Letter to the Editor: Commissioner Fund Unfairly Targeted in Letter

After reading the letter published June 17, 2020 from Travis Schliesser, I felt compelled to respond. His letter contained some very inaccurate information.

Since Mr. Schliesser lives in Chehalis and is not in Commissioner Fund’s district, I do not know why he appears to be targeting her in his letter.

First, it is my opinion that a “sitting commissioner” or any other elected official should be free to support the candidate of their choice no matter who it is. And if the people endorsing Edna Fund are also endorsing Lindsey Pollock, how is that wrong? We are still a free society to pick and choose our own candidates to support.

In his letter, Mr. Schliesser states “They even have their signs together.” He goes on to say “It seems clear that she (Pollock) and Edna are running together and if this is the case why not just be open about it?” Well, it looks to me like they are not trying to hide anything. 

Mr. Schliesser goes on to even suggest that Lindsey Pollock is Ms. Fund’s “puppet.” It seems to me that there are a couple of people that like to call anyone her puppet who has even a brief encounter with Ms. Fund. I first met Edna Fund less than a year ago at a Port of Centralia meeting. She stopped me briefly afterwards to ask my name. That’s all it took for someone to call me her puppet. It has been my experience that Edna Fund will provide unbiased information when asked, but in no way tells people what to think, do or say.

Furthermore, Mr. Schliesser states in his letter that Ms. Fund “has only attended one meeting with the port in the last four years.” Since he mentioned a port commissioner by name, I assume he was referring to the Port of Centralia.

 I can personally attest to the fact that Ms. Fund attended several of their meetings in the last year alone as I saw her there. Mr. Schliesser then says that Ms. Fund “single-handedly killed the deal with Fred Meyer with all her requests.” Wow! She must be a really powerful lady! But, no she was not responsible for that. Killing that deal rests solely on the Port of Centralia. I know this because this was the basis for my many hours of research and questions for the port. 

Fred Meyer had contingencies that needed to be met (i.e infrastructure, access, etc). The same ones are still required by WinCo. As for Mr. Schliesser saying Ms. Fund was requiring “Traffic impact survey, a million-dollar road, and the real gem, sidewalks...”. Those things are always required when building a large commercial/retail area. He doesn’t seem to be very familiar with the area he’s talking about.

In conclusion, I don’t live in District 2. And I have not decided what local candidates I will vote for. I just saw the injustice and wanted to provide the truth.

Jan Banevich

Centralia