By The Herald Editorial Board
The decision by current Marysville City Council member Tom King not to seek a third term for his Position 3 seat opened the field to five city residents.
That each of the five putting their names forth have deep ties to the community and have served Marysville in numerous ways makes for a difficult choice for voters but ultimately a valuable new member of the council.
The two candidates receiving the most votes in the Aug. 5 primary will move on to the November general election.
Running for the at-large position:
Gary Kemp, a resident of the Marysville area for more than 40 years, is an electrician and union representative for his local and more recently its training director, responsible for some 720 apprentices and 14 instructors at two and soon a third campus.
Kemp said his focus would be on public safety and expressed support for Mayor Jon Nehring’s leadership regarding the response to state law. Kemp also serves on the planning commission. He said he’s concerned that even as he sees many apartment buildings go up, he finds none that he believes to be “affordable.” Rather than “affordable housing,” Kemp said he’d seek responsible housing by taking a closer look at the city’s zoning rules to find best locations for single-family homes and for multi-family housing, reasserting the city’s needs over state land-use mandates.
David Garrett is a design engineer at Boeing since 2007, active in the county Democratic Party and the Civil Air Patrol as well as Toys for Tots and Northwest Harvest.
Garrett, a SPEEA shop steward, said he’s enjoyed his work in representing union members and wants to apply that more broadly to the Marysville community. Garrett listed neighborhood safety and security, quality of life and budgetary discipline as his top priorities for service on the council. He said he’d look for opportunities to bring well-paying jobs to the city, provide more incentives for affordable housing and take an aggressive stance on traffic management to free up the city’s choke points. On the city’s budget process Garrett said he’d seek increased transparency for the public.
R.J. Whitlow and his family have lived in Marysville for 23 years and this year is marking the 10th anniversary of his 5 Rights Brewing Co., a family-friendly brewery and taproom in downtown Marysville, calling it a life-long dream to build a community gathering place. Getting a business going, especially during the last five to seven years, he said, has helped him build skills in management, collaboration and building community.
Whitlow has volunteered with the Marysville Community Food bank, March for Life, local school booster clubs and the Strawberry Festival.
Whitlow said public safety would be a priority for him and he appreciates the leadership Marysville officials showed regarding the city’s enforcement of drug possession laws as state lawmakers struggled with a response. Whitlow said he wants to see more participation from residents in local governmental decisions and he wants to apply the skills he’s developed in “setting a table” for conversation at his business at the community level.
Amber Cantu, a resident of Marysville for 25 years, has served as a family service counselor for funeral homes and hospice services and a home care nurses aide. Cantu, a direct descendent of Chief Seattle, and her husband are parents of 12 children, including five adult children, as well as providing foster care to First Nations tribal communities. In her career, she’s worked directly with emergency medical staff and law enforcement and has provided counseling for those with issues of mental health, addiction and homelessness
Cantu said she’s supportive of the accomplishments and direction of the current council and mayor and would strive to capitalize on that work and look for opportunities to serve the community better. She said she’s particularly interested in seeing that the city’s senior population is well served and appreciates what the current community center offers, but would look to find ways to expand on its work.
One of the lessons Cantu said she’s learned as a foster mom is that you’re always learning new things, and she’s hope to continue that process of learning as a city council member, then offering what she’s learned to the city.
Dan Perkins, born and raised in the Marysville area, has taught for 30 years at Pinewood Elementary, currently teaching fifth-graders. As a teacher, he said, he’s watched former students grow up and achieve elsewhere or stay here and contribute to the community where they grew up, observations that have drawn him to broaden his work in the community by serving on the council.
Perkins said he would make the city’s youths and his former students a focus of his work, hoping to offer graduates of local schools the ability to stay and find careers and raise families in their hometown. Perkins also has concern for the growth that’s forecast for the city and how it meets that challenge. He said he’s seek a balance between protecting what’s valued but also being flexible to new approaches. “If you hang on too tightly to what has always been you lose the opportunity to move forward,” he said.
Perkins also suggested that Marysville take a cue from Everett and look at creating associations among the city’s 11 or so neighborhoods to improve the city’s outreach to residents and gather more feedback on a regular basis. A few years ago the city held similar neighborhood meetings, and he like to relaunch that effort.
All five candidates showed themselves as thoughtful and dedicated community members, seeking to serve Marysville. And each would offer their own perspective and experience on the council.
Perkins, noting his many years of work as an educator, his recognition of the balance required in harmonizing growth and quality of life, and his practical approach to increasing community engagement through neighborhood associations impresses as someone who would add to the discussion and deliberation on the council and in the greater Marysville community.
Among a field of five strong candidates, Perkins is best prepared to represent Marysville.
Election info
Along with editorial board’s endorsements, voters also are directed to their local voters’ pamphlet, the state’s online voters guide at www.vote.wa.gov and a series of recorded candidate forums available at the website of the Snohomish County League of Women Voters at lwvsnoho.org/candidate_forums.
The county voters’ pamphlet is available online at tinyurl.com/SnoCoVotePrimary25.
Ballots will be mailed July 17, and can be returned by mail or placed in one of several county election office drop boxes. Ballots must be postmarked or placed in a drop box before 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5. A list of locations for official drop boxes is available at tinyurl.com/SnoCoElexBox.
More information on voting, registering to vote and the primary and general elections is available at tinyurl.com/ElexSnoCo.
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