- [Announcer] Voters in our region are looking to cast their vote in the upcoming general election.

Northwest Public Broadcasting and the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties want you to know the candidates.

Recorded at the Washington State University Tri-Cities campus, this is Vote 2023.

(lively music) - Good evening, and welcome to the 2023 General Election Candidate Forums.

My name is Ruvine Jimenez and I am a member of the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties.

The League is a nonpartisan organization that neither supports nor opposes any candidate.

In presenting these forums, it is our goal to provide opportunities for voters to become better informed about the people who are running for public office.

These general election forums have been prerecorded in person by Northwest Public Broadcasting at the WSU Tri-Cities studio.

They will also now be available through November 7th election day on the Northwest Public Broadcasting YouTube channel on the League's website and Facebook page through the Columbia Basin Badger Club and the cities of Richland and Pasco.

Before I turn the program over to our moderator, Matt Loveless from Murrow College of Communication, WSU Pullman, I would like to bring your attention to our League's Vote video, featuring the wonderful Pasco High School dance team.

And remember, be a voter.

- [Announcer] The League of Women and Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties presents.

- [Announcer] It's time to vote!

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] It's simple.

All you need to be is a US citizen, 18 years or older, and a resident of Washington State.

Jump into this opportunity today.

There is still time to register, so don't flip out.

Take time and visit your local county elections office.

- [Kids] Your vote, your voice, your future.

- [Announcer] Visit LWV-BF.org and get ready to vote in the next election.

- Good evening, everybody.

Thank you to the League of Women Voters.

We're back here in our WSU Tri-Cities Studio for another election season.

This is the first of five programs that will be part debate, part forum, and all about getting to know the candidates' up and down ballots going out in Benton and Franklin Counties.

Night one will keep us in Benton County with a race for a spot on the Benton County Commission and a handful of Richland City Council seats up for grab.

So really quickly, some rules.

Here's how today's program will work.

We have an hour.

I warn the viewers, we're approaching a segment tonight with a bit of a unique format, but I wanna first say, the League of Women Voters has done a lot of work reaching out to each candidate in 21 contested races on ballots.

Now, not everybody can make it, not everybody responds to an invitation, but know that all were invited to join us.

We'll have more on that bit later in the program.

Now, a few rules.

We have an opening statement round and a round of questions.

We've set response times at one minute for each of those.

There will not be closing statements tonight.

This will go quickly.

But we ask candidates stay on time, please.

Stay on topic, watch the clock, and we'll get going.

And because we're meeting a number of candidates tonight, let's get right into it with a race for the Benton County Commissioner 2 seat.

We begin our program for that seat.

And in studio with me today, Scott Keller, Christy Rasmussen.

Thank you so much.

We talked to you during the primaries this summer.

These are the two that made it out of those.

But before we get to some questions from the League, let's be sure to get some opening statements.

Mr. Keller, your minute starts now.

- One minute, good.

First of all, I wanna congratulate Christy on her daughter getting married tomorrow.

- Yes, tomorrow.

- Glad you're here, I'm glad you can make it.

- Absolutely.

- Anyway, my name's Scott Keller.

I started my career with the Port of Benton in 1989 as the airport director assistant manager.

I was that for 13 years, 17 years as the executive director.

I saw some wonderful things happen at the port over those 30 years.

And I see the port drifting in a way that I'm not really comfortable with.

I wanna see the port get back to helping small businesses and job creation, and that's why I'm running.

I love the port, it's been almost half of my life, and I appreciate any support you can give me.

And please vote for me for your port commissioner.

- Alright, thank you, Mr. Keller.

Mr. Rasmussen, your opening statement.

- Thank you.

First, I wanna share what a privilege it's been to serve as the port commissioner for the last two years.

There are so many stories of the engagement that we've had with the community, how I have been able to collaborate, how we've brought in new industry, we're growing jobs.

The excitement, enthusiasm I have for the work at the port, it really comes from having been raised here.

I'm a product of the educational system in the Tri-Cities.

I'm a product of my father having a job at Hanford and having the opportunity to serve in apprenticeship.

It really, him getting the apprenticeship position in 1963 lifted my family out of poverty, so I'm very dedicated to things like, let's clean up Hanford.

I participate in Energy Communities Alliance to ensure that our community has a voice as a port commissioner.

And how do we take care of our community?

How about clean energy?

Port is partnering with Energy Northwest to do that and I'm asking for the vote.

- All right, Ms. Rasmussen, thank you very much.

Thank you both for being here today.

And we'll get to our first of four questions brought to us by the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties.

And the first gets to what your job would be in your words.

We'll start again with you, Mr. Keller, then we'll alternate throughout.

And I believe I misspoke at the beginning of the program.

I said Benton County Commissioner, of course I meant port commissioner.

Before you send all the angry emails, I'm aware of who we have here.

But that does differ from the County Commission itself.

So, how would you describe the job of a port commissioner specifically to somebody who might not know?

- Port commissioner, and after 30 years of going through this whole process, a port commissioner is to set policy.

You're supposed to set policy, you're not involved with the day-to-day operation, that's the executive director's responsibility.

But you are there with your two other commissioners to hopefully guide the port in a direction that you and the community wants it to happen.

And this includes all Richland, Prosser, Benton City, and the South Benton County.

It's, again, it's to set policy, it's not to run the port.

- All right, Mr. Keller, thank you very much.

Ms. Rasmussen, you're on it.

- Well.

- What's the difference?

- Well, there's, the things that I've learned about the port and being a port commissioner.

So we really participate in port business around budget, around policy, and around strategy.

And then as the arm of the executive director to be out and collaborate with our community, 'cause that is probably the most important part of the port, is their ability to work with cities, counties, state, and national agencies in the development of jobs to promote industry and how we take the message from our community and what the community wants and needs, and we use that to influence strategies, policy, and budget.

And as a port commissioner, you're very actively engaged in those collaborations, and that's how we stay connected in all areas and avenues, so that we're doing what our constituents want.

- Thank you very much.

And question two, we will, like I said, we'll alternate.

So Ms. Rasmussen, you go first here.

Obviously you make a lot of decisions regarding land and things happening around your county.

What steps, if any, do you believe should be taken to study environmental impact of any of the decisions that the port makes?

- Environmental impacts play into all decisions at the port.

You have permitting.

You have to look at the environmental impact just not to that piece of property, but to the surrounding areas.

We don't want to bring industry in that is not gonna be good for our environment.

We've already experienced that.

We're working on cleaning up Hanford, and so we wanna be really mindful of who comes to our community, what risks there are associated, and making sure we're good stewards of the land and of the assets of our community.

So environmental impacts plays a big part, but when we strategically plan with our community partners, then we are ensuring that we are taking into account climate, environment, the will of the community and what it is they want.

And we wanna look for good matches of industry to what we have in our infrastructure here, and so that gives us the opportunity to do that in the planning.

- Thank you very much.

And Mr. Keller, same question to you, sir.

- It's hard for me to top that one.

Christie did a really good job of explaining the environmental impacts, certainly a concern of any land purchase or any building purchase, et cetera, or even expansion of the airports, Crow Butte Park, which is down in South Benton County.

And it's probably the number one concern of all of us to make sure that we do follow all the rules, all the permits, we hire professionals to do it, and make sure that it's done correctly so it doesn't come back to bite us in the end.

- All right, Mr. Keller, thank you very much.

And question three, it's a decision the next port commissioner will get to make regarding some rail infrastructure.

The port recently got 2.4 million in state funding for the port-owned rail line, requesting an additional 8 million in federal money.

So we describe improvements you would make with that funding.

Mr. Keller, up first here.

- I have to compliment the port for what they've done on the rail.

I was part of the management that saw what happened to the rail.

It got used and it was not fixed up as though it should be and kept up to date.

The money should be used for the ties.

They've gotta increase the speed of the train from five to at least, hopefully, 15 to 20 miles an hour to get it through the intersections.

It blocks a lot of intersections in this area, 240, Van Giesen, and it creates a lot of problems.

There's a loop track out at the end of the rail line and there's a lot of things that could be done out there.

They bring in unit trains, which are 100-car trains.

The offload, basically cattle feed at this point in time.

But there's a lot of other things that can be brought in and probably used for economic development and job creation, and that's the key here.

- All right, Mr. Keller, thank you very much.

And probably a complicated question.

We hear rail improvements.

Simpler version of that is, what is the need around here?

- Well, we have put a lot of new railroad ties in, but the great news about the rail is since the port took back the rail from the previous lessee and had Columbia rail take over, we have made incredible improvements, not just in railroad ties and safety, we've improved the Van Giesen crossing.

Everybody loves going over smooth crossing now.

And to your point about the circle track, we're already moving to do a land transfer with the City of Richland.

We've had our special commission meeting on that to allow us to use, leverage that circle track and become an inland port where we would have 10 acres right next to the circle track that we would bring in containers and they could be put there, put back on the rail and use our really, the biggest asset we have is that rail.

It is the one that we can leverage for the most, for economic development industry here right now, just with these improvements on the rail, improving the building, getting it back up to where it should be, and to help our whole community.

- All right, thank you very much.

And our final question on obviously a major economic driver around here, wine.

I want to ask Ms. Rasmussen, what do you envision for the future of the port's involvement in the wine industry?

- I continue to see it thriving.

The Clore Center is a very valuable asset of the port, which is in partnership with WSU around wine-making and the wine industry.

We have Vintners Village, we just sold a piece of property there.

And we have a new, Enodav, a new winery going in to further build out that piece of property, which is just a lovely place.

And then we have our partnership with WSU Tri-Cities and right here up the road on George Washington Way.

So I see the wine and the port and shipping and receiving and all of the above continuing to grow that partnership.

I think we recognize that we are a heavily, a value-added ag economy here and that wine is one of the best value-added ag around here.

We all enjoy it anyway and I think we'll continue to do that.

- All right, thank you very much.

And Mr. Keller, that last question goes to you now.

- Well, this is a great one because I was intimately involved in the Wine and Food Park and the start of Vintners Village through my whole career.

It was one of the stars that we had, as well as Chukar Cherry.

The wine industry just flourished.

We started with Hoag as the first one out there and it just went on and it was a domino effect.

We bought a piece of property, we filled it up, we bought the next piece of property, Vintners Village, then we bought Vintners Village, the land to the south of it, and another 10 acres.

And I'm glad that they have sold a piece of property to a new winery.

They need to keep going, they need to get the property down to where people can afford it to continue this surge of wine.

Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center, I'm glad that Christie mentioned that.

It's very underutilized.

That building was built with $4 million in federal money and $4 million in state money and it was meant to showcase Washington wines under the influence of Dr. Walter Clore at WSU Extension.

It is not open to the public.

It's been used about half a dozen times and it needs to be open to the public, especially on the weekends, tourism.

And that's what it was meant to be and it's not, and it needs to be done.

- All right, thank you very much.

I know I'm supposed to be impartial, but I heard some WSU references, so go Cougs.

Before we get out of here, all right, Mr. Keller, Ms. Rasmussen, thank you so much for being here today.

We knew it would go quickly.

Candidates for the Benton County Port Commission 2.

Our next debate stays in Benton County, moving now to the City of Richland.

A number of city council positions up for election.

Now, as I said earlier in the program, we did invite all the candidates.

Not all could make it, so this next portion will take the shape more of an open forum.

But first we do have two candidates going head-to-head for the Position 5 seat.

Incumbent Shayne VanDyke is here with challenger Greg Levy.

Thank you both for being here, gentlemen.

We also have the challenger for the Position 2 seat, Elizabeth Vann-Clark, in studio with us here in Richland today.

Before we get to you, Ms. Vann-Clark, apologies you have to wait a couple of minutes, we do have to get opening statements from our Position 5 candidates.

Mr. Levy, you're first alphabetically by last name.

It's not much more scientific than that.

We'll give you one minute for your opening statement.

- Oh, thank you very much, Matt.

And I'd like to thank you and the League of Women's Voters for this opportunity.

Moved to Richland about 13 years ago 'cause it was a better place to raise my family, I felt, than Puget Sound area where I used to live.

I wanna be involved in making sure that stays that way.

Richland is a good place to live, just wanna make sure we put in the effort to keep it that way.

In that end, I've put in five years on the City of Richland Code Enforcement Board, last two as chair of that board.

I involved in several arts nonprofits in town.

I spent two years as the vice president of the Rude Mechanicals Shakespeare Group Board, helped them through COVID.

A lot of arts groups went under, we didn't.

And yeah, just wanna see that our city stays a good place to live.

Parks kept open, protect the Chamna Natural Preserve, Amon Basin.

Fully fund police.

Provide security to our families.

And also make sure that if Hanford goes away, we've still got jobs remaining there.

- All right, Mr. Levy, thank you very much.

Nice to have you here.

Mr. VanDyke, your opening statement, sir.

- Thanks.

So I wanna give back, that's important to me.

My family and I, my wife and I have raised four kids here.

Richland is an awesome place, we love it.

Some things that are important to me is that we have continued safety within our community.

Another one is, can we look ahead at long-term economic development planning?

I think it's really important, is we have lots of opportunities here in Richland.

Another one is we gotta make sure that we have some robust communications between city and citizens, I think that's really critical.

And the last one is, I really wanna see us engage more with our youth, especially youth that might be at risk, and opportunities to work with the community in that.

I believe I can give back in a few ways.

I've had about 20 years of leadership leading teams to solve hard problems.

Some of the expertise that has kept me busy.

So I've worked in government contracts, I've worked in process improvement.

I've had the opportunity to do a lot of financial accounting and financial responsibility.

And the last one is I work with and help consult to do team dynamics, which is important to me.

You wrap all that up and to me that means listening and adapting and just getting the job done.

The last part is, my career's taken me a little bit, well, a lot around the country and around the world, and I've really learned to appreciate Richland.

And I wanna give back.

- All right, Mr. VanDyke, thank you very much.

As we watch the clock here, time goes fast here as it will throughout the course of this.

And for a moment, we'll turn our attention to the Position 2 race.

We mentioned having incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Theresa Richardson going for another term.

Ms. Richardson couldn't be here.

She did send in a statement.

We'll get to that, but first to the person in the room, Elizabeth Vann-Clark is here.

Thank you very much for being here today.

Can we get your opening statement?

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I really appreciate the work that League of Women Voters does on these forums every year.

I've lived here since I was about 15 years old, so I've spent most of my life here.

Richland was a great city to grow up in.

It has a bright, beautiful future.

It's why I stayed here, because I enjoyed growing up here as a teenager.

So I raised my four children here.

I'm a Richland High and WSU Tri-Cities graduate, so I love our college campus here.

My priorities, I've spent a good 30 years volunteering in nonprofit organizations.

I'm actually the president of an arts and education organization.

My priorities when I look forward towards Richland's future is, yes, our economic development.

I think, though, that we need to be very smart and strategic about it.

I'd like to address our affordable housing concerns because that also is impacting our rise in local homelessness.

And I feel that we can work with our local subject matter experts to address it.

I think that we should get together as a team with our fellow cities around us.

I love our parks here.

We certainly need to work to continue supporting those, making them open.

And communication is definitely a priority, that's something I've seen over the past few years, as well as supporting our local small businesses while attracting the larger businesses that will keep us stable into the future.

- All right, Ms. Vann-Clark, thank you so much.

And Theresa Richardson, as we mentioned, seeking her second term on the council.

Here's what she sent in to Northwest Public Broadcasting as her statement.

- [Narrator] "My name is Theresa Richardson and I'm running to be re-elected to the Richland City Council.

First, let me thank the League of Women Voters for organizing this candidate forum.

I wish I could be there in person, but thank you for providing this alternative as a prior commitment didn't allow me to be in two places at once.

For those who don't know me, I'm a longtime resident of Richland and am proud of the city that I call home.

Having lived and traveled all over the world, I know how fortunate we are to live in a place like Richland, Washington.

My husband and I have deep roots here.

Our adult children have all chosen to move back to the area and we now have grandchildren growing up in Richland.

This is a great place to raise a family and we don't take that for granted.

Because of my commitment to this community, I ran and was elected to the city council in 2022.

I have worked on projects and led efforts engaging the council and the community.

I was grateful when my council colleagues selected me to be Mayor Pro Tem earlier this year.

With 10 years of leadership experience as the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, the transition to a leadership role in the community was that much easier.

That experience working in the community and helping families build or improve their home is one of the reasons one of my top priorities on the council has been housing.

We need to have a range of housing options for a range of needs.

Home ownership has transformational impact.

I wanna see more Richland residents achieve the American Dream of home ownership.

I've seen firsthand the impact home ownership has on people, the pride, the excitement, and I will work to make this dream a reality for as many people as possible.

In addition to housing, my other two priorities for my second term are encouraging economic development and supporting law enforcement.

It's important to invite good quality businesses to our community, businesses that will bring good job opportunities.

We need to be appealing to new organizations, but also smart about our economic development and how we choose to grow.

I have long been a supporter of law enforcement and am proud to have the endorsement of the Washington State Fraternal Order of Police.

Many of our residents are concerned about crime in our city.

Some have come to speak in front of the city council expressing their concerns about growing crime.

They have good reason to be concerned.

I will do whatever I can to give our Richland Police Officers and all first responders the support they need from city council.

My purpose in running is to ensure that the next generation thrives.

If you share this vision, let's work together."

- Okay, now that we have that long set of introductions out of the way, we can get to the question round.

I do wanna keep clear who's running for what, but ultimately we're looking forward to all of your responses to these questions.

We have six of them in this round from the League of Women Voters.

We'll get responses from each of the three of you.

And we'll begin with Mr. Levy.

We'll go one, two, three and then we'll go one, two, three and then one, two, three, if that makes any sense.

So question one, we're gonna get right into it on the topic of homelessness.

There has been an increase in the homeless population.

One of the contributing factors has been certainly a lack of affordable housing.

How would you address this issue?

- Thank you.

So homelessness, one thing to keep in mind is it's something we can work on.

I don't know that we'll ever solve the problem of homelessness, but we can certainly work it, reducing the amount of folks out there.

The easy ones, as some say, is the single mom with two kids living in her car.

We can work to get some transitional housing in place for these individuals.

It sounds easy to say money is the solution, but money is the solution.

The state has some funding we can go look for as a legislative priority.

Establish some transitional housing, get them counseling, financial counseling as part of that housing, have some nonprofits get involved.

It's not gonna be solved by the City of Richland alone or by the state alone or by nonprofits alone, it's gonna take a team effort.

But there are people, the people that want help are the easy ones to help, as long as we get the right funding for it.

Tougher solution is the ones that need help on the streets that don't know they need the help.

But yeah, providing that affordable housing, some transitional housing where they can live, have time to get that first, last security deposit built up in the meantime with a roof and a locked door and feeling secure.

- All right, Mr. Levy, thank you very much.

Mr. VanDyke, same question.

- Yeah, this is a fun one.

Nationwide problem, it's a big one to attack.

A few things that I've gotten to learn about it is I met with Representative Connors and she has spent a lot of time with Washington State legislature understanding what's happening within Washington State and she's coming to us to help explain those impacts.

I've also asked our city to present what the options can be to help us with homelessness and affordable housing.

Affordable housing is kind of fun in that even defining that can be tricky.

People understand it differently.

Is that low-income housing?

Is that trying to find housing for median income people?

I think, and I hope to see there's some good options that we can work with from our city, and I trust some of those professionals to come with good ideas.

Two quick things on homelessness.

Had an opportunity to go out on a ride along with the police and we did the night shift, and it was interesting to see the approach and the amazing work that our police officers do.

They know a lot of 'em by name and they have opportunities to work with them and find them help.

The last part of it is, sometimes there's some root issues that we want to address.

On Wednesday, I had a chance to be in a workshop with 11, I'm sorry, judicial districts.

And we have our own judge that's in a therapeutic court on mental health and he's become a huge convert and is so excited to see transformations in people's lives.

Sometimes those are the things that we can do to help people get back on their feet.

- All right, Mr. VanDyke, thank you very much.

Ms. Vann-Clark, same question as homelessness continues to be an issue around here.

- Well, we have multiple factors that lead into the growing homeless crisis to begin with.

Yes, there's mental health concerns, drug concerns, affordable housing concerns.

If we take a look at the zoning for Richland, we really aren't zoned to address those concerns.

What we need is we need to take advantage of some state and federal programs that allow for smaller houses.

We have some state laws that came through that allow us for multifamily homes.

If you take a look at the zoning for the City of Richland, the majority of our residential zoning is single-family zoning.

So we can get on this.

The sooner that we start to get on this, the sooner that we can address the problem, and we will need to come from multiple directions.

There's not gonna be a one-Band-Aid fix.

I think what I would start out with first, though, within less than a year, is to get those nonprofit organizations that are working on this, those local community experts together in a workshop.

And I actually have plans to do that this November.

- All right, Ms. Vann-Clark, thank you so much.

Appreciate your answers there.

All right, let's move on to question number two with a little bit of context first.

In July, the state enacted new legislation called the Growth Management Act, specifically to address managing what they're calling fast-growing cities and counties, certainly qualify here.

So the questions, and Mr. VanDyke, you get to go first here.

What will you do in your elected position to address and to recognize the impacts of climate change?

- I think the city has a pretty amazing opportunity.

We have an area just north of the city that has been set apart for looking to find ways to, for example, work on carbon offset.

We have Atlas Agro coming in with a billion dollar investment.

They're leading edge on finding ways to produce fertilizer for our farmers that doesn't have a carbon impact.

We're looking at other things, such as solar, and trying to put together a balanced portfolio of energy.

With that balanced portfolio, we can have an opportunity to build towards a carbon-neutral environment.

Those are things I think we can do as a city, is to encourage some of those things.

And I think we can also encourage our citizens to do something as simple as recycling.

There's opportunities as a city council member that I think I can have an impact there.

- All right, Mr. VanDyke, thank you very much.

Ms. Vann-Clark, same question to you.

- Thank you.

I love our recycling program, it's actually quite robust, I use it.

We do have the opportunity of the fertilizer plant going up north, which is great, but what makes them green is green energy, which means we need to have access to green energy and that involves working with the federal government when it comes to the Hanford site and taking advantage of the cutting-edge industry of the nuclear power.

Solar, definitely a go-to.

I'd like to see us as a city, though, offer more support to homeowners to install solar panels, more support to encourage electric vehicles.

I think that we can work on a local county and state level to shift ourselves more towards that green energy.

- All right, Ms. Vann-Clark, thank you very much.

Mr. Levy, same question to you.

How would you use your elected position to address climate change?

- I'm gonna piggyback on what Ms. Vann-Clark said a little bit and the fact that having the city make things easier for the citizens to help themselves.

I myself am a recipient of a lower-interest loan to allow for upgrading my AC unit a couple years ago for more energy, going from a year-old external thing to a heat pump unit.

My power bill has gone down, and it's a low-interest loan that helps reduce energy load in the city.

Also maybe offer similar low-interest loans for solar power.

We're lucky here in the Tri-Cities that we have relatively low energy rates and we're surrounded by opportunities for green energy, wind power, solar power, the dams on the Snake River, which are a constant kind of discussion point about protecting them.

I myself enjoy the green energy provided by the dams, so I'd like to see us fight as an area to keep those protected.

But yeah.

And see to get a little more involved with electric vehicles.

And yeah, just to reduce energy, keep things green and... - Mr. Levy, thank you very much, got it.

And then Ms. Vann-Clark, we're gonna turn to you for question number three.

And we're gonna sort of stay on the growth topic here and certainly conversation your communities are having when it comes to lifers versus transplants to the area.

How would you bring these two groups together, not to sound too pie in the sky, but for a more productive Richland?

(Elizabeth chuckles) - At some stage or another, we are all transplants into Richland if you look back into Richland's history.

We are here because of World War II and the development of the nuclear industry.

Many of us moved here as military vets or as military children.

I did, I'm a Navy brat.

I'm very proud of it too.

So we're all, at some level or another, transplants, but I think we all move here though for the exact same reasons.

We love Richland, it's a safe community, it's a stable community, it's got a bright future.

And I think that if we focus on those goals together of what we all want for this community, then we can see ourselves more as a community instead of an us versus them.

I don't think that there's any productivity in viewing ourselves as us versus them.

- Ms. Vann-Clark, thank you very much.

Mr. Levy, sort of restate the question, this whole issue.

Whether you say, oh, these people from California are coming up into our area and raising prices, how do you keep that piece and be productive?

- I'd say get folks at the table to talk it out.

Communication is key.

Had a class, we've gone through on crucial conversations.

Have those difficult conversations with people.

What are you looking to get?

Why did you move?

You moved because you liked it, so how do we keep what you moved here for?

So myself, I moved 13 years ago for a job, and after living in town a couple years, I was invited to a chamber of commerce luncheon, the Tri-Cities' Chamber of Commerce luncheon, where I learned that, hey, there is this drive to try to get us to work together as a regional group, you know?

As a population center, we are equal to Tacoma and we don't have what Tacoma has because we don't always seem like we're willing to work together.

So getting everyone at the table.

It's okay not being the biggest fish in the pond, you know?

We can work as a team to encourage driving towards the same goals, but identifying those goals is what's important.

And why did you move to the Tri-Cities in the first place?

And how can we seek improvement, but also maintain what we've got?

And so a drive to the store that used to take five minutes doesn't take 15 minutes now.

- All right, Mr. Levy, thank you very much.

Mr. VanDyke, interested in your perspective as somebody who started this program by saying, raise four kids here.

And so, how do you bridge that divide?

- Keep 'em when they come.

It's interesting, I've had some experience with that when I worked out at the vit plant, large company, worldwide company.

And it was shocking to see how many of 'em decided to stay.

They saw what Richmond was.

A lot of 'em retired here.

I'd also add that as people come into this community, they had some great diversity and help us see things differently.

And I think that's a phenomenal impact and it's a great thing for us to have as a community.

I think we'll be stronger.

Like I said, I've been here 20 years.

I came here, to be honest, a little bit begrudgingly, but my wife kept me here for a bit, and man, we've really grown to love it.

So I say, let's be as inclusive as we can to keep the people that we have and just be respectful to them as they're here.

- All right, thank you very much, sir.

All right, let's move on to question number four, and really get into the difference between what you personally feel and how you govern.

So we'll get a little bit of context to this because of a story I'm sure you all know from the spring.

In April, a city council member encouraged citizens who were upset about a drag show to be hosted on Easter Sunday at the Emerald of Siam restaurant to write politely and protest.

Now, after experiencing some graffiti death threats, hate mail, the restaurant says that response was anything but polite.

The city council member also received threats, harassment, and so forth.

So given that situation, we don't have to necessarily address that specifically, but do you think city council members should make public statements like this about businesses and events or activities, or maybe do we learn to remain more neutral?

Mr. Levy, you go first.

- I think it's okay to have an opinion about stuff and express that opinion, even maybe not in the council itself.

What was initially intended, write a letter, doesn't feel very supportive of small business, but that's fine, write a letter.

As soon as it went beyond that point, I was disappointed to not see anybody on the city council step out and hey, this isn't what was intended.

Writing letters is not the same as going and papering over the windows at the restaurant and vandalism.

Looking at what currently is going on in Pasco right now with one of the candidates' signs getting marked up with potentially racial slurs.

Not hearing anybody step out against that.

It was done in the name of signed generically by the Franklin County Republicans.

Nobody has spoke out against that, that I'm aware of yet.

To clarify, that's not the official Franklin County Republicans.

So just you need to clarify when your stuff is misinterpreted and be willing to say, hey, you're misinterpreting what I said, and let me clarify.

And so you having an opinion is fine.

Be willing to clarify to folks if they step too far off your opinion.

- All right, Mr. Levy, thank you very much.

Mr. VanDyke, same question to you.

- Sure.

So my approach maybe was a little bit different.

In my opinion, if there's a private citizen and a private business doing things that are not illegal, not criminal acts, they should be allowed to do that.

And I think that's something that we can be supportive of diversity in our community.

Now, that being said, probably myself and my family wouldn't participate in a drag show, but that doesn't mean that we can't be supportive.

One thing that I was a little concerned about is I wanna be careful that we don't, as a city council, put ourselves in a position where, for example, with children where we're taking the place, I think, of a parent or guardian, that is a concern to me.

Coming back, though, to specifically, my biggest challenge, Matt, was our response as a community.

It was not our finest hour.

And I'd like to see more opportunities for us to come together and work things out instead of being very polar and not coming together to work on solutions.

- Thank you very much, Mr. VanDyke.

Ms. Vann-Clark, same question.

- Thank you.

I really value the independence of our small businesses and our community members.

And we all have the right to our individual opinions and how we live our lives.

However, when we are leaders in a public sphere, we have to keep in mind that we are representing everybody in our community, whether we may or may not support or share their individual personal beliefs.

And I think that when we speak out as larger leadership, as larger elected leadership, that that's the place we need to come from, whether we would attend a drag show or not, or a myriad of other different things that we could argue or discuss about in our private lives.

In that public, we need to make sure that we're representing everybody.

Now, I'll be very open here.

I did stand with that business and I was with the other people who stood with that business.

And I found our gathering to be very positive and supportive of our small business.

And we've continued to be positive and supportive of our small business.

I also stand with the councilman, Mr. Brown from Pasco, as well.

- All right, thank you Ms. Vann-Clark, really appreciate it.

All right, perhaps that's a nice segue here as we get to another question from the League of Women voters.

And I know we don't always like to try to talk about hypotheticals, but as a city council member, I'd like you to give us a scenario in which you would recuse yourself from a vote or a conversation on the council and why.

Mr. VanDyke first.

- I think both having a potential conflict or even the optics of a conflict can be challenging.

And I think we need to have the respect and continue to have trust of our citizens.

I would much rather err on the side of recusing yourself if there's any concerns about it than not.

Specifics may be, for example, if you had a donor that donated to you, if there was a friend, for example, that was active as a business in the community or a builder, we wanna be careful how we represent ourselves.

I believe in the idea of a statesman, and we need to be the best we can be to represent our citizens.

And if there's any concern, I trust our city council to still come to good decisions, and I would recuse myself as needed.

- All right, Mr. VanDyke.

Ms. Vann-Clark, same to you.

Is there a situation you can think of where you would need to recuse yourself?

- Thank you, yes.

And actually I have a great deal of experience in this.

In my work in nonprofit organizations, I'm actually known in the circles that I work in to be strongly educated in bylaws, conflicts of interest policies, harassment policies, and codes of conduct.

And so there have been times with my organizations where I have recused myself from a vote, even as a board member of those organizations, because the vote has involved another nonprofit that I've sat on the board with or a friend or a family member.

And that would be the case too where I'm sitting on the city council.

And as Mr. VanDyke says, very importantly, it's not just, is it a conflict of interest?

Does it even appear to be a conflict of interest?

So, should there be a vote on one of the nonprofits regarding one of the nonprofits that I work with, that would be something that I would recuse myself from.

Should it be something regarding a friend or a family member, again, that would be something that I recuse myself from.

I wouldn't want the public to think that I'm making a vote that might benefit myself, my friends, or my organizations.

- All right, Ms. Vann-Clark, thank you so much.

Mr. Levy, can you think of a scenario?

- Very similar situation.

I said I am very involved in the local arts community, so there are some things I would have to be careful about there, I think, voting on.

There's a lot of drive for a local performing arts center to go in, whether it's Richland-led, private-led, it's gonna have to be, once again, a team effort.

I have to be careful of my involvement there, and I know too many people involved in the drive of the process.

Other than that, family members.

During the five years I spent on the Code Enforcement Board, I think I did a pretty good job of performing objectively.

It's a semi-judicial process.

I had to recuse myself once because one of the cases was on my street, and I'm like, ooh, I'm not gonna get involved in that one, so I abstained from voting in that situation.

But other than that, there were several times I ruled guilty on things that I personally did not feel were a heinous violation or a victimless crime, but we've got our code in place to protect all citizens equally and that has to get ruled on in an objective manner, and that was the vow I took when I joined the board.

- Thank you very much, Mr. Levy.

I know it's a difficult question to answer, but unique insight there as well.

All right, our final question, getting back to the growth topic, more specifically, getting around as we grow, I think Mr. Levy referenced the instead of five minutes, it takes 15 minutes saying.

Do you think Richland has enough transit for the growing population, and why or why not?

And if not, what would be your ideas for expanding that here?

Ms. Vann-Clark first.

- Thank you.

My children use public transit, I do as well.

I've loved it for years.

But unfortunately, no, we do not have enough public transit.

So I do feel that we need to invest in our Benton-Franklin transit.

And what I've noticed, because I live about the north side of Central, is that Hanford traffic is a serious issue.

I think that we can come up with plans.

We need to take a look at where residential folks are, where the folks living in and working in Hanford, where they live, and make road construction plans to make their movements easier to Hanford so that we're not ending up with the traffic jams.

I think we need to invest in some transit that we used to use when I was quite a bit younger where our Hanford folks would bus from their residential areas into the site.

I think that we can partner with federal government, with DOE, and with the Department of Homeland Security on a plan like that.

I did notice in the 2017 Richland Comprehensive Plan there was a discussion about a North Richland bridge bridging Richland to Pasco because Pasco is growing quite a bit to the north.

I think we should look into that as well.

- All right, Mr. Vann-Clark, thanks so much.

Mr. Levy, same question.

- Yeah, I don't think we currently have enough public transit, and more important, I think we need to start looking at it running later.

I wanna say our last buses run at eight at night, which doesn't do a lot of good after that if you're out and about.

So seeing Benton-Franklin transit try to run a little later, a little more routes that time of day.

There is an increase in an attempt to try to make Richland more walkable.

We haven't really talked on that, but the plan to turn George Washington Way and Jadwin into one-way streets and try to increase traffic safety and walkability of that downtown core.

Hopefully we need to get a little better on our communication there of what that work is gonna do.

I was at the Uptown Shopping Center a few weeks ago and roughly 50% of the businesses were unaware that's actually in progress.

It's not just a hypothetical at this point.

But I think we're doing a good job of staying up on it.

I mean, the Duportail Bridge, I live also in North Richland and the Duportail Bridge has been a godsend for me getting to the Queensgate area.

So I think we're getting there.

We're trying to make traffic flow patterns work, but definitely love to see buses running a little more frequently and at night.

- All right, and Mr. VanDyke, same question.

Ideas for growth in transportation here in Richland.

- So my context might be a little bit different.

I spent a lot of time driving in Southeast Asia and Seattle and Washington, DC.

I think we've got a lot of congestion and my hope is we don't get to that.

We have an opportunity to do a flyover on 240, and as we continue to grow leading-edge and carbon-neutral opportunities out at the Hanford site, we're gonna need that flow through traffic.

We have an opportunity to meet with our three representatives for the state coming up here soon.

We've put together some legislative priorities and one of them is that.

Our city isn't going to pay for $35 million to put that together, but how can we work with the state to find a solution, not just for Richland, but for the rest of the Tri-Cities?

I think that's one great opportunity that we have to really make a difference.

- All right, thank you very much, Mr. VanDyke.

That does it for this race.

We really appreciate all of your responses and all of your time.

Or should say pair of races.

Here a reminder.

Mr. Levy, Mr. VanDyke are running against each other, head to head in the Position 5 race.

Ms. Vann-Clark is here, the challenger in Position 2 race against Theresa Richardson.

Thanks so much for your time today.

And that brings us to our last race in this program, staying with the Richland City Council.

The Position 6 seat will have a change there no matter what as Kent Madsen and Kurt Maier appear on the ballot, both in studio with me today.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here.

Glad to get to know your stance on some of the issues a bit better.

And as promised, we do have a minute for opening statements for each of you.

Mr. Madsen, you barely come ahead in the alphabetical by last name category, so you get to go first with your one-minute opening statement.

- Thank you very much.

So I'm Kent Madsen, running for Richland City Council Position 6.

Richland is not just my place of residence, it's my home.

I was born and raised in Richland.

I went to Jefferson, I went to Chief Joe and to Columbia High School, which is, of course, now Richland High School.

I dedicated 14 years of my life serving on the Richland Planning Commission, and for four of those years, I was its trusted chairman.

We participated in some significant growth in the city.

To mention a few, Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

We worked on the master plan to close Goethals.

We worked on Badger Mountain South and we also worked on the Columbia Park West Master Plan, and that was exciting for the reach.

So I would invite you to come to my website, www.kentmadsen.com, org, and learn a little bit more about me and what I stand for.

Thank you.

- Mr. Madsen, thank you for being here.

And Mr. Kurt Maier, you're here as well.

I talked to you during the summer forums as well.

Your opening statement, sir.

- Just like it was back then, my name is Kurt Maier and I'm also running for Richland City Council.

I have very specific things that I would like to see achieved by the city council, and those include updating the code, simplifying some of the permitting processes that interfere with small businesses being established, and fixing a bunch of the zoning things that haven't been updated since the '80s and are precluding development.

My primary goal is to ensure that housing is accessible.

I've got children currently going to Richland schools, and when they graduate, I'd like them to be able to afford to live in the city.

And right now I don't know that anybody's working toward making that possible.

So my goal is to reform the code both in the permitting section and the zoning section.

- All right, Mr. Maier, thank you so much for being here.

And here's where we start with the questions written and gathered by our League of Women voters of Benton and Franklin Counties.

You two were preceded here by candidates in some other Richland City Council races.

There could be a lot of turnover on that council, that also means there could be a lot of opportunity for a new council.

Maybe a broad question here, and we'll start with you, Mr. Madsen.

What issue do you think you could resolve for the City of Richland with your service on the council?

- Well, I think resolving something is probably not the key thing.

I think the experience that I bring to the council would be more important than anything.

I think my years on the Planning Commission has taught me a lot.

I've learned how to listen to people when they come to the dais about their concerns and about the proposals that are being made.

Certainly I am concerned about streamlining the process in the application for building permits.

We need to make sure that we do that the most effective way possible.

The city is very well run and I don't think that I have any particular thing that's on my agenda other than to offer experience, and my experience in the City of Richland, the city that I was born in, the city that I love, and the city that I have actually three of my four children who followed us here when I raised them in Spokane, they now live here.

And I'm raising 12 of my 14 grandchildren here.

So this is a very unique city and we are exceptionally blessed to live in this area.

- Mr. Madsen, thank you.

And I realize this sort of goes into some opening statement type of stuff, Mr. Maier.

But what issue do you think you could resolve by being on the city council?

- I think there are issues to be resolved and one of them is a lack of leadership that the council needs to be showing.

Right now we've got this situation where people run into problems and then they have to spend their time and money taking them to the council and asking for help, and then the council takes the minimum possible action in order to resolve the issue in front of them.

And I don't think that that's a strategic way of running a city.

I think that little patches and fixes as we go along led us to having a code that is out of date and hard to understand and difficult to navigate.

And so I think that the primary issue that I'd like to resolve is that strategic thinking and that forward-thinking leadership.

- All right, thank you very much.

And moving on to our second question, this one on ethics and policy.

And if the City of Richland does not already have an ethics policy for the council on the books, do you think one should be implemented?

Why or why not?

Mr. Maier.

- I absolutely think that accountability is what keeps governments healthy.

And so ethics, there has been floated the idea of an ethics subcommittee on the city council several times.

This idea has been dismissed several times by members of the council, both current and former, and I completely disagree with that assessment.

I think that it is imperative that the people who are handed charge of a government need to be able to demonstrate to the people who they work for that they're doing things in the people's interest rather than their own.

And I say that without making specific accusations because it doesn't matter if anybody has actually transgressed, the accountability needs to be there, and ethics rules and ethics committees are a valuable part of providing that accountability.

- All right, Mr. Maier, thank you.

Mr. Madsen, same question.

- It's an interesting question.

I'm certainly open to anything that might come forward to the council in that regard.

I don't believe, like Mr. Maier does, that we have any particular problem.

We have a voter base that can actually vote people out if there's a problem with ethics, and I think that that works pretty well.

I think that our, as I look at our council people, they have been very responsible over the years.

And do we need a committee?

Do we need a new rule, a new governing body to talk about ethics?

I'm not so sure, but I'm open to the idea if it's proposed.

I certainly think that I can look at both sides of the issue and come to a decision that would be for the betterment of the city if that comes forward.

- All right, Mr. Madsen, thank you very much.

And we can't really get through this without addressing growth, and we have in various parts here, and all the things that might mean here in the Tri-Cities.

Let's do that through the lens of transportation here.

So the question is, do you feel that there is adequate transportation to address all of the growth happening here in Richland?

- I think we're very lucky to have a staff.

Pete Rogalsky in the Transportation Department has a vision and he directs that department.

I think our roads are very adequate.

One of the best things about the Tri-Cities is no matter where you live, you can get anywhere you want to in about 15 to 20 minutes.

Sure, there's some choke points when traffic from Hanford comes forward.

Things have been done to mitigate that over the years.

Those things develop as the city has developed.

I remember when I was young, the Bypass Highway was a two-lane road and now it's a six-lane road and traffic flows very nicely.

That, of course, is controlled by the DOT.

But the city streets are, as far as they're concerned, I think we're doing a great job, but things will progress as we grow and develop.

- Mr. Madsen, thank you.

Mr. Maier, that same question.

Do you feel like there's adequate transportation for the growth, and if not, any suggestions?

- Well, I think that it's a mistake to hear the word transportation and assume we're talking about just roads.

We have the Ben Franklin Transit Agency supports not just Richland, but the Tri-Cities.

And if you are a person who does not have a car or access to a driver license, you might find that it takes a little bit longer than 15 minutes to get around the Tri-Cities.

In other words, when my son, who does not drive yet, wanted to take the bus to a sporting event over in Kennewick, that bus ride would've involved four transfers and taken him nearly an hour and a half to get there.

So put a long story short, no, I don't think it's sufficient.

I think that every time people talk about transportation in this city, they talk about widening GWay at Aaron Drive again, and I don't think that that's the right answer for growth.

I think that we're approaching population density that's gonna require us to take a hard look at what happens to the rest of the people.

- All right, Mr. Maier, thank you very much.

And we could talk about so many topics, but TV has its time constraints, so we'll have one more question here.

And I actually love this question 'cause we talk so much about issues facing our areas, but if you're gonna be stewards of your city and its well-being, you better be able to talk about it well.

And if you were trying to convince somebody to move to Richland, what would you tell them about your city?

Mr. Maier.

- Well, that's easy.

I've had this conversation with various members of my family because there is an absolute gem that belongs to Richland and it is the Columbia River coastline.

We are so close to so many miles of river trails and parks and boat launches.

And the ability to step outside your door and be in a natural place to experience that green space and to take your boat out on the river and all that, it's amazing.

It's something I've seen a lot of cities try to build, but I don't think I've ever seen it done as well as it has been in Richland.

So I really think that that connection to the outdoors is something that we have that a lot of places lack.

- All right, Mr. Maier, thank you very much.

And Mr. Madsen, what would you say to somebody?

- I would echo his comments.

In my past life, I traveled sales territory from Denver to the coast and from border to border and out of Spokane where I raised my kids.

We came here purposely, because I would say that the Tri-Cities, and Richland in particular is a gem on the West Coast, and it's not well known to a lot of people, but this is a fantastic city and a fantastic area.

As mentioned, I think transportation is excellent.

Three of my kids followed us here and they live here now and my grandkids are here.

I was born and raised here and I can truly say that in all of my travels, that there's nothing better.

- All right, Mr. Madsen, thank you very much.

Kent Madsen, Kurt Maier, we wanna thank you both for being here today.

I know this probably does not feel like enough time, but just nice to get a snapshot of our candidates for Richland City Council Position 6.

And one more reminder to all of you.

Thanks to all of our candidates, by the way, we covered four races today.

Lots more to come in Vote 2023 with NWPB.

A reminder, election day is November 7th.

October 20th is the date for ballots to be mailed out.

The deadline to register for mail-in voting is October 30th, but you can register in person all the way up to election day.

And next up, we'll be taking a look at the City of Kennewick, some races, a major focus on a few school board races.

And we wanna thank you all for joining us.

Thanks for wanting to find out more about the people running to serve your community.

Have a great night.

(lively music)