With ballots for the general election set to be mailed by the Lewis County Auditor’s Office next week, candidates for public office in Lewis County gathered at O’Blarney’s Irish Pub at the Gibson House in Centralia Thursday for a debate hosted by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce.
There, candidates for two Lewis County commissioner seats and the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) Commission discussed their visions for the role and how they would represent the county if elected this November.
The entire debate can be viewed on the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.
The Lewis County Auditor’s Office will mail 55,475 ballots to registered voters on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Ballots can take up to 10 days to arrive. Registered voters should begin to see their ballots the week of Oct. 21 to Oct. 25. If a voter hasn’t received their ballot after 10 days, the auditor’s office recommends visiting votewa.gov and selecting “my ballot,” calling 360-740-1278 or visiting 351 NW North St., Chehalis. If a registered voter has moved, they can update their registration with either of the options.
Lewis County Commissioner for District 1
During the general election, incumbent Commissioner for District 1 Republican Sean Swope will face off against Democrat Damian Bean.
In his opening remarks, Swope said he was “super proud” of his record during his four years as a county commissioner and noted that he took office near the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I can tell you this, if something like that was to happen again, you’d want to make sure that you have good leadership in these positions to be able to fight where you need to fight,” Swope said. “It’s also been a privilege and an honor to work with our different law enforcement agencies.”
In his opening remarks, Bean said that he has been “service-minded” his entire life.
“These are values that were given to me by my family, my colleagues and my mentors,” said Bean, adding one of his mentors is his uncle who worked in law enforcement in Lewis County. “And through my father, he relayed the important message, ‘leave this world a better place than you found it.’ And so I try to do that every day. I try to live my life by that motto. And that has led me here.”
During the debate, the candidates answered a series of panel and audience questions, including on the recently adopted restrictions on needle exchange programs.
At the direction of Swope, the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners adopted an ordinance this year that bans mobile needle exchange programs, requires program operators to offer “on-site counseling or referrals for an approved substance use disorder treatment program,” bans needle exchange programs from use as a “safe or supervised injection site” and bans county money from funding such programs, among other requirements.
If in office, Bean said he would have opposed such restrictions.
“I think the restrictions put forward by the state are enough. I don’t think it’s necessary to put any more,” Bean said.
Swope said the ordinance was drafted in consultation with the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office as representative of the county.
“What we don’t want to be is, we don’t want to be Seattle. We don’t want to be Portland,” Swope said. “And when it comes to other drug paraphernalia, it just makes zero sense that we’re going to allow people to have safer and cleaner ways to do drugs.”
Lewis County Commissioner for District 2
Both incumbent candidates for Lewis County commissioner received challengers, though Lindsey Pollock finds herself running against a fellow Republican supported by the county party.
Pollock said one of her “biggest” accomplishments was helping secure approximately $7 million in federal grants to fund improvements to the 911 system’s infrastructure, which is on track to be completed by August.
“Having been a first responder and firefighter, and experiencing what it’s like to be out of the edges of radio service, this is near and dear and personal to my heart,” Pollock said. “We need that coverage across our county.”
Christina Riley, who is seeking to replace Pollock, said running for county commissioner “was not necessarily in my forecast.”
“I saw a call to step into this role because I think that the county is at a pivotal time where leadership is very important, and somebody with wide experiences and skill sets and knowledge base is what is going to get us into the next step of what our county looks like,” Riley said. “We have one of the most beautiful places in Washington that we call home. And it’s important that our culture and our landscape reflects that for my children and their children.”
As the county looks to close an approximately $3 million budget deficit for 2025, Riley said the county should look at the tax base “rather than taxing the same people more.”
“I think it’s time that we find new revenue for our county, and that’s not an area where I see a lot of strategic development taking place currently at the Board of County Commissioner level,” Riley said.
Increasing broadband access, Pollock said, would allow more Lewis County residents to work from home or find other employment opportunities in the county rather than traveling beyond county lines to seek employment.
“In the short run, we do have hard issues, and I’m not going to gloss over it,” Pollock said. “And your options are that you either increase taxes or cut things.”
The November ballot will include a proposal to raise the county’s sales tax by .2% to fund 911 operation services. If passed, Lewis County would collect an additional .2% sales tax to fund its 911 call center, a rate of two cents for every $10.
Pollock said the proposed tax would provide an “additional buffer” to the county’s finances and free up money that funds the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office dispatch fees.
PUD Commissioner candidates
With a seat on the PUD board of commissioners up for grabs, candidates Dave Fenn and Angie Brown discussed a proposed rate increase, among other topics.
In her opening statement, Brown noted nearly three decades of experience on local boards, including serving on the Pe Ell School Board.
“I feel like I bring a lot of knowledge when it comes to budgeting and doing budgeting work,” Brown said. “I feel like I bring something to the table by looking at the budgets and dealing with nonprofits, and the PUD is a not-for-profit organization. So it’s right in my wheelhouse.”
A Boistfort High School graduate, Fenn holds a degree in education with a math major from Pacific Lutheran University. He cited his nearly five decades of experience in farming and on various Lewis County boards as preparation for the role.
“I was encouraged by a number of people to run for this position, it was not something that I sought,” Fenn said. “But with all of the encouragement, it is a job I would like to serve and help the folks in the county.”
In September, the PUD moved forward on a rate schedule that will increase the average residential customer’s energy bill by about $8 a month beginning next year.
The plan, which could be adopted next month, comes as the PUD addresses rising operating costs, including higher staffing costs and a 10% rate increase from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).
“The inflation we’ve had over the past few years, it’s basically impossible for the PUD not to have increased expenses,” Fenn said. “It was necessary to raise those rates.”
In response, Brown said while the rate increase was necessary, it could have been gradually implemented over the past few years.
“At this time, we have to increase the rates,” Fenn said. “We’re one of the lowest around the state, but I do think there could have been better management of it so that it was broken down a little bit so that it wasn’t such a hard hit on the customers and ratepayers.”
