MORTON — Some candidates for Lewis County Commissioner in District 3 believe immediate action is needed to right the ship, whether that be freezing elected officials’ salaries, or getting rid of the county manager position altogether.
Incumbent Commissioner Scott Brummer, Republican, insists the county government is on the right track.
“Day one, I keep doing the job that I’ve been doing,” Brummer said. “That’s representing you the people at the county commission level. I’m proud of the work that we have done, that I have done, that I’ve been a part of.”
The Chronicle hosted a Lewis County Commissioner District 3 candidate forum in the heart of the district in Morton Tuesday evening, bringing three of the five candidates to the Bob Lyle Community Center where about 50 people gathered.
The event was the first to include current Lewis County Public Utility District Commissioner Michael Hadaller, a Republican, giving him a chance to weigh in publicly on county issues.
Alongside Hadaller, the event hosted candidates Zac Eckstein, a Democrat, and Brummer, a Republican, who both attended an earlier forum in the spring ahead of candidate filing.
Of the other two candidates, Toledo resident Kyle Wheeler, an independent, elected not to attend citing concerns with the separation between The Chronicle and The Silver Agency — an advertising agency under the same ownership — and Packwood resident Tim Toerber reported that he was unavailable due to his U.S. Air Force reserve service obligations.
The Tuesday evening event was relatively civil between the candidates, but that didn’t stop them from expressing very different opinions on the way forward for Lewis County.
Eckstein took frequent issue with salary levels for county officials. During his opening statements, he proposed three day-one changes for the county, including freezing salaries for elected officials, instituting a publicly available “county check book” to track all spending, and requiring public legal reviews for divisive commissioner votes.
“They're going way faster in the raises than our median county income is going up, so we need to freeze them,” Eckstein said. “We need to decouple them from the Superior Court judge salary in Olympia and put them back under the purview of the salary board.”
Hadaller, for the most part, stayed away from offering specific policy changes and frequently opted for short and to-the-point answers to questions. In his opening statement, he positioned himself as a man of the people. He frequently brought up the idea of listening to community members and “returning calls.”
He did, however, offer one major policy change for the county in the form of getting rid of the county manager position.
“First thing I do is get rid of the county manager, with $177,000 (salary) that we don't need,” Hadaller said. “We need three county commissioners that will sit there and do their job, talk to their constituents, and run all the divisions of the county and have direct talk with the manager.”
The county first created the county manager position in 2018 after a failed attempt to approve a county charter that could have added the position and expanded the board of county commissioners. After hiring long-time county employee Erik Martin as the first county manager, the Board of Lewis County Commissioners hired current County Manager Ryan Barrett to replace him. At the time he was hired, The Chronicle reported he would start at a salary of $177,813.00.
Eckstein took the opportunity to note that he has reversed course on his own earlier call to eliminate the position, citing conversations with community members.
Both Eckstein and Hadaller leaned into their East County residencies, highlighting the need for the next District 3 commissioner to come from an area outside of the Interstate 5 corridor, separating themselves from Brummer, who resides south of Winlock.
Lewis County Legislative District 3 encompasses southern and eastern portions of the county, starting just south of Winlock and including both Vader and Toledo before stretching out to cover the entire east side of the county.
Hadaller also highlighted something Eckstein could not bring to the table as an east county resident: familial connection.
“There’s over 1,000 Hadallers in the neighborhood and spread out throughout the United States,” Hadaller said. “We were born in Vancouver, raised in Lewis County, and I love this place and I love the people of it.”
He also, more so than the other candidates, weighed in on personal matters throughout the forum. During his introduction, he first addressed a rumor “going around the county” that he struggles to read and write. He chalked it up to hearing loss that he has had since childhood after an extremely high fever left his hearing damaged. He assured the voters “I can read and I can write.”
Hadaller also responded to two questions, one from The Chronicle and one from Lewis County Republican Party Secretary Elizabeth Rohr, concerning previous run-ins with the law. The Chronicle asked candidates if they had ever been charged with or convicted of a crime, while Rohr asked more specifically for details about felony convictions, bankruptcies, domestic violence or other legal troubles.
Brummer and Eckstein each testified that they had never had any legal troubles.
Hadaller appeared to expect the questions, facing them head-on. In response to specific inquiries about felonies, Hadaller admitted that he had previously been convicted of a felony for fleeing from law enforcement and added that as a result he lost his hunting rights and voting rights for five years before having the felony expunged from his record years later.
With a more general and all-encompassing response to concerns about his past, Hadaller linked the behavior to trauma from the formerly unsolved murder of his grandparents — Wilhelmina "Minnie" Maurin and Edward "Ed" Maurin — on Christmas Eve in 1985. The murder of his grandparents went unsolved for 28 years before resulting in the conviction of Rick Riffe in 2013.
“If you want to live 28 years not knowing who killed your grandparents and who got shot first from a shotgun, go ahead,” Hadaller said. “It ain't fun.”
Hadaller admitted to not liking law enforcement as a younger man and going on drinking binges, stating, “I wasn’t a model citizen back there.” However, he went on to add that he believes he has since grown up, raising four children and now having nine grandchildren. He also pointed to his service on the Lewis County PUD Board of Commissioners for nearly four years, since being sworn into office at the end of December 2022.
The candidates weighed in on a range of issues throughout the rest of the evening, from allowing cannabis sales in unincorporated Lewis County, to supporting a proposed flood mitigating flow-through dam, to a public safety tax for local law enforcement and criminal justice, and allowing data centers to come to Lewis County.
Eckstein came out in support of cannabis sales and manufacturing in unincorporated Lewis County in order to access state cannabis tax revenues, but added he had concerns about the zoning. Brummer and Hadaller both came out against cannabis sales in the unincorporated parts of the county, while Brummer said he would still keep his mind open to the possibility as the county considers the benefits.
The two candidates cited concerns with the substance and its accessibility to minors.
Similarly, Eckstein said he would support a public safety tax, while the other two candidates said they were against the tax at the moment. Eckstein said his support was conditional on language that made sure 100% of the revenue goes to criminal justice and none goes into the county general fund, a move Brummer agreed with.
Brummer said he would like to see the newly elected sheriff spend at least a year in the office, rebuilding trust in the community, before the county asks locals to vote on a public safety tax.
“Then we can approach the citizens if we're able to show exactly where that money is going to go,” Brummer said.
Hadaller agreed with the idea of waiting on a new sheriff and added that he would like to audit the sheriff’s office and other major county departments before they receive additional funding.
Both Hadaller and Eckstein announced they were against the proposed flow-through dam proposed by the Chehalis Basin Flood Control Zone District, which is another face of the Lewis County Board of Commissioners. Hadaller proposed pumping extra water out of the basin while Eckstein argued leaders should focus on the many smaller projects in the county that help address flooding.
“I would much rather focus on non-dam alternative solutions that are quicker to set up and quicker to get money for, cheaper to implement than investing all of our eggs in this big expensive basket,” Eckstein said.
Brummer himself endorsed the project that he has helped develop during his time in office, referring to it as “cutting technology” and testifying to the quality of the work and expertise of those developing the project.
“I believe it is absolutely the process that we need to continue to work through to get the permitting and get the implementation of that flow-through facility up in Pe Ell,” Brummer said. “Here we have a real potential to make a significant impact reduction in flooding for our basin.”
Finally, all three commissioner candidates voiced their concerns and skepticism for data center development, primarily citing concerns with water and energy usage for the facilities. According to Brummer, it is something the county has looked at and has concluded that only the industrial site of the former TransAlta mine is zoned and suitable for such a facility.
“Planning wise, we have done a good job of making sure that it's limited to those who are not parked in neighborhoods,” Brummer said.
Brummer was the only of the three who appeared to leave the door open, hinting at his personal skepticism for the projects, but arguing that they may come with more market demand for the infrastructure.
For reporting by the Chronicle on its previous commissioner candidate forum, visit https://tinyurl.com/ycxbywp3.
In addition to candidate forums, The Chronicle is seeking to publish one-on-one interviews with each of the candidates ahead of the primary election as part of an expanded voters pamphlet. For the interview with Eckstein, visit https://tinyurl.com/3m43umcy. For the interview with Brummer, visit https://tinyurl.com/yc6w96fk. For the interview with Toerber, visit https://tinyurl.com/muhmya2k.
The Chronicle has interviewed Wheeler and will publish an article focused on his candidacy later this week. The Chronicle will also feature Hadaller in an upcoming article.
