The Pierce County Council plans to vote to appoint a new District 5 member Jan. 14. That person will replace Democrat Marty Campbell, who was elected in November as Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer.
The council deliberated among three candidates chosen by the Pierce County Democratic Party’s central committee Tuesday evening in a closed session for more than an hour before voting to push the final vote.
Candidates under consideration are Kimber Starr, current District 5 planning commissioner and manager of the Governor’s Subcabinet on Business Diversity; Fife deputy mayor Bryan Yambe; and International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union shoreman Jeremy Williams.
All three candidates answered questions from the council Tuesday about why they would be the best candidate, what challenges they would address in the district, what values they would bring to the position, their communication styles, their solutions for public-safety issues and their top professional accomplishments.
Eight people spoke in favor of Yambe’s appointment during a public hearing, six people spoke in favor of Starr and no one spoke in favor of Williams’ appointment.
Campbell’s replacement will serve on the council until the next general-election cycle in 2025, council spokesperson Bryan Dominique told The News Tribune in November. The position would be on the ballot in the 2025 general election and again in the 2026 general election. All three candidates indicated they would run for office in 2025 and 2026 if appointed.
The candidates’ answers
Starr introduced herself as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and said she learned the power of collective action and pragmatic problem solving when she successfully fought to save her neighborhood park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 8. Starr said she has a passion for bringing people together to solve complex policy issues and said Pierce County could face its significant challenges by working collaboratively, centering community voices and bridging divides.
In her role with the governor’s office of minority and women business enterprises, Starr said, she works with state agency heads to increase diverse spending across Washington state enterprises. Starr said she has been involved in community work for 40 years, including serving on the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority Board and working to secure grants for affordable housing and economic development.
Starr said she would support improving local governments’ tribal relations across the state and find ways “to hold accountable our elected officials to increase affordable housing because it is such a desperate need.”
Issues facing District 5 include homelessness, public safety, crime hot spots, revitalizing commercial areas and small owned businesses, transportation infrastructure improvements around the Port of Tacoma and increased communication with the City of Tacoma and the Port, she said.
Yambe introduced himself as the deputy mayor of the City of Fife and said he is serving his third stint as deputy mayor elected by his peers and his fourth term on the City Council. Yambe said he is most proud of bringing people together and building community. Among his accomplishments were helping to secure $100 million in federal and state funding for transportation projects in the region, diversifying local boards and commissions and supporting the Fife Jobs Program to provide job training and housing for people experiencing homelessness, he said.
On the Fife City Council, Yambe said, he takes time to invest in relationships and find compromise, including with those who see the world differently than he does.
“I know that no one gets everything they want, and I will work very hard to make sure that even after those decisions are made that everyone feels listened to and supported,” he said. “Good governance is a priority for me, and it’s always been key. That’s not just an aspirational role, that’s something that I have to work to practice every time.”
Some values Yambe said he would bring to this role included ensuring cost-of-living adjustments keep pace with actual costs, especially for those on a fixed income, seniors and people with disabilities. He also said he would join efforts to address high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Issues facing District 5 include removing and replacing the Milroy Bridge to improve regional transportation and freight mobility, addressing crime and car thefts and supporting law enforcement’s request for funds while balancing police accountability issues and de-escalation training, Yambe said.
Williams introduced himself as a working-class man who had no political aspirations but was facing rent increases, high housing prices and “raises that end up a pay cut after inflation” that he said were a result of policy failures harming the working class.
“We must provide broad, universal services and find the revenue to support a functional government that serves its people and produces an economy that works for the working class,” Williams said. “The state does not exist to facilitate the abstract desires of some perceived disembodied free market and its invisible hand. We must end the idea that the government exists to serve markets, instead of the government existing to make markets work for people who produce and consume the goods.”
Williams said he didn’t have any experience working with an elected government body but volunteered with the Tacoma for All Tenant Bill of Rights Campaign, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 76 union for three years and the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen Local 23 union for three years. The function of government is to hear the needs of the people and find solutions that satisfy those needs, he said.
Issues facing District 5 include raising more capital to improve transit, like trains and buses, investing in more bike lanes and sidewalks, increasing housing densities and putting a stop to sweeping encampments of people experiencing homelessness, Williams said.
“I do not believe that that has improved public safety in any meaningful way. If anything, it has hurt our community more and more and made our problems worse,” he said. “Millions of dollars on police officers to do homeless outreach does not build housing, does not put people in houses.”