By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
Voting in the general election ends next Tuesday, but Eatonville residents already know who will holding town leadership positions.
The mayor and three Town Council members are all running without opposition. That does little for the spirit of competition or local election suspense, and it also means there will be no voter-induced changes at Town Hall for the first time in recent memory.
Mayor Mike Schaub and Town Council members Jennifer Hannah, Bob Walter and William Dunn are assured of remaining in office. Schaub and Walter are on the way to their second four-year terms. Hannah and Dunn, who were appointed to vacant seats last year, now are being elected for the first time.
The appointments of Hannah and Dunn ended a three-year flurry of changed membership on the council. They were the fourth and fifth new members since 2013.
Gordon Bowman, who ran for mayor that year rather than another term on the council, was succeeded by Andy Powell, the only candidate in 2013’s election for the seat Bowman gave up. The same year, Schaub beat Bowman in the mayoral race, while Walter also was elected over Ray Harper, who didn’t run for another term as mayor but instead sought a seat on the council.
Halfway through his term, Powell moved out of Eatonville and resigned. The same month that Powell resigned, Robert Thomas took over in the seat he won in the 2016 election, replacing Brenden Pierce, who didn’t seek re-election.
Schaub, who works for the state as a financial analyst, was the town’s elected treasurer before becoming mayor. He has made the Eatonville’s financial strength a key focus of his first four years in the mayor’s office.
Walter is a longtime Eatonville resident who’s a leader of the local historical society and is active in animal welfare efforts.
Hannah, who is a businesswoman, and Dunn fulfilled their interest in municipal service when they were appointed to the council.
While the outcomes of the mayor and council are already cinched, voters in Eatonville are joining those in other parts of south Pierce County to decide races for Tacoma Port Commissioner. And voters in the Graham and South Pierce fire districts are weighing in on levies.
In the service areas of South Pierce Fire and Rescue (Clear Lake, Ohop Lake, La Grande, Roy, Lacamas, Harts Lake and McKenna) and Graham Fire and Rescue (all or parts of Graham, Kapowsin, Frederickson and South Hill), six-year levies are at stake.
Supporters of the levy for South Pierce, which serves an area of 138 square miles, say the proposition there would maintain the current level of fire protection, fire prevention and rescue services at the levy rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation districtwide. According to the levy backers, passage of the measure would add $28.27 a year to the property-tax bill for a home valued at $300,000, for example.
In the Graham Fire and Rescue district, which serves a population of about 60,000, the levy doesn’t propose a new tax, but would continue an existing levy that covers the costs of personnel, training and equipment. Levy supporters estimate the 2018 tax rate would be $1.38 per $1,000of assessed valuation of property in the district, amounting toan increase of $34.50 annually on a $300,000 home, according to levy supporters.
Both levies need a simple majority to pass.
Voters locally and countywide are choosing commissioners and deciding whether the way certain county officials take and hold office should change.
The Port of Tacoma collects property taxes throughout Pierce County and is a source of economic development and business for the county and Washington.
John McCarthy, a former county judge, is trying to become a Port Commissioner again (he was in that role for nine years). His opponent is Eric Holdeman, who has run previously for the commission and once worked for the port as its security director.
Commissioners Dick Marzano and Don Meyer are seeking re-election. Marzaon, an ex-president of the local longshoreman’s union, is being challenged by Noah Davis, a lawyer who contends the port should be more of a leader in air-quality issues related to port industries. Meyer, a commissioner since 2010 and a small-business owner, is opposed by Kristin Ang, an attorney who is a first-time candidate for public office.
Also on the ballot are two proposed amendments of Pierce County’s home rule charter, which is the governing document – similar to a constitution – for county government. One would affect the way partisan county offices are filled by appointment, and the other would increase the number of years that County Council members can be in office.
Amendment 46 would require that any partisan county office – currently the council, the county executive and prosecuting attorney – that becomes vacant between elections would have to be filled with one of three people nominated by the political party that was represented by the departed officeholder. The council would then appoint one of them.
Amendment 47 would increase the maximum number of four-year terms per council member to three. Currently, council members are limited to two terms.
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