Editorial: Elect North Bend nurse to 12th district House seat

By The Herald Editorial Board

The 12th Legislative District, a relative newcomer to Snohomish County following the redistricting process in 2021, again saw changes this year in the wake of a lawsuit that changed the boundaries of the 15th Legislative District in southcentral Washington, and also adjusted boundaries for the 12th district.

The district’s boundaries in Snohomish County, however, remained unchanged and still include the southeast county communities along U.S. 2, including Monroe, Sultan, Gold Bar and Index, as well as portions of the Three Lakes area.

What will change for the district are some of the players among its three legislators. Sen. Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, is not seeking re-election because of the boundary changes, and instead is running for a seat on the Chelan County Commission.

Rep. Keith Goehner, R-Dryden, is running for the now open Senate seat in the 12th, and is opposed by Jim Mayhew a Snoqualmie Democrat who serves on its city council. Rep. Mike Steele, R-Chelan, is seeking a fifth term for the district’s Position 2 seat, challenged by Cashmere Republican Daniel Scott, who serves on that city council. Because the candidates for the general election already are determined, endorsements in those races will follow prior to the Nov. 6 election.

House, Position 1

The race for the open seat features two Republicans and one Democrat. Heather Koellen, running as a Democrat from North Bend is a registered nurse and a North Bend City Council member. Brian Burnett, a Wenatchee Republican, served three terms as sheriff of Chelan County and remains as administrative liaison with the Washington State Sheriffs Association. And Jennifer Bumpass is a Monroe Republican and small business owner currently serving on the Monroe School Board.

Burnett and Koellen participated in a joint interview with the editorial board. Bumpass did not respond to invitations to participate.

Koellen, a registered nurse working at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center in the neuro-intensive care unit, said that working with patients with a range of health issues and social issues, including gun violence and overdoses, provides her a good grasp on the issues facing the state’s communities, as has her work on the city council.

Koellen said a focus for her would be on the state’s fentanyl crisis and the response to behavioral health concerns. She said she would support a statewide expansion of a project in her city and elsewhere that is teaming up social workers with police and deputies to help address issues of addiction and behavioral health. She also supports provisions for more behavioral health treatment beds.

Koellen also has concerns for better staffing of nurses and other providers at hospitals. Koellen recommended opening up more opportunities in community colleges for nurse training, suggesting free tuition for those programs.

On the issue of housing affordability, Koellen, who owns rental property, said she would support a proposal to place a percentage cap on rent increases and believes it would be fair to landlords and renters. As well, she said, she’d like to see lawmakers continue looking at ways to increase the supply of housing, workforce housing in particular.

Koellen said she also wants to focus on the state’s climate work and supported a bill that passed this year that while it favors electric connections over natural gas for new construction, it isn’t a ban on natural gas, as some have described it.

“I didn’t read anywhere that they were going to take away anyone’s natural gas that they already have, including myself,” she said.

Burnett, who served in the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office for 25 years, expressed interest in working on public safety and law enforcement issues. Having worked on the front lines of the fentanyl and behavioral health crises, he agreed with Koellen that pairing social workers with police can work as a solution, adding that both issues require a mix of short- and long-term efforts. Even with recent state investments, Burnett said, finding treatment beds for both populations remains a challenge.

“It’s harder to get beds for those people in crisis,” he said.

On housing, Burnett said he’s supportive of goals to make housing more affordable, but he opposes recent efforts that took some local control from cities regarding density and zoning.

“We need to protect that local authority and autonomy in a way that lets them still maintain their identity that makes our communities so special,” he said.

With a budget year ahead for lawmakers, Burnett said lawmakers need to redirect efforts to bring state spending under better control. Lawmakers, he said, will need to look at some program cuts, though he said he couldn’t offer specific suggestions for cuts. Burnett did urge that public safety and transportation should be priorities in the budget.

Burnett, a director of a camp for foster children, also said he wants to bring more focus to the state’s treatment of foster children with an eye on reforms.

“I believe there needs to be some redirection and attention to our foster care program,” he said.

Burnett has an impressive resume in law enforcement, including leadership positions with the sheriffs association, a board member on the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the state Criminal Justice Training Commission, the state’s mass shooting committee and the state sex offender notification and registration committee as co-chair, all of which would serve the Legislature.

However, his response in a 2022 investigative story on the issue of “constitutional” sheriffs — those who believe their authority as sheriff can supersede that of state or federal law enforcement and allows them to disregard laws they disagree with — is concerning.

Interviewed for the story by the independent newsrooom Investigate West and published in The Seattle Times, Burnett, then sheriff of Chelan County and president of the Washington State Sheriffs Association, said he didn’t agree with the “total philosophy” of constitutional sheriffs.

But Burnett is also quoted in the story as saying he agreed with sheriffs who said they wouldn’t enforce a law adopted in 2018 by citizens’ initiative that set age, background check and other requirements regarding firearms and wouldn’t enforce covid-19 masking rules and other emergency mandates, much as former Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney said he wouldn’t during the pandemic.

It seems incongruous for someone who seeks to serve as a lawmaker — drafting, debating and voting on proposed laws — when as a law enforcement official he believed he could chose which laws he would enforce and which he would disregard, no matter if that law was adopted by legislators, by citizens or by a governor setting mandates during a declared emergency.

Law enforcement officers — at all levels — must have some discretion in deciding when to make arrests and when to refer investigations to prosecutors, but blanket statements that certain laws won’t be enforced don’t fall under that discretion and only encourage the public’s disregard for laws and law enforcement.

That’s a bad look for a prospective lawmaker.

Koellen’s more than 20 years of work as a nurse and her experience on the North Bend City Council as well as service as a board member on the King County Board of Health, have provided perspective into the needs and issues in her district and in how to serve her constituents.

The board endorses Koellen for the House, Position 1.