Good evening and welcome to this candidate forum.

I'm Ruvine Jimenez, part of the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin counties.

The league is a nonpartisan organization that neither supports nor opposes candidates.

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.

Our 2025 primary Election candidate forums feature these races with three or more candidates.

They have been prerecorded in person by Northwest Public Broadcasting at the WSU Tri-Cities studio.

They will now be available on YouTube and TV on the league's website, and through partner sites like the City of Richland and the Columbia Basin Badger Club through Election Day, August 5th.

At this time, I would like to introduce our moderator, Matt Loveless, from our College of Communication, Pullman.

Please welcome Matt.

Well, thank you to the League of Women Voters, and we welcome you to this vote 2025 coverage with Northwest Public Broadcasting.

I am Matt Loveless.

And today we're going to hear from candidates running for spots in both Kennewick and Richland.

A seat on the Kennewick school board.

And then turning our attention to Richland City Council.

This is the second hour of our vote, 2025 series.

Now here at NWPB, we think all of these races matter.

That's why we've invited candidates from every contested primary in Benton and Franklin County here to our WSU Tri-Cities studio.

We want to help give you the voter, as much information as possible about the people running to serve your community.

Now, our program here today will be two primary forums, a first with candidates for the Kennewick School Board position one, followed by Kennewick candidates for the Richland City Council.

We have a pair of races combined into a single half hour forum there.

I'll explain that in a little bit, but we have questions provided and solicited by the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin County on issues that our cities are facing.

So some ground rules for today, as we said.

We invited all candidates from every primary with three or more people on the ballot.

We are giving equal time to everyone, and we'll give our candidates a platform for 92nd opening statements today, and then we'll get into a series of questions.

This forum is also obviously a television program, so as moderator, I might get to additional topics if time allows.

We do ask that candidates keep things civil, avoid interruptions, and stay on time and on topic.

So we'll turn our attention to the Kennewick school board and three running for the position.

One seat currently occupied by Micah Valentine, the incumbent board member who joins us here today.

Also here, teacher and historian Robert Franklin.

And rounding out our ballot here is Mr. Mike Luzzo.

Gentlemen, we thank you all for being here.

We appreciate your time.

And now we're going to get to some opening statements.

So we've set that clock at 90s.

Mister Valentine, you're the incumbent here.

We'll give your 90s now.

All right.

Thank you I appreciate it.

So, yes, I am the current vice president.

And, this is a funny situation because I kind of know going into this, that, that the League of Women Voters may not totally agree with me on a lot of my, a lot of my points.

But I do think that if you were actually looking at what, what a good school board does, I think that that that, what I've done in this past couple of years has been remarkable.

So I just want to run through a couple things.

We, I think our fiscal responsibility is, is on par with any single school district in the state.

As a matter of fact, the Ospi I did a financial health indicator score in our school of the big schools, our school is the highest rated school in the state.

We have and we've also charged or imposed the fewest amount of the less amount of taxes to our tax base.

And we've done so.

We've done more with a lot less.

We also, you know, we've done a lot of things like we have we've, we've installed financial literacy.

We've installed no cell phone policies.

We are very pro-family, pro parental rights.

We've installed school safety officers in every single school.

One of my upcoming things this year is to get healthy food.

And we're actually piloting a, food program, a healthy food program this summer in the schools.

I think that our transparency has been awesome.

We've, now I have all in-person meetings.

We call the meetings, we push them out to the public.

And, so our accomplishments are more than I can even list in this amount of time.

And and I'm just curious to see, like what, what the other counties are, why they're running and, and, and kind of curious to see what they have to say.

Mr. Valentine, thank you for being here.

I bet we'll get an opportunity to elaborate on some of these topics.

I hope so throughout the forum.

Mr. Franklin, your opening statement.

Thank you.

In today's world, Politics touches seems to touch at nearly every corner of our daily lives.

But when it comes to our public schools, I believe it's time to draw a clear line as a candidate for the kind of school board, I'm committed to keeping divisive culture wars out of our classrooms and ensuring our students remain focused on what truly matters their education.

This is a nonpartisan position, and I take that very seriously.

Our mission should be clear providing equal access, support and opportunity to all students across the kind of work, school district and having them feel safe, known, and valued.

I'm excited to work hand in hand with teachers, administrators, students, and families to build an educational environment where every student can thrive.

As the parent of two.

One current student and one future student in the Kennewick School District and a college professor.

I know how important a good educational foundation is.

We all want what's best for our children.

That shared goal should unite us now more than ever.

We must set politics aside and come together as a community to support our schools, empower our educators, and put the future of our students first.

Together, we can make our schools a place where every child can thrive and reach their full potential.

Thank you.

Mr. Franklin, thank you very much.

Mike Luzzo, your opening statement, sir, to thank the ladies of League of Women Voters.

Of course, Cheryl Palmer, thank you for your time.

I appreciate it.

Mike was a past candidate for Richland City Council a couple of times.

I've been in touch with the outgoing superintendent of schools, Doctor Frazier Pierce, and her staff over Kennewick School District.

I know I come out of the Richland School District, and of course we have a family, grand children in the Richland School District.

I'm a product of the Richland School District.

And of course, we live in Kennewick.

As far as what I'm doing.

I been discussing different options with the school district in Kennewick, School District 17, and find out what they're doing today.

For example, I was talking to them.

One of the members of staff about what was called special project, apparently, special projects is when the department leads that talk about delivering a curriculum the state provides for them and what how that is addressed within school district as remain may or may not.

The curriculum is provided by the state.

I agree with Mr. Franklin.

Let's keep the politics out of it.

Let's let the parents and the state legislature figure out what we want to do with politics.

I prefer not to get into it again.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Luzzo.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for those opening statements and our series of questions from the league.

And we'll start with Mister Valentine here, and then we'll rotate who goes first with our responses.

Certainly a question the board's been asking itself, but how might state or federal budget cuts affect the Kennewick school district now and in the future?

And what do you see as possible solutions to cuts?

Well, they will affect they will affect things, for sure.

And obviously, you know, I don't know if people know this, but our budget is about 320 million.

And about 85% of it we have no control over.

And so the local school board has, has control, a very small portion of the budget, actually.

And which is why local control is so, so important.

And Mike just mentioned, parental rights.

So we've been a, a strong advocate for parental rights.

But yeah, I mean, so passing bonds and passing levies is a very, very important thing, which is actually.

So this, this next year, we just got it.

We just hired a new superintendent, and his very first job is to pass a bond and pass a levy and levy specifically.

So.

And that's how we pay for our teachers and our sports programs and our safety, our resource officers.

So, it's very, very important to be engaged in that process.

And it's really not that not the right time to actually swap somebody out when you're trying to pass a really, really important levy.

Because if we don't have that funding, I don't know, it's going to be very, very tricky.

But luckily we have a healthy fund balance.

We have, like I say, the healthiest fund balance in the state of Washington because we manage our our budget really, really well.

So that should I say, help a little, Mr. Valentine?

Thank you, Mr. Franklin.

Same question to you, sir.

Thank you.

Obviously, it is crucial to ensure that our schools have full funding for a variety of programs.

For to, for, of course, for teachers, for sports, but also for other extracurriculars that are just as important to long term student success, student engagement and preparation for their futures, whether that is college or technical or wherever they go.

We likely will have to.

As Mr. Valentine notes, we will have to, pass, you know, bonds and levies.

Although I find it odd in an opening statement to have a discussion about lower keeping taxes low.

And then, of course, we will be actually asking Kennewick voters to, to give more and, and considering our schools are the most important thing that we can do for our children, we should have clear messaging that we should be asking for the maximum amount of resources for our children.

It's the one thing.

What's one of the most important things that we can spend our public money on?

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And Mr. Lucio, same question to you.

How might budget cuts affect the district and what would some solutions have on the state and just the state legislature would be extremely interesting.

There was a McClure's decision several years ago, and what they said is there was a sense of unfairness within the state of Washington now when bonds are passed.

I was recently at school board meeting where they were looking at 1.7 through, cost per mil for the Kennewick school district.

I don't know what they're doing now, but they were going ahead and passing this.

The voters are asked to go ahead and stand up for what they wanted to vote for.

Doctor.

Shirley Renninger have this in School District 400 and Richland, and she wanted a new high school and they lost the mountain bond.

Now, what they have to do is go ahead and look at this.

They have to be aware that the state legislature sets a curriculum that was already set.

And then from there, the money is going to be covered.

Snap.

For example, I'm concerned about whether or not the U.S. government is going to get rid of that.

And I would say that would be an unfortunate decision because their coverage for children, that's also a federal program.

All right.

Mr. Luzzo, thank you very much.

Well, let's move on to question number two, and this one for Mr. Franklin to start.

And you sounded like you said a version of this in your opening statement.

But according to the district's strategic vision statement, all students are known well, safe and destined to reach their highest potential.

Now, in the current climate, how do you ensure that vision is literally all students, including those in the LGBTQ plus community, students of color, various religions?

And what would you say to those who feel like the district is not living up to that strategic plan?

I, as someone who teaches in a university setting, and who teaches different groups of students every semester, it's always my personal goal to see that all students feel safe, known, and valued in my classroom.

And I want them to feel where, regardless of their background, their ethnicity, as you know, the groups that you mentioned, the protected groups, that they all feel safe, known and valued.

We sorry.

This always gets me a little emotional.

Kennewick School District, needs to have clear and consistent messaging from the board down, making students feel safe doing a valued part of, We need to get away from divisive culture war topics.

Fighting the Washington state.

The Washington Athletics Commission on issues of sports.

We have to ensure that students have not just school resource officers, but proper supports counseling, mental health support while they are going through some of the toughest periods in their lives.

When when everything around them is changing and growing, they need that support.

So I thank you, Mr. Franklin.

Mr. Luzzo, same question, sir, same question.

Can you repeat the question?

Yeah.

In the current climate, how would you ensure that that strategic plan, that vision statement, does encompass all, including LGBTQ students of color and various religions.

What would you say to people who don't feel that it's doing that?

This has come up in the past during the, candidacy for the Richland City Council.

What's inclusive?

I would venture to say, if one looks at it, for example, there's, you know, court case Tinker versus, Dr. Martin, Independent School District, where there's a decision that was made and they had to go on and look for students, or there are required to do.

And the students had a right to speak out.

And there were black men.

And what happened is it was during the Vietnam War and I was in grade school during the Vietnam War, and that was extremely just divisive.

No, what we have to do is go a handle on the school district and parents decide what they are concerned about, whether or not they want to go ahead and bring in the gay community.

That's fine.

If they wanted to go ahead and bring in their community, that's fine.

Black Lives Matter, for example, there was a rather peaceful protest against this, church.

I was, in a way, with parents and school teachers.

I had no problem with that at all.

But again, it has to be up to the state legislature and the parents just can't build school boards.

School boards need to stay out of it.

If the parents don't want them in the middle of it.

School board.

They do, vote, but they do not have the rights.

Said there and speak for the parents.

If the parents also want to come speak out, they have First Amendment right to come out and speak for the school board.

Tell them I don't want this in my school district.

If they don't want to have certain books in school district, that's fine, but be careful what you're what?

You're getting rid of Maya Angelou I have no problem with.

But again, her book is, from what I heard, sorry, why the Caged Bird Sings.

Just listen to what they're doing.

So sorry we ran out of time there.

Mr. LLuzzo, I thank you very much, because I want to turn my attention to Mr. Valentine.

What's your response?

So the parents have spoken loud and clear, very loud and clear.

And and I would also say that if you if you, if the levy rate is too high, you don't pass it, so you have to pass it, you know, so we've done student surveys every single year, and we've actually, increased our student surveys, made them, made them, more frequent and, and, more comprehensive.

And, and our students report that they the highest numbers of feeling safe.

None a value that our school district has had.

So, I think we're doing a great job with that.

I believe, during during our Covid, we actually added additional counselors, on a, on a short contract in order to help kids kind of through that.

And, and that's why we fought so hard for, for biological girls in is, is to, to make sure that that we were protecting our students and protecting women in sports.

I believe that every single child should walk through the classroom, regardless of their political affiliation or or sexual orientation.

And they should they should be taught with 100% of that teachers effort.

And, and and that's really what we need to be focusing on.

We need to get politics out of the schools.

That is absolutely true.

And we've been a crusader for that.

And so and so what we focus on is making sure that every single kid who walks through the door, regardless is taught.

That teacher gives them 100%.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Valentine.

All right.

Question number three.

We'll turn to Mr. Luzzo for the first response here.

It sort of builds off that, particularly when it comes to immigrant families.

And how might the issue of sanctuary cities impact students and families?

And what role does a school board play as we monitor immigration enforcement happening across the country and here locally when it comes to protecting students, the truth, the Holy Bible says you have a right to sanctuary if you cross a priest.

There were at least six cities.

Shiloh was one site on was another.

The one could go to under the protection of the Lord.

That was also an altar.

Why school board should be involved in people being sent down to El Salvador?

I have no idea.

I would prefer the people leave the immigrant population alone.

I understand those that have broke a law, but they're fighting to bring up everybody because they're Hispanic, Latino, South American, Indian.

And the past president of the United States went out for those who were Islamic.

I lived two years in Turkey.

I have no problem with those Moslem.

So when it comes to that, just leave them out of that.

I don't want to get on soapbox.

That's where I look at it.

I'm a United States veteran and there was no problem with that at all.

With right, Mr. Luzzo?

Thank you very much, Mr. Valentine.

Same question.

Yeah.

I think our school district has almost the most diversity of any district.

It's certainly of the big three for sure.

Richland would have the least.

And so the something we deal with all the time, I mean, we have a lot of, people in our schools specifically right now who do not speak English.

I mean, we've all, as some people have heard about our Amistad situation, and it's just it's very, very tough because we have such a high number of kids who just do not speak English.

We've just came over this last year.

So what we've done is we've we've beefed up our our language learning programs.

We, and so, so we're, we're very aggressively attacking that, that problem so that, so that we can catch these kids up as best as we can so that they can speak the right, the proper language.

But as far as immigration, I mean, it really it's not a school board issue.

It's not a school board issue.

Our our job is to teach the kids that we have.

And so and to be really, really good at it.

And that's really what schools should focus on.

They should be they should be really good.

Nobody calls the school to complain about, you know, equity.

They call the school to say, why is it my kid at a at a third grade reading level.

So that's what we have to be good at.

We have to be excellent at the thing that we're supposed to be good at, and leave the other stuff at the door and really teach kids.

And I think we've aggressive done that.

I hope we get to talk about some of the curriculum adoptions that we've done.

Thank you, Mr. Valentine.

And Mr. Franklin, same question to you.

I largely agree with Mr. Valentine here.

When it comes to things like sanctuary cities and immigration policy, that is not a purview of the school board.

It is it is not.

The school board is not involved in immigration decisions.

I would disagree about, using language like a proper language.

I think that students should be able students.

Students should not have language phrased to them in the way that there is a correct and incorrect language.

But but I do agree with Mr. Valentine on a much larger point.

I would say that what the school board can do is it sets a tone.

It's it's a tone for the community.

And I think that, I think that the school, has a responsibility to continue to do outreach, to under to traditionally underserved populations.

We know that our demographics keep changing.

We've seen the, our communities change over the last ten, 20, 30, 40 years.

And we should be proactively investing in resources to, to serve underserved communities with, with communication that is available in languages that they speak at home.

All right, Miss Franklin, thank you very much.

It complicated question.

I completely understand.

And in fact, I'm not going to say this one gets any easier because even as immigration enforcement is not under the purview of a school board, the people you serve might be affected by it, as is the case with homelessness.

And so the question, Mr. Valentine, we'll start with you.

How do you think homelessness affects students in your district?

And are there any solutions or are any needed from the board?

Yeah.

But first I want to say English is the language of the United States.

So our kids need to learn English.

That's that has to happen.

I mean, that that is the language of the U.S.. As far as homelessness.

Yeah, we do have we do have homeless kids.

We have we have a very robust program.

We we every, every principal is in charge of that themselves.

And, we do a lot of collaborating and communication between schools, with close with we feed our kids breakfast and lunch every single day.

This is really which is why it's really important for us to have more healthy lunches because, that, that if that is in fact their only meal of the day that needs to be healthy because we're, you know, we can't feed them sugar.

And then three hours later.

So good night.

Go take your placement test and have their brains be tired and crashing.

Right.

And there's a lot of behavior problems.

So.

So, food, you know, food is really important there.

It's a big issue.

We cannot talk about it in 90s, honestly.

But but we do have a homeless problem, especially now that we've had so many people influx into our communities.

And it's something that we have a lot of outreach.

I mean, we've we've tripled or quadrupled our our outreach with that, with the, with the parents come into our schools, collaborate with school about what they're doing, about how they're helping kids.

I mean, I could go on and on about this, but it's a big problem.

It's a big problem and something that I think we're doing a pretty good job with.

Thank you, Mr. Valentine.

Mr. Franklin, on the homeless issue and what the district might be able to do.

Sure.

So it is very difficult to serve people that that are unhoused.

They have little to no stability outside of the school.

And so in those situations, the school is is a rock for them.

Keeping them in school is crucial.

As Mr. Valentine notes, it is it's really important for them to get fed in school sometimes some.

For some students, these are the only meal, reliable meals that they can get, and it is very important that they be healthy.

It's most important they be funded.

We're facing, a funding cliff after a lot of Covid, Covid funding has dropped away.

And also the state is under under budget.

You know, budget cuts, we have to prioritize our funding and that kind of support and recognize that these on on our students, we also need, mental health and counseling services inside the schools.

While those were increased in Covid, they were temporary.

I believe those have to be a fixture.

It's not being schools.

Being safe is more than just school resource officers.

It's about having a safety net, a social safety net, if you will.

For students in schools and, and and for the community in large which the students are a part of.

All right, Miss Franklin.

Thank you, Mr. Luzzo.

Same question to you.

How do you think homelessness is affecting Kennewick School District students?

Homelessness and being unhoused is not a new problem, as I remember, even when I was in high school, coming out in high school, we had people that definitely might have been, oh, no, sir, they were of an immigrant population or their one of the parents was not as well educated.

The problem is, what do we have to do to support that?

As I mentioned the Snap program, we need to support the children.

We need to understand homelessness may be a matter of just not being able to pay the rent.

Now, if one looks at union cast formations, and look, is there different homeless shelters in Kirtland Portland?

I remember there were there shelters there.

There were homeless shelters in Spokane sponsored by Gonzaga University.

If this includes children, they need to be supported.

We cannot go out for children and make them feel less than welcome within the school district.

All right, Mr. Lewis, thank you very much.

All right.

Let's move on to question number five.

Mr. Franklin, you get to go first here.

Mr. Valentine, you mentioned this a couple times.

School lunches.

Let's talk about the school lunches a little bit.

I'm curious if you have any idea if you could describe to people what those school lunches look like and what kind of improvements you might think are necessary for them.

Sure.

As a parent, I, you know, I see the school lunch menu.

And while it is things that certainly do appeal, to a five and to my five and six year old, they're not exactly what I would want him to eat at all time.

Simply put, I think that school lunches have not have not kept up with modern nutrition science.

We're still giving children reduced fat or nonfat milk.

We're giving them lots and lots of carbs.

We're giving them lots and lots of processed food.

I actually find some.

I actually find some real agreement here with, with Mr. Valentine that we do need to improve.

The next group prove the accessibility and nutritional quality of our school lunches.

They are adequate.

Because certainly students are getting fed and they're eating, and for many students, those are some of their most crucial meals of the day.

But I do think we could do a lot better with, updating with current nutritional science, bringing in more fresh fruit and vegetables, partnering with local farmers, and local suppliers, and just overall, updating the standards or advocating if school board can't set the policy for what a lunch is, but advocating for more updated nutritional standards in our school lunches, things that we would want to feed our children.

Thank you, Mr. Franklin.

Mr. Luzzo, same question, same question.

I'm most familiar with school lunches because I once saw help Mrs. Berry.

Half that was for Virginia and a half at Chief Joseph during high school when I went to visit school district.

And at the time, the ladies worked hard to try to make sure everything was set.

The United States government, again, is getting in the middle of this.

I do not at all know why they are, but she seems to be getting in the middle of even working out with, meals and snacks and this sort of thing.

A nutritionist needs to be brought in to this, and the nutritionist will also have to understand, sometimes these meals are bland for a reason.

There are food allergies.

If some child has a a peanut allergy, that peanut allergy needs to be addressed.

And we cannot do to do this with the children what they end up and do.

I've got a lactose intolerant young person might not have juice or an apple, maybe a sandwich.

They have 2 p.m. the covered.

And that again may not always be just a problem with the school board, the superintendent, schools.

I miss Luzzo, thank you very much, Mr. Valentine.

You mentioned it a couple of times.

Your thoughts on the schools?

We do have a nutrition list in our school district.

And, you mentioned prioritize funding and and it sounds like your answer, your thought is to tax tax tax and spend spend, spend.

That's not the answer.

That's how that's why Richland is in the situation there in the why Kennewick is in the situation that we're in.

So I have eaten the lunches.

Part of the crusade was I've been to I can't tell you how many schools and actually sat down and ate the lunches with the kids, and, and high school, middle school.

Well, I mentor schools, so I'm very familiar with what the lunches are.

There's a big the bureaucracy.

You I mean, we briefly mentioned, some other, some national things, but what we need is local control because we have an outdated food pyramid.

That's been put in place for a long time.

And they force that upon you.

It's a huge bureaucracy.

You turn around a major, major shift.

You're talking about supply chains.

You're talking about budgets.

You're talking about all kinds of different things.

Something that I've been working on for months and months and months and months.

I want to say that this summer we actually were piloting a whole new menu for lunches with with all the summer school kids.

And then if it goes well, we'll we'll transition that into the thing.

But we have no processed food, no sugars, no food dyes, no seed oils.

And that's going to all our summer school kids are going to have that.

And and then hopefully we never then we're going to move that to breakfast.

So I mean, I wish I could talk a lot about this because it's a big subject, but we're on it.

I mean, I'm on it now.

I appreciate the response as a parent with a child with food allergies who reads the school lunch menu every single day, it's an important topic, even if your child does not.

So we appreciate that.

Well, our sixth and final question that all we have time for in this forum, perhaps we're finally getting to the heart of the education portion of this forum.

There's a lot of interesting topics.

Individual students, as we know, might have different learning styles.

And I think traditionally Kennewick School District been exceptional in its reputation, offering a number of options to students that are both academic or perhaps exposure to things like trades.

These include International Baccalaureate theme based learning, homeschool options.

Mr. Luzzo, we'll start with you.

What would you add or change to those offerings from the district?

Now, as I've said, I've been looking at the way things, Doctor Craig Shapiro and her staff have been looking at school, and I'm not I'm I'm extremely impressed.

And and change again.

I'm going to have to simply listen to what's going on and spend about 3 or 4 months and listen to it.

My background, the education testing assessment for Southern Illinois University.

So when we start talking about learning styles, learning taxonomies, I'm somewhat familiar with that.

Even at school.

Kids, each school system, secondary school system, we're going to have to look at learning styles and see, as one of my professors once said, has learning occurred?

If it's occurred, you do a formative evaluation, and at the end of the cycle, you'll look at a some summative evaluation and move on.

Was eighth grade is 11th grade.

However they're going to do it and just go from there.

All right.

Mr. Luzzo, thank you very much.

Thank you for being here, Mr. Valentine.

Same question.

Well, I appreciate you saying that you're impressed because I think we've done an awesome job with this.

We have multiple high schools, multiple schools.

We have mixed, which is a mere Columbia partnership.

It's a partnership between parents and kids.

We have we have a homeschool entire school that's for homeschool kids called endeavor.

We have a tri tech school, which is, the focus is on the trade.

So my daughter will be going there next year, as a matter of fact.

And, and it's absolutely a of an amazing, amazing program where we're connecting kids who are in the trades with the next level.

And we have a huge, huge program there.

It's very, very successful.

We have a school called Delta, that we work hand in hand with, I mean, we have we have, Legacy High School, which is for us and alternative learning.

So we have we have a number of different school, different school options for kids to kind of go to, to, to pick and choose what they want to do.

You know, I mean, so, so I think that we are absolutely leading the, leading the way in that and in this state and maybe even in the nation, there's very, very few schools have done what we've done with our budget and, and offered as many different programs as we have.

And the really key is connecting kids to the next level and making sure that kids have the right education.

They have a belief in our country that they love our country.

They know because they live in America.

They can go, they can do anything they want to do.

And so when you combine those two things and connect them to that next level, then the sky's the limit for these kids.

Miss Valentine, thank you very much, Mr. Franklin.

Same question.

What would you add or change to the offerings here in this?

Well, I would just like to note that kind of what I agree with, with Mr. Valentine that Kennewick does have and has had for some time an array of excellent options.

Tri tech, Phoenix High School, wasn't mentioned a wonderful alternative high school.

And we have to protect these, and we have to find ways to expand them as possible.

Tri tech has a long list, people to get in.

We talk about how trades are important, but how do we get students there?

How do we how do we find or shift resources?

Right.

Those are those are tough, problems that the school board can be involved in.

And working with teachers and listening to what to what students need.

So we have to find ways to, at the minimum, keep the access to these things that we have and ideally to be expanding the access to meet the needs of our students and, and to have students that, that really, that come out of high school, with a deep I wouldn't say I would disagree with the previous phrasing of, of kind of belief or love.

And I would go further to say a deep understanding of our country, and of our systems and of and of how these students fit into them from their diverse backgrounds.

Mr. Franklin, thank you very much.

And I wish we could get to so much more.

But that's all the time we have for a forum here today.

Hopefully throughout this election season we get to hear more from our candidates as well.

That wraps it up here.

Candidates Micah Valentine, Robert Franklin, Mike Luso, we really appreciate your time for the Kennewick School board position one.

Best of luck.

And we now turn our attention to the city of Richland in a city council that has four positions with at least three candidates in this summer's primary.

And despite the best efforts of the League of Women Voters, we have many who could not make it.

So we're going to use this time to get to know the candidates who could one each in the position.

Three and position four races.

So let's get to it for position three.

Joining us is Pat Holten, running against incumbent Sandra Kent and fellow challenger Robert Laco.

And in position for it's John Maier.

I don't want to do too much nepotism today, but you are the son of city council member Kurt Maier.

His first shot at political office running against Donald Landsman.

A third candidate, Jordan Lee, has withdrawn his name, though his name will remain on this ballot.

So to simplify, Pat Holten for position three, John Meyer for position four.

We thank you both for being here for this getting to Know You forum today.

Now, all of our candidates are getting a chance to introduce themselves with 92nd opening statements.

Miss Holten, we'll begin with you with your opening statement.

Thank you.

Matt, I'm Pat Holten I came to Richland to student teach over 50 years ago.

I've left the community ever since.

I taught sixth grade at Jefferson School and, thought I'd that would be the rest of my life.

And then I met my husband and three children, and then three marriages and now two grandchildren.

Later and over 50 years.

We're still here.

Intend to stay here.

We love the area.

And it it is a unique city.

And I've found that, miles and miles of riverfront that we have in Richland.

I like unlike any city that I know.

And the sense of, public access to that.

We have, our great nuclear programs that my husband was involved in, our agriculture, our wine and our, scientific community.

It just makes it a wonderful community to live.

And we intend to be here.

We even like it in the winters.

My husband loves to, hunt and fish in the winters.

And I've learned to like the quiet.

So we're not fleeing to the south during those months.

And so I would love to be here to represent you in Richland.

All right, Miss Holten, thank you very much.

And, Mr. Maier, welcome.

Glad you're a part of the fray.

Let's have your opening statement, sir.

I just graduated to Hanford High School, and I've seen a lot of things that are affecting our youth and a lot of things that I think our city council is just isn't aware of being, mostly older and different problems that they face.

Just don't.

I think our city council needs a young politician to be able to speak for what he's seen in his life so far and what he thinks is necessary.

And one of those things is, affordable housing just coming out of high school.

I can't afford to move out because I just don't have that kind of income.

And I think it's not just young people coming out of high school.

It's also coming out of college.

And even people who have recently lost their jobs for a number of reasons.

Maybe they got cut cutting budgets.

But there's plenty of people who just can't afford to have a home that fits their family and what they need.

And I think our city council isn't paying enough attention to our housing shortage.

I think, we need more transportation that is accessible to everyone, and it gets us around the city.

There's a lot of people that have to drive from West Richland to school because they.

There just isn't a bus system that will take them where they need to go when they need to go.

And I think our transit system could be greatly improved.

I think it should run more often.

It should run more places.

We should have more lines.

And I think if given the chance, people would appreciate things like that.

All right.

Mr. Maier, thank you very much for bringing your perspective here.

The long trip from Hanford High School to the WSU Tri-Cities studio here right across the street.

All right.

Let's move on to our questions from the League of Women Voters.

And starting with an issue that may be on the ballot in November is whether or not all members of the council should represent the entire city of Richland or whether there should be some distinction between other areas that the city may have.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Miss Holten well.

It sounds really good.

But it really divides up our city.

For instance, I'm running from one of the areas that is, under represented and, it's, it's really more of a political issue than actually representing, there's very few, residents requirements, to be in there.

It's subject to gerrymandering and all sorts of things.

Those boundaries will be continuing to, change as we grow.

And so it sounds really good.

Everybody loves the sound of that.

You've got someone to represent you.

But we do have a much more diverse, groups.

And what people realize that we do, we have city council members from all areas of the city and including me, I would be the most diverse, on there.

And I would love to represent.

All right.

Thank you very much.

And, Mr. Mayor, same question to you about dividing up the city.

Many municipalities call them wards where you represent a certain portion of the city.

What are your thoughts on representing the city as a whole versus the neighborhood version?

Well, I know it's a little, contraindicated since I'm running and so is my dad.

So obviously if this passes, we won't both be on city council.

But I do think it's a good idea.

I think, it's important that everywhere in our city feels like they have someone that represents them and their needs.

Most of our city council is actually from the same district in South Richland, and I think it's there are a lot of places here that have their own specific issues that they need to be addressed that don't affect all of our city, but their specific area might need attention.

And if they have someone who they feel is one of their own and from there and lives there, I think everybody feels like they have a greater voice in their own council, even if they're not a part of it.

All right.

Thank you very much for that answer.

Let's move on to question number two.

And by the way, we have eight questions we'll handle here today.

And this will go by pretty quickly.

And this is on the topic of homelessness.

And the data shows it just continues to grow in the region.

Mr. Maier, you talked about affordable housing at the start in your opening statement.

But homelessness has become an issue for Richland.

So what do you see as a possible solution for this issue?

I think a big problem that creates homelessness is people can't afford to have a home where they're able to keep their rent flowing, and they need to be able to afford themselves a house that fits their standards of living and as long as we have this housing shortage, and as long as there is such a high, average income needed to be able to afford an apartment in the Tri-Cities, I think it's just going to keep getting worse because inflation keeps going up and people keep needing more and more money to get by.

And if our housing doesn't drop, then it's the people are never going to be able to afford a home.

So I think really what we need to focus on to help make people home again is making it easier to find a place to live.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

Miss Holten, same question to you.

What are the solutions for homelessness in Richland?

Well, it's not just housing in, issue.

I know people whose children are, quote, homeless and they would do anything to get them to move home and they choose to be on the street and it breaks their heart.

And so we need a three pronged approach compassionately.

Part of it is drug abuse, and part of it is mental illness.

And we need to, deal with those problems.

And, Benton County is working on solutions, to deal with those problems.

And, and, bringing down the cost of housing is critically important.

And I would look at, things that, we're doing as a city that are contributing unnecessarily to the cost of housing.

And, different zoning requirements, different permitting processes, so that to bring down the cost of housing.

All right.

Thank you very much, Miss Holten.

And I can tell not enough time to discuss many of these very convoluted issues, but I appreciate the attempt in a minutes time.

All right, let's move on to our third question.

Meant to dig into this relationship between the City council and any number of city boards and commissions, for example, the desire for the library board to make it recommend on a proposal for a book ban.

So the question is, what role should the council members have in decision making when the city's boards and commissions, like the library board, zoning board, parks board or other policy boards submit recommendations, what should that, relationship be like, Miss Holden?

Well, it's critically important to have elected officials because they are responsible, to represent the people in a way that no one else is.

And that's why we are elected.

And those boards are critically important to really delve deep into, the issues.

Their recommendations need to be very seriously considered.

But ultimately, it is the elected officials that will be voting and not just one person, but, the whole board would be voting on different issues.

And that's important to our democratic process.

All right.

Thanks, Miss Holten.

And then, Mr. Maier, same question to you, that relationship between a city council and all the boards that make recommendations to it.

I think the boards are a very important part of our city, and I think being able to have so many of them is greatly beneficial, because it's not just the same seven people on city council making all the decisions for everything.

I think it's great that we have such a diverse amount of these different boards, and how everyone on them doesn't necessarily need to be part of city council.

It's all the more people we have in power like this.

I think the more of a public has power too, because they can go out and say, I don't want to be city councilman, but I want to serve on library board because that's what I care about.

And I think that you should be able to have influence over things that you care about like that specifically, not necessarily have to go out and be a city councilman because it's not for everybody.

All right.

Smart.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Let's move on to question number four.

And and we like to talk about some of the things that are in the headlines here.

A unique discussion that's been brought up nationally is actually applying here locally.

Recent discussion at the Pasco City Council.

It was a surprise for many to learn that Pasco adds fluoride to their water, but Kennewick and Richland do not.

Now, reportedly, that's because Kennewick and Richland have a naturally occurring level of it, so they do not need to add to it.

Washington state does not mandate fluoridation.

The decision rests with communities and their governments.

What would your decision be on that matter, Mr. Maier?

I think fluoride in the water is great.

Dentists, put it on your teeth when you go.

Unless you tell them not to, because it just improves your health in your mouth.

And it's putting it in the water means you don't have to go through that at the dentist.

And people who don't go to the dentist very often, which is a lot of people.

They still get that benefit.

There's really no negative side effects of fluoride.

I don't think there's any reason that we shouldn't have it in our water system as well.

All right.

Thanks.

Mr. Maier, getting to the heart of the question there, are you for or against putting it in the water?

Miss Holten, what's your response?

What are your thoughts on it?

Well, I think since we're not doing it now, there was good reasons to not do it.

And there are people that who do object to fluoride in the water and, and health concerns for certain amount of people.

And so I would be very inclined to keep with the current recommendations and, and not add something that is, is, is working.

Now we have very clean water in, in the Tri-Cities.

I've been drinking it for over 50 years.

It's a great asset to the city.

I would as a city council, I would be touring the facility, which I did about 50 years ago, and how clean our water was.

And so I would do everything to promote it.

I drink it out of the tap.

And, I love our water department, and so it's working.

I wouldn't add something to it.

All right.

Thank you very much, Miss Holten.

All right, let's move on to question number five.

This one on local development.

Queensgate Drive and South Richland open up this spring.

That development bring in Costco aimed at reducing overall traffic.

Miss Holten, the question for you is what are your thoughts on the project?

Do you see it accomplishing its own goals?

Well, people love Costco.

There's no question about it.

The traffic, I think, is going to be a little nuts.

I think it's going to be a great economic boon to the Tri-Cities because people love Costco, living near Safeway and a walkable community.

I would also be interested in things that impact, Safeway and certainly Costco impact Safeway.

All the delivery services.

Impact Safeway.

And I would be talking to the smaller, grocery stores, to see if we have city policies, in place that are negatively, in fact, affecting them.

But it's it'll be a great boon to the city.

I hear, that, Pasco is not happy that they rejected, Costco.

I think it would have been a great location, but now it's ours and it'll be a tremendous tax base for the city of Richland.

And Miss Holten, thank you very much, Mr. Maier Same question to you.

I think having a Costco in our city is great.

The Costco and Kadlec gets people to drive in from Idaho and Oregon and way north like in Moses Lake.

And they all come down here just for Costco because there just isn't one around us.

It's actually one of the busiest Costco in America.

And I think having one in our city, which is supposedly even bigger with 30 gas pumps, is just going to be a great tax draw.

That our city has.

And I think not only is it going to be good for the tax income, it's also going to be good for the whole area and Queensgate.

And now there's more traffic there.

All the stores are going to do better.

I think it's just a great thing for our city all around.

Yeah.

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

All right.

Moving on quickly to question number six.

And as we talk about councils and council members all having your budget priorities almost all of you in your cities have less to spend on those priorities at the moment.

How might state or federal budget cuts affect the city budget and, Mr. Maier, what do you see as a possible solution to those budget cuts?

I think there are plenty of places we can bring in more tax revenues to help increase what our city's budget like.

For instance, there are plenty of marijuana dispensaries throughout the Tri-Cities, but there is none in Richland because our city code just doesn't allow it.

And I think that's a huge tax draw that we're just not we're throwing that away, basically, because if you want to go and buy marijuana, you're just going to drive to Pasco or West Richland.

But if we have one in the city, then we can just get that tax revenue instead of Pasco or West Richland, or kind of like getting that instead.

And I think there's other things we can do.

We can take away from, a lot of places like our police budget, I think just doesn't need to be as high as it is.

We don't have a lot of crime here.

It's not really going up at all.

And I think that we're just we don't need that strong of a police force because our city is great and it doesn't have a really big crime problem.

We can put that into better things.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Maier.

And Miss Holten, same question to you.

How do you handle the budget issues, especially with the idea that there will be less to spend?

Well, my husband and I are both very frugal.

We have no doubt, including our home, our cars, kids, college education.

That's why that's how we've lived our life.

And which means now we can do whatever we want to do.

We can give it away.

We just booked a two week, cruise to the Mediterranean.

And so I would be looking at all our budgets to see where we're needlessly spending money.

Because it just is kind of the nature of the beast.

It gets in there.

And then I would also be looking for, just common sense ways of, of areas, that we can do things for a little money.

I, I'm a paddle boarder.

My area, a lot of people come in and go kayaking and paddle boarding.

I think we could, for very low cost, extend, our, paddle boarding and kayaking areas and take some of the stress away from the Park City entrance, which is overcrowded, and move it to other areas and open it up.

But I would be looking at things that we can do with relatively low cost and where we can cut.

All right.

So, thank you very much.

Let's move on to question number seven.

This one another, I would say budget related question this time, the budgets of your citizens and relates to how the tariffs are affecting people in the community.

How might tariffs affect the city of Richland and your constituents?

Mr. Maier Well, we're big agricultural area.

That's I think the one that I hear of the most is and we export a lot of potatoes, for instance, to China and in Japan.

And so agricultural tariffs, I think are a big one in this area.

You know, consumer goods to but yeah, as a city council person, it would be something for me to be aware of, but not something I could impact directly.

That's a you national level issue, but, dealing with those and in common sense ways, communicating with our legislators, would be a big part of, dealing with those issues.

And I know personally all of our legislature is from this area and would be able to talk with them on one and one and working through these issues.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Holten.

Mr. Maier, same question to you as we've everybody knows what's going on with the tariffs.

But assessing as a council member how that might impact us here locally.

I think the tariffs really impacts those of us who are impoverished the most, because they're the ones who need every cent to get by, and they're the ones who are really going to struggle when everything is going up by a dollar or two.

So if it's harder for them to afford their food and afford their appliances and everything they need, then that's who's really going to feel it the most.

There's not much we can do on city council because that's not a city council policy.

That's a national policy.

And I think that really that there isn't much we can do for them.

But being mindful of how their lives are getting harder is important.

And anything we can do to ease that, like having more food drives or coaches, things like that, and just being more involved in our community and seeing what really is hurting the most right now is important.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

All right.

Let's move on to, our eighth and final question before we get a chance to do some closing statements.

And this question is on immigration, and the league is curious about City Council intervention on immigration enforcement.

Where do you stand on things like sanctuary cities and those sorts of proclamations at the city level?

All right.

Well, it's a state.

It's a state thing that we're all a sanctuary state.

Our police force is not allowed to help Ice, and there's not really anything we can do to change that, because we are all held at that standard of being a sanctuary state.

The proclamation of not being a sanctuary city really does not impact much, because the police force still can't assist Ice.

And immigration isn't our job on city council to fix or improve in any way.

That's not a city council issue, so I just don't feel like there's really any reason to get involved with that labeling and everything in our city, because it's not going to change anything.

All right, Mr. Maier, thank you very much, Miss Holten.

Same question to you.

Well, we're really in the crosshairs because we have one policy nationally.

We have another policy statewide, and then we have, local opinion.

I would be well aware of anyone that was here and here legally and working that was being swept up.

I think that's been the concern of people that hard working people are being torn away from where they have been for years.

I would not be opposed.

If we have prisoners that are here illegally returning them to their country of origin and cooperating with that.

And so it's a it is a very sticky wicket, but, dealing compassionately and, yeah, there is empathy for these people that have come through.

What was policy here when they came across and dealing with them compassionately?

All right, Miss Holten, thank you very much.

Well, we appreciate your responses.

Just two of you here today allowed us to dig into a few more topics and with some of our other forums, but I have set aside some time for some closing statements, and I want to ask our timers, can we set that clock at 90s here and Miss Holten here first?

Any topics we didn't cover an opportunity for closing statement from you today.

Well, I'm glad I'm not running against John.

I either.

I will have an opportunity to speak with him and his concerns, or I will be on the city council with him, which I would greatly look forward to his impact.

I my home being where it is, I'm really at a crossroads for a number of things.

I'm at an entrance to the park.

I have, low subsidized housing nearby.

We have how, homeless people going through on a regular basis.

We also have high income, housing.

So we are really a mix of things.

And I am the best person to be on the council to, represent.

I've very diverse group of people and I would work with common sense things.

One of our biggest assets, is our Leslie Groves Park and our Howard Amend Park and all of that in between.

I would learn to I would work to, develop, that access, for the people of the area who come in from all over.

It's very popular, but also preserve the environment.

But I think people coming in learn to love the environment and care for the environment.

I would build community, things like the, Ironman race, the 200,000, people that are coming in on the cruises every year, and our 4th of July neighborhood party built community.

And that's so important.

It's not just about buildings.

It's building a a good place to live.

All right, Miss Holten, thank you very much.

Thank you for being here.

Mr. Maier.

Your closing statement, sir.

Well, I think it's very important that our City Council rules with passion and sorry compassion.

I think it's important that we are taking into account that everybody is different and they're all facing different needs and different struggles, and it's important that we are all being very mindful of what our city really needs to happen.

And I think there are a lot of issues going on in the news right now that affect everybody, but there's not much we can do about it.

And so we should really focus on eating and the ways that we can help, like making it easier to get to a job if you don't have a car or can't afford a car, or making it easier just to be able to afford your rent.

Anything we can do to help people get by on a daily basis is really, I think, should be our goal, because I think the easier it is for people in our city, the happier they're going to be.

And to better our city is going to be, because happy people don't do bad things generally.

So, I hope that if I am elected, that I can be able to be that kind of aiding force on the council and really speak to all of our underprivileged people and our young people who don't have the voice that these successful and, older people have for their council.

And I really want to just be able to help everybody and get by.

We want to thank you to for being here today.