And I'm.

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 for that introduction from the League of Women Voters.

Great partners in our efforts here at Northwest Public Broadcasting.

I am Matt Loveless, and today we're going to hear from candidates running for some positions on the Kennewick City Council, part of our vote 2025 series.

This is the first of three programs here at NWP.

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.

And I want to thank all those who've continued their investment into these programs.

We believe civic engagement matters, and we want to help give you as much information as possible to make an informed decision this election season.

Now, our first program here today will feature two primary forums, the first with candidates for Kennewick City Council Ward one, followed by candidates for the Ward three position.

We'll spend about 30 minutes on each race.

We have questions provided and solicited by the League of Women Voters of Benton, Franklin County on issues affecting our cities and some ground rules for today, as we invited all candidates from every primary with three or more people on the ballot, we are giving equal time to everyone.

We will give our candidates a platform for 92nd opening statements.

Then we'll get into our questions.

This forum is also obviously a television program, so as moderator I may get to additional topics.

If time allows, we may shorten questions as well.

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

Now, without further ado, let's talk about our first race and our vote 2025 series a Ward one position up for grabs on the Kennewick City Council.

Council member and Mayor Gretl Crawford, not seeking reelection in the position.

But that doesn't mean we're left with unfamiliar names.

Jason McShane, an incumbent council member in an at large seat at the moment but now running for the Ward one position, also joining us, Austin Miller, Kennewick native Kamaikin High School graduate.

I did look up your bio a little bit.

Third candidate in this race, Tina Gregory, unable to attend today's forum.

Now, as I mentioned, we do have time for 92nd opening statements.

And like I said, we get right into it.

Mr. McShane, we'll start with your 90s in your opening statement, sir.

Thanks, Matt.

And thanks, Austin, for being here as well.

Civic engagement is incredibly important.

Thank you for the opportunity to have this, chance to talk through with our voters some of the things that are important to us.

I think it's really important for folks to recognize that local races matter.

And as we go on to our city councils or our school districts, we need to make sure that we're putting people in place that are going to reflect the views and intent of what our voters have, and we need to make sure that we're focused on those things that are most important right now.

Lots of families are struggling.

Financial times are challenging, and we need to be able to continue to provide the services that people look forward to at the city's at an economical manner.

We've got a lot of needs in the city.

We've got a lot of different things that we're trying to accomplish all at once, some deferred maintenance and things that need to be be addressed.

But I think our principal focus is on on making sure that we're fiscally responsible for with the precious tax dollars that we have and making sure that we're moving forward on projects and things that people really, really need.

Some of those are economic development type projects.

Like the convention center expansion that we've recently seen, the reinvestment in downtown, helping with Mr. Field and making sure that we're seeing it continue to go forward while still maintaining good planning efforts out at Southridge and looking forward to the other side of that Interstate 82, and making sure that growth and plans for growth are really well laid out and thought through.

At the same time, you know, our police and fire need to be robust, and we need to ensure that we're still providing the crucial, essential services that those first responders provide.

And I think that we've done a great job of that.

Thank you.

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

Mr. Austin Miller, your opening statement, sir.

My name is Austin Miller.

I am, as you said, born and raised here in Kennewick.

I've spent some time traveling for work in school.

I've been a policy analyst and an economist.

I also teach and tutor math and computer programing, and I've since returned back home to raise my own kids here in my home town.

And, my, goals for Kennewick Center on Kindness and Community.

I've met a lot of people, and I've learned that a lot of policies that work well for me was for small group of people don't necessarily work equally well for everyone.

And and I know that Kennewick is not going anywhere.

Things have been going very well, and I'm sure they will continue to be okay.

But I also know that a lot of people are excited about, expanding our priorities and, adapting to change and, building a future Kennewick that really is focused on making sure that everyone in the community is served.

This means, of course, that we've got to be, intentional about the way that we grow.

It's going to require, new creative and flexible solutions.

But I believe that Kennewick is, a great place to try new things.

And, if you're excited about that as well, then, vote for me, and I will do my best to make it happen.

All right, Mr. Miller, Mr. McShane, thank you for those opening statements.

We'll get into our, rounds of questions.

And again, these come from the League of Women Voters.

I've been in Franklin counties.

And we'll start with you, Mr. McShane.

Then we'll alternate first responses with each of you for the remainder of the program.

And many of your openings cover this.

And you talked about personal priorities.

I think both of you use that term.

But let's talk about council priorities.

And I don't know if you've followed the discussion lately by the council in terms of what the priorities are for the city of Kennewick.

Assuming you followed that discussion, what are your thoughts on that, Mr. McShane?

Well, I think that it's important to understand that there isn't a limitless checkbook for public improvements.

And there are a lot of needs with the cities right now.

Specifically, City Hall, has some needs, public pools.

There's been a lot of desire for recreation centers and other types of, you know, things within our Parks and Recreation department offerings so that we can offer those things to our our citizens.

Those are all really high priorities.

Maintaining police and fire, as we said earlier, is a critical, critical investment in our community.

As we're laying out plans for future economic development, that economic development needs to be centered around finding new jobs and creating jobs in our community to be able to help that next generation be able to have and work in and live right here in Kennewick.

All right.

Thank you very much.

And, Mr. Miller, you've been following this discussion with the City council about their priorities.

What are your thoughts on this?

Yeah.

So I think the way that we use space in our, town has a large impact on a lot of different things are going to impact traffic and housing and, economic opportunities as well as fun things to do.

I think, that I know a lot of cities have a, non driver advisory board, for example, where people who, you know, teenagers or elderly, other people who don't drive, have, give advice about how hard it is or easy use to get around town.

I think that's something that we could, incorporate.

I think I'm pleased with the amount of, mixed use development that kind of work's been doing lately.

And you mentioned some of that in your opening statements, which is awesome.

Now, that means that we have spaces in our neighborhoods where, people can walk to buy groceries or toothpaste, or maybe there's a food truck or a restaurant, or you can take the kids after school.

And I think we can do more, spaces like that, and that I think that that means we have to allow more, you know, commercial zoning in our residential neighborhoods.

And, this could be a new development, but also reusing old spaces, being intentional about the way we reuse old spaces.

And I think that the focus on that type of walkability, leads to more economic opportunities for more people to run those businesses, but also reduces traffic and some of our biggest main streets in town.

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

All right.

Let's move on to question number two and some local discussion, meeting national headlines here.

A recent discussion at the Pasco City Council found it was a surprise to learn that Pasco adds fluoride to their water, but Kennewick and Richland do not.

And that's reportedly because they have naturally occurring levels of fluoride too low to be detective.

Now, as Washington state does not mandate fluoridation, the decision rests with individual communities and their governments.

So, Mr. Miller, we'll start with you.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

I think that, this I'm not familiar with this part of, what Kennewick has done or hasn't done in terms of fluoride.

I think that there, with any new solutions or new ideas or things that we haven't thought of before, it's important to to be careful to, consider what has been done and to make sure that we've got things in place to evaluate, whether there are any unintended consequences.

And, that we can, look for.

What's the next step?

And with very careful steps in mind that our focus again on making sure that we are getting feedback and that we're seeing the impacts that we're expecting to see, and not a lot of other impacts that we can just look for and do the next good thing.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

Mr. McShane, I don't know if you've watched that discussion happen in Pasco as well.

Yeah.

So fluoride, fluoride in water is not a new new concern right?

I mean this is something that's been going on for decades.

And and so what I can say is what's nice about our day to day is that those types of options are now available over the counter more often than where it used to just have to be provided through a public water utility or something like that.

And so with with greater options available for folks, whether that's through their own health insurance and dental insurance or over-the-counter products to provide fluoride, it really provides us the opportunity for each individual to choose whether or not they want to do that, rather than having that be part of the public water system.

And so, in direct answer, I would suggest that I'm not interested in adding public water supplies, having adding fluoride to public water supplies at this point in our our time.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. McShane.

All right.

Let's move on to question number three.

And once again, national discussions affecting us locally and certainly national decisions.

Let's talk tariffs.

Been a major talking point nationally.

And it's something that we're beginning to learn how to measure a bit locally.

So in your words, Mr. McShane, we'll start with you.

How might tariffs affect the city and or your particular constituents.

Yeah.

So the tariffs, tariffs for our products in Washington state particularly really related to the ag products in our community.

Right.

We have significant amount of agricultural produce that goes overseas.

And those tariffs can cause some of the marketing to just stumble.

And so there are, you know, there are some promises, I think, that have been made nationally that, you know, stick in there, hang on, you know, so we will get through this and things will get better.

And I think we'll just have to continue to evaluate that and work with our elected officials at the national level to really understand what those impacts are as we continue on.

They certainly are a tool in the toolbox that needs to be used at the appropriate times.

And I think that there are times where they are appropriate, and then there's going to be other times where they have negative effects on our local products.

But agricultural produce is probably the number one product that our constituents here in Kennewick need to be concerned about.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Machine.

Mr. Miller, same with you and your level of concern with the tariffs and how they're affecting our community.

Yeah.

There are a lot of things happening federally that affect all of us, and a lot of those things are outside of our control.

I think it's important that, you know, locally, as a city council, we do focus on the things that we do have control over.

And, you know, it's just the economy.

I think we all know is not as strong as it used to be.

I think that, you know, prices continue to rise.

More people are going to continue to struggle.

A lot of families are having to work multiple jobs, more often.

I know in my own family, with my partner and I, between the two of us, we're working for jobs right now, just to provide, for the life for our kids that we are, and more people are having to start small businesses and side gigs.

Not out of passion or inspiration, out of necessity.

So I think being aware of that, being aware of, how people locally are affected will help us be able to meet their needs better.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

All right.

Let's move on to question number four.

Give you 15 seconds or so to catch your breath as we get this next one, because we talk a lot about money and how people spend it.

And, there just aren't as many out there anticipating more money, I would say, especially cities when it comes to how they prepare their budgets, whether it be federal funding.

So how might the state or federal budget cuts affect us here locally?

And what are some solutions you would propose to stay in the black?

So the, The city is obviously responsible for for spending our budget, obviously, money is one of those things that, we need for so many different things, but it often is, hardest to come by, especially we have to, you know, take from here to pay for that.

And things get tricky.

I think it's important to focus on the the, on, on using the resources that we have more efficiently.

As an analyst, I do have experience at looking at budgets and, you know, making sure that things are, you can used efficiently.

But again, more importantly, coming up with new solutions that are, reusing the things that we have.

I think a lot of people here in Kennewick have a lot of good ideas.

And I think that involving people more, I think as a city council, we should we should reach out.

We should try to involve more people in the community.

And, that by listening to each other and working together, we can come up with good solutions that will help us look going forward.

All right.

Thanks.

Mr. Miller.

Mr. McShane, I'll just re pose the question.

How might state or federal budget cuts affect the city's budget and what are some possible solutions?

And and so we do count on some federal funding towards the city as well as some state funding.

And and I think the more effect we're going to see is, as is there reductions in state and federal funding, particularly federal funding in Hanford, we could see more of our families hurting, as we potentially could lose jobs and have to reassess how people are able to do that and make their income through those areas.

As far as direct impacts to the city budget, right.

That that then also looks to what are we trying to accomplish?

When and where are those funds coming from?

Will they come out of our constituents checkbooks?

Right.

It's not it's not no, there's no special, special checkbook just for the city.

It's the same ones they're paying groceries with.

And we need to be judicious with the funds that we have.

And so what we're doing right now is we're focused on streamlining our services, right, helping to reduce some of that footprint.

We're also looking to invest in economic development to create more jobs and more opportunities.

The number one revenue source for the city is sales tax.

And so if we can create more jobs for doing more businesses, selling more things and more goods and, and in Kennewick, we're going to help to raise that budget.

So economic development is a big part of that.

I think the other thing is focused on, looking at ways where we can leverage local funds against more grant opportunities and also focused on going to the state and helping them to see that more of our sales tax revenue should be staying here locally with the city to be able to meet some of our needs.

A huge percentage of our sales tax goes to the state of Washington for their use.

And as we know, they're in a budget shortfall right now as well.

And so working with the state government to reduce that percentage is something we can work on.

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

All right.

Let's move on to question number five.

And we'll start with Mr. McShane here.

Immigration enforcement, of course, a big topic right now going on across the country.

Where do you stand on the issue of so-called sanctuary cities?

And further, what's the right answer for a community like Kennewick?

And so the right answer to immigration for Kennewick.

Okay, so the right answer, the right answer for us is to recognize that no one circumstance is the same.

Right?

And that as we're as we're focusing on immigration, I think oftentimes we bundle this into one, one statement and say, well, immigration is what it is.

And and there's here's the one solution for it.

And it's just not the case.

We have we have we have folks that have moved here, in their lifetime.

We have folks that were brought here by their parents.

We have folks that were born here.

Right.

And as we're focusing on all of those different contributions that those folks are making our community, I think we need to take each one with its own, on its own stance.

Now, with that said, I do believe that we have laws in past both at federal, state and local levels for a reason.

And if there's a law that we're uncomfortable with or there's a law that we don't feel like we should have, then we need to work through those proper channels to get those laws changed.

And that focus on law and government truly is what we need to be focused on.

And so if there's something we need to change, then we need to go lobby on behalf of that, to the state and to the federal agencies to help with that.

But the idea is, is that we do have lots of immigrants in our communities.

They're the lifeblood of our communities in a lot of ways, and have been great contributors to the success of overall success for our community.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Miller.

I asked the question, posed it in the framework of sanctuary cities.

But in your opinion, for a community like Kennewick, what's the solution for immigration enforcement?

Yeah.

So again, one of the federal issues that, you know, the federal immigration system has been broken and outdated for a long time.

And, there's not a lot that we can do directly about that.

You know, our it's our job to to react to that and to look at what we can control and make sure that we're making, smart decisions that are, again, for the benefit of our community, that based on compassion, respect.

I think that, I think that the people we should we need to send be able to send a message to the people in our community and the other communities around us that we care about each other.

And, that the way a lot of things are being handled right now, people are scared.

People that have done nothing wrong are terrified for their their livelihoods and their families.

Even locally, I know, like, the Gomez family and their situation.

This man was picked up when he went to go to his hearing without any warning that he was going to be potentially deported, without any, chance to take care of, make sure that his local business was taken care of, that his family was taken care of.

And that's just that's just not okay.

We need to make sure that we are protecting all of the people that live and reside in our in our area.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Miller.

Right.

Moving on to question number six.

And this one tackles the topic of homelessness.

It's a top of mind of many cities, including Kennewick.

Of course.

What do you see as a solution to this issue, Mr. Miller?

Good question.

I think homelessness is a big issue.

I think that, it's a big issue not just here, but nationally.

And there are a lot of organizations that are working on it.

I know we've got some county level, committees that are working on, looking for solutions.

I think I think we can do more.

I think that, for instance, we can do better to involve people who are experiencing homelessness in the conversation.

We could ask them, what do you need from us and listen to them?

I think it's also important that we work to kind of remove the stigma of homelessness.

I know the situation.

There was some people living in their car, and they stayed the night near a park in a nice neighborhood.

And the reaction of the neighborhood was to call the police and have these people arrested.

Are they weren't doing anything cruel or dangerous.

And I think we can do better.

I think that homelessness, is not a moral failing.

Not having a place to live does not make you a bad person.

It's a challenge that we need to work together to solve again with.

With compassion and with respect.

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

Mr. McShane, same question to you, sir.

You know, one of the things that I'm proud of, our city of Kennewick and the slogan for the city of Kennewick is leading the way.

And one of the things that we've seen our police department do, in combination with other agencies here locally, is actually to go out and do weekly surveys for homelessness, to try to offer those services that are available in our communities now.

And we have significant resources available to, folks that are experiencing homelessness.

And our police department goes out in partnership to try to get those offered out to where people know about them and then can take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, a lot of folks have to have a challenge to accept that assistance.

And so in the in the last two years, I think they've been able to successfully get two of these regularly occurring homeless folks to take advantage of those.

Those are levels of assistance and actually get them housed and get them back on their feet.

It's not a slow process.

It's not a quick process.

It takes time and so the thing that I'm really happy about is that commitment that we've continued to have to focus on getting those services to folks where they're needed, when they're needed, and not giving up just because they haven't had success, tremendous success in that short period of time.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. McShane, covering a lot of topics here.

And we just have a couple more questions to go to fit into our short forum here.

And this one, Mr. McShane, we'll start with you.

Comes on the heels of the City council endorsing a letter regarding trans athletes.

Now, this comes from the league and a growing practice of cities writing letters, making proclamations on issues not immediately affecting their particular city at that time.

So the question is, Mr. McShane, should the city council or any city council get involved in promoting or supporting issues in this way?

Yeah, I think that it's important that we recognize the limits of what our city council can and can't do.

There are certain laws that are allowed to be able to be passed, certain regulations that are allowed to be passed by the cities, where that crosses over into constituencies of the city and programs of the city.

I think it's really important that the city council does weigh in on those issues.

And for example, this particular issue of, the as you you've brought up as an example that that particular issue has an effect on our city parks and rec programs and the fact that we have, youth and children that would be involved in those and I think helping to set and establish clear boundaries as to what should or shouldn't be done to protect our young ladies, particularly and young women in these sports, I think is incredibly important.

So that particular example is one that I feel like we should take a stand on.

There are other things federally that we really are not going to have any impact, doesn't have a, you know, doesn't have a direct, influence on the city council.

And I'm not sure that those are things that we should spend our time on.

We have a lot of other things that we need to be getting done.

Right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Miller.

Same question to you.

Yeah, I, I think it is important to, reach out to federal and state governments and petition for things, that are outside of our control.

You know, for example, the environmental issues that are affecting us from the outside or things like that.

This particular issue, I think there's a lot of focus on, as you said, defending young women, which of course is important.

But far less discussion seems to happen on defending the trans kids themselves.

Who are the most vulnerable people in our community?

All right.

We've talked about immigrants.

We've got people in our communities with different mental health challenges.

We have we have trans kids that just want to participate, just want to be involved and have a regular life.

And, these types of discussions coming in, frankly, from national discussions are really not what we should be focusing on.

We should protect our kids, but we should be focusing on the things that really matter, things that we all agree on, and that is making our our towns safe and making sure that everyone feels like they can live here and live the life that they want to live.

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

All right.

Let's move on to question number eight.

Our eighth and final question here in this forum aims to address what you might call a bit of an ideological impasse, this perception that politicians arrived to their positions, ready to align with their party's rhetoric from the top down.

Now, the question is mostly about city councils.

Do you believe the Kennewick City Council should be nonpartizan, and why or why not?

Mr. Miller, I think it's great that the City Council is nonpartisan, and I think that's important.

I think it should stay that way.

Like I said, a lot of the national debates will tell us that we have all these things to fight over, but in reality, there's more that we have in common than we have to disagree about.

We all want to feel like we have a safe place for our kids to thrive.

We all want economic stability.

We all want to feel loved and accepted, feel that we can follow our dreams.

Right.

And, I think it's important for the city council to make sure that we do that, that as many people as possible, our community are able to do that.

And, and there's a lot of ways to accomplish that, but, I think it's important that we focus on the things that we have in common and focus on solutions that are valuable, important for everyone that lives here.

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

And, Mr. McShane, same question to you about the nonpartizan nature of the Kennewick City Council.

You know, when I was appointed to City council, one of the things that I really tried to stress as a as essentially a fill in for two years is the importance of finding consensus.

Good governance is related to having a majority of council members agreeing on what we need to do next.

Having a supermajority of council members agree is better governance.

And so as we're talking through, you know, I think it's really important that we do find those things that we have common ground on.

My experience is that most of the time when I interact with people, we have a lot more in common than we have apart.

And and where we can focus and build off those common beliefs and understandings allows for us to be able to better govern the city as a whole.

When it comes to Partizan politics and particularly looking at, you know, what's the party stance and me voting whether I would like to do what the party says or not?

Quite frankly, I haven't seen that on Kennewick City Council and would like to not see that as we continue forward.

I think you have a group of people with a background and experience that need to vote based on the things that they're seeing in their lives and the constituents that they're hearing, rather than just being dictated to by someone else.

Mr. machine, thank you very much.

Well, that's all the time we have for this race.

A ward one seat up for grabs on the Kennewick City Council.

Mr. McShane, Mr. Miller, we really appreciate your time.

Honestly.

Thank you so much for giving voters an opportunity just to hear you speak a little bit.

That's one of the things that we want to provide here at Wpbf.

A reminder, Tina Gregory, the additional candidate in that race.

Our next race in this program is for Ward three.

Incumbent council member John Trumbo is running for reelection.

Thank you for being here, sir.

Also with us today, Warren Hughs, local arts commissioner, stepping into the race.

And we have another member of the city's planning commission, Doug Perez, rounds out the challengers in this Ward three primary.

Once again, thank you all for being here.

We know the summer schedules are busy.

We know the allergies are terrible.

We just talked about that.

But we really appreciate you coming into the studio here today as we did in our first race.

We've set aside 90 seconds for opening statements, and we'll begin this time with Mr. Trumbo.

Well thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you for this opportunity to present myself as a candidate for election in the Kennewick City Council race, Ward three.

I am, finishing up my 12th year on the city council.

And my personal commitment during these past years is to make the best decisions for the right reasons, for the long term benefit of the people who are paying the taxes and who live here, and who put me into office.

The office is nonpartisan, but I have, since the early days of my adulthood, been a conservative in persuasion.

That means I am conservative about finance is morality.

So socially and politically and I my votes are based on a candidate's, core values on issues.

And that's what I use to try to determine how I vote on the city council.

I do careful research on the issues, and my candidate or that I vote for, and I do the follow the trust and verify thing in Kennewick, the top issues are how to handle growth, identifying financial priorities, preserve and making Kennewick a better community, and then homelessness coupled with mental health and addiction.

My wife and I have two daughters that we have lived with in Kennewick for 25 years while the city has doubled.

And I spent 38 years as a journalist, and I was elected to the council in 2013.

After retiring from the Herald here in Tri-Cities as an investigative reporter and government reporter.

My stated goal then and still is to hold government accountable.

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

We'll elaborate on some of those topics as well throughout the course of this.

Mr. Hughs, your opening statement.

All right.

Warren Hughes, I live in Kennewick.

It's been my home for over ten years.

I have a small business in downtown Kennewick, and I decided to run for city council after attending about eight months worth of city council meetings to just kind of see what was going on.

I think just observing the city council and what's been going on for the past eight months or so, that there's a lot of focus from the council on Southridge and a lot of focus on Vista Field and the convention, center.

There hasn't been so much focus on downtown Kennewick and my neighborhood, which is in Ward three.

My, cul de sac hasn't been plowed.

And since I moved into my house, there's been a lot of deferred maintenance in downtown.

And it seems like there could be more attention from the council on Ward three and the needs of that area of the city.

And so my goal and running for council is to help direct focus from the council on to that.

My constituents in Ward three and kind of like, all right, thank you very much, Mr. Hughs.

Mr. Perez, your opening statements.

Yeah.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having us here.

My name's, Douglas Perez.

Ready for this position?

I, came here in 2007.

So about half of my life here in the city of Kennewick.

I currently live there.

I, met my family.

My wife and I have three children in Kennewick.

I'm a small business owner.

Just a little over, doesn't employees.

And so being committed and living in the area we live in, I wanted to get more involved.

And that's the reason why I'm here, seeing, where our taxes, go to where, the planning, for the city of growth as we've grown in the last, you know, ten years.

And, coming onto the comprehensive plan update that we're going through, has been an interest to to be involved in the city.

And, I am a contractor by trade.

I have my business in downtown Kennewick.

And so, looking to to see how we can help out and, get the community involved specifically into the downtown area in our precinct.

So thank you, Mr. Perez.

Thank you very much, Linda.

Our questions is provided by the League of Women Voters.

As we dig in with our Ward three candidates.

We posed many of these to our Ward one group.

We'd like to hear your responses to these as well.

So question one for Mr. Trumbo.

And then we'll alternate responses from here on out.

Lately, much has been discussed by the council in terms of priorities for the city of Kennewick.

You mentioned some of yours personally.

How tapped in are you on that discussion and where do you stand on a number of issues?

Kennewick is prioritizing?

Well, the priorities in Kennewick have to address what I would refer to as our immediate needs that are tied to growth.

And they are, we've already taken steps forward to expand the convention center, and we now are looking at building a new city hall.

And the big question there is where to put it.

Keep it generally in East Kennewick or move it perhaps to Southridge or to where the population grows is migrating, which is, in the center or western part of the city.

This field is an area that has been raised up as a question.

We have to build a fire station in Southridge.

We have to replace a city pool.

We have to spend a lot of money to get our emergency services communications network rebuilt from the ground up.

We have money that we have to spend pertaining to our, computer system as well.

And we're we're talking lots and lots of millions of dollars here, and we have to replace the city shops on 10th Avenue.

And I could make a longer list, but that's, where the priority financial issues are.

And we also need to make, the ongoing services.

Number one is public safety.

That's police and fire water systems and roads.

When people pay taxes, that's what you have to deliver.

No chat, no options.

There are other things that we have in way that the public probably doesn't know about.

And our aquifer storage program, and, we have a very innovative wastewater, treatment program that is going to be the first in the nation outside of where it was initiated in Florida.

And we have to pursue Columbia Park transfer of ownership.

So those things are pretty high on our list.

Then in Mr. Trumbo.

Sorry, sorry I ran out of time there.

We'll move on.

We'll get an opportunity to address some of these issues a little bit more specifically.

But I do want to give Mr. Hughs a chance to answer that question.

If you've been following the Kennewick City Council discussion, what have you thought about the priorities for the city?

As stated goal of the council is, man, that Kennewick needs to be a friendly city for development and I don't have a problem with development.

It's great to have development, but it seems like Southridge has gone too far, too fast, and the general drive is to take resources away from the center of Kennewick, which I consider the downtown.

The Creative District, and Ward three, the highest population density in Kennewick, surrounds the downtown.

And to move those resources out to the convention center, to Southridge, to Vista Field, to develop new streams of revenue.

But there's a lag there.

There's they had to make a special transportation district to cover the fire station.

And Southridge.

There have been increases in taxes.

There's we're spending faster than what we can bring in, and we're not focusing on what could be the greatest revenue generator, which is Ward three and Kennewick Traditional Business Center in the downtown.

Thank you.

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

Couple of answers on growth management.

You could say with both of those as well, Mr. Perez, what are your thoughts, I would say on growth management specifically?

I think I'm probably on the same page with Warren in regards to, keeping that precinct where I think that's where the most girls can happen.

We have the most space, the density.

And trying to, keep the city hall and downtown Kennewick.

And as we know, growth is going to happen.

Growth has been happening in the Tri-Cities.

And just trying to put it in the right way, where the money is going to be allowed to be able to allow us to grow, where it's needed.

And I think priorities for that would also be public safety, making sure our taxes don't keep going up.

And, be able to balance that budget that would be my, my biggest priorities.

It was for us.

Thank you very much.

Right.

That was question one.

Let's move on to question number two.

This 1 in 1 of our cities here that has created conversation in the other two major cities in the tri cities as, a recent discussion with the Pasco City Council, it was a surprise for many to learn that Pasco adds fluoride to their water.

But Kennewick and Richland don't.

And that's because Richland and Kennewick have naturally occurring levels.

This is the stated reason of fluoride that are too low to be detected.

Now, Washington state does not mandated that decision lies with states and cities.

So the question, Mr. Hughs, will start with you here.

Where would you stand on the issue of adding fluoride to your water?

From a public health standpoint, there's a lot of documentation on fluoride helping with dental.

But if we look at the reason people used to add fluoride to water was for impoverished, municipalities where they had poor health, and it was a way, a cheap way to distribute better health across the community.

I don't know that that's necessary in the modern day.

There's lots of ways you can get fluoride.

If you want to get fluoride mouthwash or toothpaste in toothpaste.

Now, there's it's widely available to the public.

And I don't know that investing and putting fluoride in drinking water is a necessarily good use of taxpayer funds anymore.

We also have a lot of the new wastewater treatment plant and a lot of investment in our water infrastructure.

Anyway, and yeah, I, I don't know that it's something that's value added for the citizen versus what it would cost, right.

This year.

Thank you very much, Mr. Perez.

I hope you all can appreciate this has also become a national conversation a bit.

What are your thoughts on this?

Yeah.

Great.

I think it's it's valid to take a look at the studies and science behind it.

I think, possibly Pasco is rushing a little bit too quickly into that conversation.

That'd be my personal stand on that.

But I think it is valid.

You know, we're able to get fluoride in, in different products, and technology has advanced.

And so it is something to take a look at and see if it does make sense from a financial standpoint as a city.

As well as taking a look at what the community, you know, population as it grows as well as the density of the population.

I think we need to take that into account.

So, Mr. Perez, thank you very much, Mr. Trumbo.

Same question to you, sir.

I appreciate the question.

And this has actually been on my radar for many years.

In my previous occupation, we talked about it and wrote about it.

But honestly, I think government needs to be, less.

And people need to take charge of their own health.

And as Mr. Hughes said, there's lots of options out there for people who wish to have better chemistry and their dental products to buy it.

There's no reason to put it into a water supply and thereby offend those in our community who are fearful of having it in the water supply.

Just let the public make their own choices.

Right.

Thank you very much.

Very thoughtful responses on question two.

And let's ask a very quick question.

Three.

Not to say this whole forum is a rip from the national headlines discussion, but we do want to talk about tariffs and their effect here locally.

Mr. Perez will start with you.

Do you have any idea how tariffs might affect your constituents here.

So coming from a construction background tariffs do because they put a scare on small businesses just like us and not only our contractors but our suppliers.

Kind of shakes us up, you know, on, on on a level on for trades.

We're looking at, you know, construction costs, you know, is our wood coming up in pricing because obviously we bring a lot of our wood from Canada.

So having that relationship with Canada and tariffs kind of what's going on with, with the tariffs does, does bring us a little bit of a shake within our community in the construction background.

And so, I'm not sure if our position here, you know, city council has has an impact on it, but I do think in the construction trade, it is an important subject.

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

Mr. Trumble.

We'll turn that question to you.

How might tariffs affect the city and or your constituents?

Every time I go shopping in our community, I have a habit of turning the label over to see the see the label.

And, there's quite a bit of our retail activity is grounded offshore, a good share of it in China.

And I understand the problem.

But I'm very concerned about tariffs because they do tend to make prices rise locally.

However, we have become so dependent that, we need to do something to get the manufacturing processes back in the United States to put a brake on what is become, we owe too much money overseas and we need to somehow convince, all that manufacturing to come home.

And it's hard to do that without offending someone.

But I think in the long run, tariffs can help that happen.

It's just painful at the time, and I don't like it.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Trumbo.

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

So I worked in American manufacturing for 20 years locally.

And I saw the effect of the first round of tariffs on our base product, which was steel.

We manufactured products out of steel.

My prices for making my own products out of steel went up 300% at the initial first round of tariffs.

And that does not help a small business or a small manufacturer develop itself.

There are many ways in which the city council could help encourage manufacturing in Kennewick.

There are many ways that we can help Stem and Steam and training kids and vocational centers and developing our incubator spaces for small manufacturers to grow.

But increasing the cost of base goods with what is an artificial tax doesn't do any good for manufacturing.

And never has.

The about the only thing that we see a positive gain on from the tariffs is since it's going to raise retail prices by a significant factor, the city will end up collecting more in sales tax as it is a good raise.

But as far as manufacturing goes, we aren't it doesn't help manufacturing any our machines.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Let's move on to question number four.

And this is another issue.

Cities are facing budget cuts.

How might state or federal budget cuts affect the city's budget.

And what do you see as a possible solution and is one needed Mr. Trumbo?

Budget cuts come.

Pardon the pun, with the price.

When you have budget cuts, that means we have to reduce our level of spending.

Or level of service and level of services.

Of course, the last thing to go, government, higher levels of government, state and federal are really the tail that wagging the dog of of dollars that flow into the city.

Yes, we have property tax.

Yes, we have sales tax.

But most of our projects, the ones that I alluded to earlier, that money is being driven in large part by grants.

So if we're going to cut the grants, we're going to not have the kind of things that we have on our list here that completed to the, the, the quality that we need for a new city hall or, a fire station in South Ridge.

This is all grant driven.

So it's a bad thing.

And we've been trying to live with it for a long time.

There is a, there's a fund out of Olympia that is for public works projects.

And that fund has been rated by the legislature for years, like, I think 8 or 9 years.

And we don't get the money that we needed to do road work or other improvements in our city that are capital projects.

So, yeah, we're we're at risk and we have no control over it.

All right.

Mr. Trumbo, thank you very much, Mr. Hughs.

Same question to you.

How was it?

How will the city adjust to budget cuts from the state to federal level?

Part of what I see the role of council and the role of anybody in leadership in a municipality is as stewards of the future of the municipality.

So in Kennewick, we're stewards of the future of the city for our kids.

And that's kind of where I have a problem with the massive expansions in Southridge and Vista Field that were funded largely by the municipality, where these grants come in and give us a lot of money really quick when it goes away.

We don't have a revenue source to catch that up.

And so I think a more strategic form of growth that gives Kennewick some revenue, the wastewater treatment plant looks is looking at being able to give Kennewick some revenue through the sale of fertilizer.

There's other ways, like the indoor pool project they're talking about that could be revenue, at least not a loss for the city and maybe even revenue positive.

There's ways that we can engage city resources that will increase the revenue to the city that's independent of federal and not a tax increase.

It's good stewardship.

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

And Mr. Perez will turn that question to you that I think part of being a good stewardship is, is being able to balance balance sheet.

But I think also in these times, it, it really makes gets the best out of everyone.

You know, I think the city has done a great job, for my personal view.

But I think really, when times get tight, I think that's really where, we're able to see the best of of of everyone.

And I think as a city, I think adjusting to the balance and taking a look at what would make sense, to go in the direction of, very similar to what, what John brought up in those, those plans that that he had.

I think the city has done a great job with it.

Have a great city manager.

But it's just really adjusting.

Every city has gone through budget cuts.

We've seen that in the city of Pasco just across the river.

They've had to cut jobs.

But, what I've seen in other cities as well is the people that are in those positions, they're able to cover those areas and realize, wait a second, we didn't really need to have that many employees.

And so from my point of view, from being a city councilor is, being able to, place people in those positions and do the best job that they can.

So I'm all right.

Thank you.

Appreciate the thought for responses.

Here we are at the WSU Tri-Cities campus, dealing with many of the same challenges when it comes to budget.

All right.

Our question number five, and Mr. Hughs will start with you here on immigration enforcement.

Been one of the biggest topics across America at the moment.

Where do you stand on the issue.

And this question posed by the league asks about sanctuary cities.

But I would further ask, what's the right answer for a community like Kennewick?

That's fun.

Okay, so as far as immigration enforcement goes, I absolutely believe that someone who is a criminal who has broken the law, in the United States, should be detained and deported.

And that's the extent of it outside of someone who is actively committing a crime or is actively committed a crime.

If an individual is a responsible and respectable member of society who is working on getting their immigration cleared up, who is attending their court hearings, then there's no need to deport them.

They're productive members of society.

Most folks pay taxes.

It's really the demonizing of a class of people over their immigration status is something that should be abhorrent to all Americans.

We have been down this road before, and it is not a road that we should go down again.

All right, Mr. Hughs, thank you very much, Mr. Perez.

Same question to you.

So I, I came to this, this country at a young age.

May I come from an immigrant family?

From Central America.

So, I will tell you, my my parents brought me here to this country, and we did the right, the right way to get in.

We went through our legal processes and application.

So my personal belief, there is a way to do it, obviously, with, what has happened in the last five years or so, we can see that there's been an influx of people.

And so, my personal belief there is there is a process that, everybody should get in front of a court, and, but at the end of the day, if there are criminal, my personal life is, you know, you're criminal if you're not not going to be here, you're not going to be a, a positive impact to this society that we're in the US.

I would, I would, would want you not to be here.

So.

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

And same question, Mr. Trumbo.

What's the right answer for your very difficult situation?

Because, as Mr. Perez, you know, he had no choice about how he got here.

You know, that wasn't his decision.

And we have a couple of generations of people who have been put in that awful predicament.

But the bottom line is, I believe I'm correct, and I will stand for correction if it's necessary.

What are the country in the world?

Let's people walk across the border where?

And the answer that I want to give, and this is my short answer, is anybody who breaks the law needs to be held accountable.

It's the end of my speech.

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

All right.

Let's move on to question number six.

And our final question.

In this era of we call it highly divided politics.

I think that's fair to say, bringing an immovable ideology to a local government.

So the question we mentioned this already about the Kennewick City Council being a nonpartisan body, should it be nonpartisan and what does that supposed to look like, Mr. Perez?

Yeah, I don't think it should be.

The reason why, you know, we had recently learned this past year that in Kennewick, about 30% of the population is Hispanic.

And so there's, there's an array of, of people in the city.

If we were to sway one or the other, it would make it make our position a little bit harder.

You know, I, I think I, as a working class citizen in, in, in Kennewick, I, you know, was raised here.

I have my three kids here.

I, I feel that I shouldn't be swayed to one side or the other for this position.

So.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Trumbo.

Same question.

You've touched on something that is very concerning to me, and that is this whole idea of labels, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative.

You know, did I not say in my opening remarks that I ask about the core values of individuals, and that's what matters.

That is, you want to know who someone is, not what flag they're holding.

And that's why I am still holding out that Partisan labels at local level is not helpful.

In fact, it's easy for people to play that and deceive others.

Let's know who the people are.

Forget the labels.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Trumbo.

Mr. Hughs, same question.

We can see how well Partisanship is done on the national level and how effective Partizanship is in Congress and getting things done in Congress.

I don't think, on the municipal level that it's useful at all.

The municipality has a very limited scope of supervisory tasks and municipal tasks, and we should focus on doing the best for our citizens within that scope.

And there will always be discussion on who thinks what is a better way to go.

But at the end of the day, there is data and there is a municipal, there is a goal for a municipality and that is what should be important is doing your job for the citizens and your municipality.

The Partisanship for the most part, is just a way to make good news money.

It doesn't serve the public at all.

So, Mr. Hughes, thank you very much.

Well, that's all the time we have for this forum.

I want to thank you all for being here and giving some thoughtful responses.

Mr. Trumbo, Mr. Hughs, Mr. Perez, candidates for Kennewick City Council, Ward three.

Thank you.

And thank you.

And we'll want to say one more thank you to all of our candidates who were here for the past hour.

We believe in the importance of an informed and engaged public.

So we believe it matters that you voters see people at forums like this.

Your time and service are very valuable to us.

So once again, thank you.

And remember, these candidates will appear on ballots for Washington's 2025 primary that takes place on August 5th.

Let's give you a few deadlines.

Just to remind you of when to get registered, you can register in person all the way through Election Day.

Once again, that is, on August 5th.

You should see your mailed ballots as early as July 18th this year for mail in voting registration.

You have until July 28th and finally, as we take a look ahead at our vote 2025 series, we'll look at races in the city of Kennewick.

We'll dive in with the Kennewick school board and begin our coverage in the city of Richland with their city council, on which there are a number of seats up for grabs.

And be sure to stick with Northwest Public Broadcasting on air and online for coverage of the 2025 election.

We'll have more throughout the week.

You can also find these programs after they air on YouTube.

On behalf of NWPB and the League of Women Voters, we thank you for watching.

Have a good night.