Metro King County Council member Kent Pullen passed away April 14 at Enumclaw Community Hospital, after a lengthy illness. He represented District 9, serving residents in the area bounded by Kent, Auburn and Enumclaw since 1990.
“Kent Pullen was a freedom fighter, a man of great honesty and integrity,” said Pam Roach, Pullen’s longtime legislative aide and a State Senator. “He used his immense talents to protect the constitutional rights of everyone. He was often the only ‘no’ vote in protecting taxpayers from high taxation and onerous regulations, and he was a strong voice for protecting personal liberty.”
Council chair Cynthia Sullivan said “This is a real loss to the people of southeast King County. In Kent Pullen they had a true representative of their community. Kent was always a gentleman and very kind, even with those with whom he disagreed.”
Council vice-chair Pete von Reichbauer said “I served with Kent Pullen in the Washington State Senate and on the Metropolitan King County Council, and nobody was more consistent in their representation of the rural communities of our state. He may have had a Ph.D. but he always maintained a common touch with people throughout his district.”
Pullen earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Washington and was a strong advocate for naturopathic medicine. As a member of the King County Board of Health, Pullen spearheaded establishment of the King County Natural Medicine Clinic in 1995, the nation’s first publicly-funded integrated natural medicine clinic. In 1998, Pullen led the appointment of naturopathic doctor Jane Guiltinan to the board of Harborview Medical Center.
“Council member Pullen’s service on the Board of Health was tremendous. His advocacy for naturopathic medicine provided a broader perspective to the Board,” said Councilmember Carolyn Edmonds, chair of the Seattle-King County Board of Health. “We are grateful for his leadership in connecting the Health Department, Bastyr University, and the Community Health Clinics, in establishing the King County Natural Medicine Clinic. He will surely be missed in the health arena.”
Council member David Irons said “It will be a monumental task to fill the many roles he played here on the Council, as the advocate for strong law and justice resources, women’s and children’s health care, religious freedom and property rights. I think Mr. Pullen was one of the brightest minds on the Council. He will be dearly missed by all Councilmembers and the staff. Our thoughts now are with his wife, Fay Pullen, and we offer our support and best wishes to her and the rest of the Pullen family.”
Kent Pullen was the first chair of the Metropolitan King County Council, the new body created through the merger of the old Metro Council and the King County Council in 1994. He was elected to the council after serving close to two decades in the Washington State Legislature in both the House and Senate.
In both the state house and the King County Courthouse, Pullen was a strong advocate for law enforcement and people affected by crime. In Olympia, he worked to strengthen the rights of crime victims and for tougher penalties against sex offenders. As the chair of the Council’s Law and Justice Committee, he sought funding to better equip King County Sheriff’s deputies and to improve the training of corrections officers at the King County Jail. Pullen also played a role in starting King County’s gang intervention and control program, upgrading the county’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), and protecting at-risk children and victims of domestic violence. The State Constitution requires that the County Council fill a vacancy on the council within sixty days, from a list of three names. Because Council member Pullen was a Republican, the names will be provided by the King County Republican Central Committee following a process spelled out in the Central Committee’s bylaws. According to those bylaws, the precinct committee officers from Council District Nine will be convened by the Central Committee chair and will vote on the list of three potential successors.
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