcher said.
Fulcher would fully fund the police, she said.
“Some of the things that are coming out of the police budget right now should be coming out of the general fund instead. So those are things I’m going to address,” she said.
Fulcher also wants to give police “a little more teeth” to help with people camping overnight in city parks, she said. The council is working on a trespass ordinance that would allow the city to ban these individuals from all city parks.
Fulcher would continue to back that ordinance and add that punishment to city law, she said.
“That will keep parks more accessible for the people who really want to use them,” she said.
If elected, Fulcher would audit the city’s spending and look for services that the public could find in the private sector, she said. At the same time, she would make sure the city offers services that people really need.
“The city should not be a service provider of human services,” Fulcher said. “We have a lot of nonprofits that take care of that. We also have different state-level funding.”
Finally, as mayor she would promote council meetings to raise attendance, Fulcher said.
“It is my dream to have more people at City Hall,” she said. “I am, by nature, a listener and a question-taking person, and very approachable. I just can’t say this enough, I’m going to be accessible — very accessible,” she said.
Fulcher is endorsed by Monroe City Council member Jacob Walker, state Reps. Carolyn Eslick, R-Sultan and Brian Burnett, R-Wenatchee, state Sen. Keith Goehner, R-Dryden, Snohomish County Council member Nate Nehring, Lake Stevens Mayor Brett Gailey and others. Also, she is endorsed by the North Snohomish County Union Firefighters.
Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay
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