2 00:00:09,843 --> 00:00:12,512 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.

Today we're going to hear from candidates running for a pair of positions on the Richland City Council, part of our vote 2025 series here at B.

We think all these races matter.

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

And I want to thank all of you 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 2025 election season.

So here's what we've got planned for today a full hour with candidates for the Richland City Council, as many as we could get to join us from the position.

Six and seven races.

We have questions provided and solicited by the League of Women Voters on issues facing our cities and some ground rules for today.

As we said, we invited all candidates from every primary with three or more people on that ballot, and we are giving everybody equal time.

We'll give our candidates a platform for 90 second opening statements, and then we'll get into our questions.

This forum also obviously a television program.

So as moderator I may get to additional topics or cut time if we need it.

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

So let's get to it with our position six introductions and opening statements in the Richland City Council Position six race.

We have an incumbent and some newcomers, Mister Kurt Maier, who we spoke with here a couple of years ago seeking a second term.

The challengers, Kyle Saltz and Joshua Arnold.

Mr. Arnold declined the league's invitation, but Mr. Salt is here with us today.

We'll start with opening statements from you, too, and get right to it.

Mr. Maier, with your opening statement, sir.

Sure.

Thank you very much.

What I focused on, in my first term on Richland City Council is city business.

And what that means to me is making sure that the staff that we hire to manage our city has the tools that they need from the policies that the city council sets.

I don't believe in distractions like political parties or, the culture wars, virtue debates.

Laser focused on governing the city of Richland.

And that means contributing to many of the efforts that are shared amongst the tri cities.

What part of my role has been on the Ben Franklin Public Transit board of directors?

I'm also the, liaison to the Code Enforcement Board.

And the other thing that I focused on during my time in office is I don't miss meetings.

There have been a couple times I've had to remote in over zoom once because I was out of the state and once because I was out of the country.

But I participated in those meetings.

And so my focus is a high performing, well serving government that meets the needs of the people of Richland and I hold myself accountable to show up and do the work and do my best to convince the rest of City council, to support the tools that I think our staff can benefit from in order to govern the city correctly.

Mr. mayor, thank you very much, Mr. Saltz.

Your opening statement, sir.

Thank you very much.

My name is Kyle Saltz.

I left Richland back, right after I graduated high school.

And, I went into the military.

I became a counterintelligence agent.

I served for 11 years, deploying multiple times across the world to Afghanistan, Europe, across Asia and the Middle East.

I served honorably, and I return back to my home.

I received several master's degrees.

One in criminal justice, the other one in politics and history.

And I immediately got involved with the local Veterans of Foreign Wars.

I've been in elected local leadership here for the last 11 years.

I was appointed the Washington State aide de camp, representing veterans rights, in 2001, I was me 2021, as well as, continuing to serve with the Benton County Veterans Courts.

I'm one of the mentors there.

Continue on with my veteran, aid for the local community.

I'm a part of love on a leash, so I take my K-9 and do therapeutic care with local nursing homes as well as, vets in the hospital as well as the emergency room.

And my dog will probably be the newest Kadlec hospital's, therapy dog.

Now moving on.

I got into law enforcement.

I'm now been part of Hanford patrol for the last eight years, and I will.

I see joining the city council as another part of my civic duty for this community.

And I will focus on making Richland a very business friendly area, very focused and efficient, for people to invest in and people to build in.

Thank you.

All right, Miss Saltz, thank you.

Thank you both for being here and for those opening statements.

Now, for the rest of the hour, we're going to dig into some of the league's questions here, some time constraints for fairness, one minute time limit for the answers here.

We'll rotate the order of responses starting at the top with Mr. Maier here in position six and Mr. Maier 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 a distinction between areas of the city depending on where you're live.

What are your thoughts on that idea?

If I remember correctly, the ballot proposal that got sufficient petitions to to to get on to the ballot this fall, recommends a mix of district wide positions and At-Large positions.

And I'm 100% in favor of it.

Prior, to, 2022.

I think I could be wrong on that year.

But until very recently, the entirety of Richland City Council, was from one neighborhood in South Richland.

And I don't think that that's representative of the city.

I think Richland is, diverse city.

I think North Richland has its set of concerns.

South Richland has it because of concerns that B Mountain South is a Badger Mountain South is a an up and coming neighborhood.

That's that's got its own needs.

And I think it's appropriate for the city council to reflect that.

So I'm 100% in support of the districts.

Regardless of whether that means, more or less competition for me getting reelected in the future, I think either way, districts are going to be a boon to the community.

Mr. Maier, thank you very much, Mr. Saltz.

Your thoughts on the idea of.

No, I, I take the, opposite stance, though, because if we we want a district Richland, we would have to say, well, why is there a, is there a cultural or ethnic differences between South or North Richland or central Richland?

And we don't really see a cultural difference.

We have to see we we look at their city council right now.

They're made up of people of North Richland, central Richland, southern Richland were made up all across the board, made up of individuals from all across Richland.

So we don't see that large difference of just in South Richland as of today.

Now as I again I say I, I stress is there any group that is not being appropriately represented by the city council, or is there a cultural difference between North and South Richland or Central Richland?

And I've never heard a child or a kid in Hanford High Richland High say, or do you grow up in North Richland or South Richland?

There's no fundamental cultural differences.

So that's why I'm going to take the opposite stance on my colleague here.

Thank you.

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

And we're going to get right into question number two.

We'll go right back to you.

One of the things many entities and agencies are watching, of course, are their budgets.

We'll use the term priorities a lot today.

And this one's about budget priorities.

And how might state or federal budget cuts affect the city and how would you manage that?

I think the foremost thing that we have to take care of is roads.

And first responders.

First responders are very key to help promoting a safe and secure Richland as well as our roads.

I think that's roads is a tough topic.

I know a lot of people talk about every year about, especially with our budgeting plans and how we're going to be able to fund those.

And so again, as far as our budgets, there are things that we can cut.

And I've actually made several proposals already.

There are several municipal codes that if we actually just do it with a stroke of a pen, the city can make over $43,000 and save over $4,000.

And manor, as I spoke, I think it was last month already about this proposal that we could actually do business more efficiently, more professionally, just by looking at how other areas do business.

And we could copy that.

And if we can maintain that same level of professionalism, that same level of proficiency, then I say we need to be able to change municipal laws.

We want to change some, some, some of the things that we could do for businesses.

And, I could go on for days, but I believe my time's out, sir.

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

Appreciate you.

Stand on time, Mr. Maier.

Same question to you just about managing the city's budget when federal and state funding gets reduced.

Yeah, it's, definitely going to happen.

It's something that I've been keeping on top of, you can go back and watch, City View recordings of previous city Council meetings.

And one of the questions I always ask, whenever we're getting a budget presentation from a subject matter expert, is is there any federal or state funding that's currently at risk?

Due to coming cuts that we need to worry about as far as, making alternate plans for funding some of our projects.

And I gotta say, city staff, keeps on top of it.

They know, they keep track of where the funding is coming from.

They keep track of where the funding is likely to reduce.

They keep track of new opportunities to to get funding in the door.

Our staff recently won what they refer to as the Triple Crown.

But it was three separate budgeting awards, and we're the only city in Eastern Washington to have won that.

And I think that with an alert city council and there's professional staff as we have, we're well situated to respond to any of these potential cuts.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

Let's move on to question three and sort of along the same lines of federal decisions that affect locally and financially the stock tariffs.

Mr. Maier, what's your understanding of how the tariffs might affect the city of Richland and what can cities do to mitigate its effect on its constituents?

I'm so it's a complicated phrasing of the question there.

Obviously tariffs affect everything we do, right.

Even things that are quote unquote made in America, typically aren't entirely made in America, especially things like vehicles.

The same part might cross the border 4 or 5 different times before it gets bolted into a chassis.

So these tariffs can crop up in places where you might not otherwise expect them.

And once again, this is a topic where while I don't think that there's much the city can do about federal application of tariffs on the products that the city needs to acquire in order to function, I do think, that we can work with our budgeting experts on city staff to make sure that we've identified the risk areas, and then come up with alternate plans that might mean a reduction in overall purchases.

It might mean sourcing things from different companies.

But either way, we've got the staff and the knowhow.

All they need is a city council willing to work for them.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

I understand it's a complicated question as well, Mr. Saltz.

I'll turn that complication.

And, I agree a lot with what Kurt just said.

We we have very little ability to enforce a change on what's going on the federal level or even the state level.

Now, what we could do is just be good stewards of our funds right now and ensure that we we don't go into a financial crisis, that we don't overspend.

And we we be fiscally conservative with the funds that we do have and look at how we can be more efficient.

Now, like I said, I might have two master's degrees, but I, I don't know the best answers for all of that.

So what a person needs to do is find subject matter experts that could help advise the city Council on how we can actually mitigate all these future issues.

Mr. Saltz Thank you very much.

All right.

Let's move on to question number four.

As immigration enforcement across the country has the radar up for a number of local economies and a report released just this May from the Washington State Department of Budget and Policy estimated migrant workers at 150 million to the state's GDP.

So in a region like the Columbia Valley, what in your mind is the solution to balancing immigration enforcement and economic stability?

Mr. Saltz, I don't foresee a big issue with our local area, with immigration enforcement.

I have not seen any.

There's not been any raids like we've seen in other areas.

We haven't seen a large threat to people's safety and security here within Richland.

Those are threats and issues in other locations.

And we have a vibrant migrant community, a very respected, very influential, and they're a part of our community.

And I don't foresee any issues with Ice agents.

I don't see any issues with immigration enforcement.

In fact, we have one of the fastest, naturalization programs in the state right here up in Yakima or Yakima.

Yakima.

And the path to citizenship is amazing.

It's very fast, and it's much faster than, if you want to immigrate to, France ten years, you want to immigrate here.

You could do it in a few months.

And it is phenomenal.

My wife just went through that process.

It was awesome to see.

And, oh, I apologize.

My time is out.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

Same question to you, sir.

The city of Richland does not have a dog in that fight.

It it's not involved in integration enforcement.

That's a federal matter.

If my understanding is correct, it's against state law for the city of Richland to get involved with that.

And so, I don't think the city needs to have a position on federal immigration enforcement at all.

That's all I got.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Maier.

Let's move on to question number five.

And talking about homelessness, top of mind for a number of cities in the state of Washington across the country, including Richland.

What do you see as a possible solution or solutions to the issue of homelessness in town?

Well, any kind of solution, to a problem like that is going to have to be coming from more directions than just one.

Because homelessness isn't one problem.

Everybody who's living rough is doing it for a different reason.

And so we need to make sure that the city is well suited so that as it grows and develops, it develops the services needed to support the people who have been put out of homes, for whatever reason, they've been put out of homes.

I don't like a lot of the rhetoric that goes on on, local social media and, local radio shows.

I think that while there isn't, I can't you're not going to arrest your way out of a homeless crisis in the city.

But what you can do is make sure that, housing is affordable and achievable, and people who need, care services can get them.

And sometimes that means, Richland needs to step up where other parts of the tri cities might not be.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Maier.

Mr. Saltz, same question.

What are solutions to homeless issues?

There's a it's a it's a several pronged answer to this.

Now for one, I've been working with, homeless veterans for, for many years.

There should be zero homeless veterans in Richland.

And I would argue across the Tri-Cities, there are so many resources out there.

There's houses available.

There is private organizations like the VFW, the American Legion, the tri city, Veterans Coalition.

We were out there and we were actually fighting.

There is zero.

There should be zero veteran or homeless veterans within our community.

It is something that is very near and dear to us, and there's a lot of resources available for them now for a lot of other people out there that are homeless, we have to look at some of these root causes.

A lot of this is drug abuse.

Now, some of the things that we could look at for is possibly by investing in as a rehabilitation center here in Richland, and we could look for funding for that.

But ultimately homelessness is multiple issues with a lot of it is drug abuse.

And like I said, housing affordability.

Thank you very much, Saltz.

Thank you very much.

Let's move on to question number six.

And another topic, local development, and Queensgate Drive in South Richland opened up this spring.

That development bringing Costco aimed at reducing overall traffic.

Mr.. Saltz, what are your thoughts on the project?

Have you seen it accomplish its own goals so far?

Well, I already had some residents talk to me about the issues with Costco going there, especially off of, Kingsley and, they're worried about the traffic there.

They're worried about the left hand turns.

The lights aren't, equipped for the time frame that when the peak traffic's, they're going to hit a Costco in that area, it's going to cause some backflow, and they're really, really worried about that.

And, as far as development in Richland, we need to be very, very we need to be able to draw people into one to invest one in a build.

And one of the biggest arguments I've heard from real estate agents and builders and contractors is, is Richland has one of the longest turnaround times for red tape and impact fees than any of the tri cities.

And in fact, to start a build in Pasco, it takes about a week long, whereas in Richland there's a lot more red tape involved, a lot more small fees.

If we want people to come in and invest, especially with North Richland, which I believe is a key place to to build up in the future, you need to make it where people want to come in, want to invest, and it's not.

We're not trying to nickel and dime these people trying to do good business here.

Thank you.

All right, Mr. Maier, same question.

Sure.

What some people call, red tape.

Some other people call careful management.

And I think it says a lot that Costco picked Richland and not Pasco, in order to build their new facility.

There are a lot of complaints about, the sort of Queensgate to retail Kingsgate, Keene area.

And there are three, maybe four having a hard time remembering the exact number, projects already in the budget, in order to address some of the concerns at intersections, widened roads pave a whole new road over there on.

I think it's skyline.

But, yeah, the the staff was not city staff is not taken unawares by Costco's presence in the area.

And, some of this, construction waited for funding from the state.

Some of this construction waited until previous construction was done, because we can only have so many projects running at a time.

But I think that things, are going to be better than folks expect, and I think they're going to get better than that much quickly.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

All right.

Question seven from the League of Women Voters, kind of a philosophical one about the nonpartisan space that you're supposed to occupy on the Richland City Council and this idea of ideology.

In fact, Mr. Maier, earlier he used the term culture wars, virtue debates, which seem to permeate a lot of our discussion.

So the question is, do you believe the Richmond City Council should remain nonpartisan?

Why or why not?

And what does it mean to govern in a nonpartizan way?

Yeah.

I absolutely believe the City council should be nonpartisan.

There's no, possible input that the national political parties could have on how we manage our roads or our neighborhoods.

Way back the first time I ever filed to run for office, one of the political parties in the in Benton County sent me a, copy of their platform.

And they said, if you're if you're seeking endorsement from us, here's our platform.

You know, if you want it, if you want, you can sign it and we'll talk more.

And I read the platform and it was just a complete it was a carbon copy was identical to the national platform.

Not only was there not anything specific to Richland and it there wasn't anything specific to Benton County in it or the state of Washington.

And that lack of focus, I think, is why political parties in general are ineffective in local government.

I think what happens is the, the folks need to perform for the higher ups in the party, and that guides their thinking and their talking.

And I don't want any part of it in my city government.

I think the city needs to govern for everyone.

And that's why I've never been a member of a political party.

Thank you, Mr. Maier.

Mr. Saltz, your thoughts on partisanship in a city council, I agree, the city council should remain nonpartisan.

I've been a part of a C3 organization elected to champion by veterans within the community.

And it is a political as well.

We are nonpartizan.

We we we we want to encourage.

And the bottom line up front is we take care of veterans.

Well, the same thing with the city council.

We should be taking care of the people of Richland.

We shouldn't we you know, party politics aside, at the end of the day, we're trying to take care of the people.

We're trying to make sure the zoning is correct, the building the roads and ensuring the safety and security of our our, you know, first responders and our local people as well.

And really, party politics has nothing to play in that.

It's doing the right thing ethically and morally and help making Richland become a better place to live.

All right, Michel, thank you very much.

Well, our eighth and final question, and our quick forum here talks about a rule in the length of a term on the council.

Most council members serve four year terms.

However, the winner with the least votes in each election will serve two years.

So among the races up for grabs, position three, four, six and seven, one of those winners is going to serve two.

Mr. Saltz, you go first here.

What's your opinion on that rule?

Very unique rule here in the city.

It's it is a unique rule and I don't know if I actually like it, but honestly, I'm not politically ambitious.

And like I said, I don't mind a two year term.

I don't mind a four year term.

I think serving the people is what we should be here for and not looking for grandeur, other aspirations.

And as for if I will condone or accept it, I honestly.

I really don't have a dog in that fight.

If I have to go two years, or if I have to do four years, it's not going to bother me because at the end of the day, I should be there to help serve the people.

That's it.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Saltz.

Mr. Maier, do you have an opinion on this?

Sure.

Speaking as the guy who got the two year term last time.

No, I'm just kidding.

It's, I think the intent behind it was to make sure that there's always an odd number of people up for election.

And from that standpoint, I think it's fine.

I think it's a little cruel, to the to the new guy, to, to say.

All right, well, you finally made it.

Now do it again.

But, on the other hand, I think that, I've managed to achieve a lot in just the year and a half, that I've had, an opportunity to participate in the city council.

I've, I've convinced some, I've convinced council that some policy changes made sense, and we did them as a team.

And I think that, I'm happy to say that, the two year term was enough for me, to, to, to make an impact.

And, I don't have a particular opinion as to whether it should stay or go.

But I will say, I'm grateful that there's a, logical reason to have it.

Even if it's a little uncommon.

Right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Maier.

I knew that when I asked you the question, so I was curious how that would, that would go here.

Well, we want to thank you all for answering these questions once again from the league.

There are a number of topics we just don't have time to cover.

But we're going to give you time for some closing statements.

And, you know, let's reset the clock at 90 seconds because I want to cover anything that we might have missed or give you the last word on your campaigns, Mr. Maier, back to the top of the order, so to speak, with your 90 second closing statement, sir.

Sure.

Thank you very much.

I am not a politician.

I don't have a political career.

I've served the city of Richland for nine years so far.

If you count, the library board and city council work, I will continue to serve the city of Richland in whatever ever ways make themselves available to me.

I am interested in pursuing some of the policy changes, such as making it possible to build more housing in North Richland.

I'm interested in pursuing, keeping on top of, pedestrian and cyclist safety.

I'm interested in expanding library services, to more parts of the city in person, with physical, installations.

I'm happy with what I've got done, and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more.

I think that the work that goes on at the, transit board and the code enforcement board is important, and I'm proud to be a part of that.

I'd be extremely happy if I could continue in those roles.

Because I think they make a difference to people.

I think, I think it's crucial to have a city council that understands its role, within the city, which is to guide, the city manager and to pass policies and regulations that enable the city manager and his or her staff, to continue performing at a high level.

And I'd be happy to keep helping.

Thanks very much.

Thank you, Mr. Maier.

Mr. Saltz, your closing statement.

Well, again, I'm going to state that, my main focus, if elected, is to ensure that Richland is a place for people want to invest and build.

We need to ensure that, you know, right now we have Amazon coming in and going to be spending 300 million to help build that new nuclear reactor.

The state of Washington is going to do $200 million.

Now, these are going to be jobs that are going to help sustain us for 20 to 30 years.

There's gonna be a lot of growth there.

Amazon's doing another $100 million to build up the infrastructure from Pasco all the way to Walla Walla.

There's more like 30,000 new homes going to be built in Pasco alone.

I think it's going to be vital to help build up North Richland, leaving a maybe a bridge because that's going to be vital for the continuance and and responsible growth that we could see in Richland.

Now, that being said, with this large influx, we're going to have to focus on law enforcement efforts.

We're going to in first responders ability to reach and cover all of Richland, respectfully.

Now, not only that, I would love to get in the municipal codes.

And like I said, that one, I would love to talk with the fire chief.

There's one code that I saw if we just changed the code, and we actually enforce some of the things that we're supposed to be doing, the city of Richland stands to make over $1 million, and we could save, actually save local businesses, small businesses, over a couple hundred thousand dollars across Richland.

Why in heck, if you beat me, I'd love to give it to you anyway, because these are things that we could actually do to to help raise money within Richland, but also save local businesses just by doing things more efficiently and maintaining high levels of professionalism and I think that's where I'm going to be at every day doing doing the job.

Thank you, Mr. Saltz.

Thank you very much for that closing statement.

All the time we have we covered a lot for the city of Richland today.

We thank you for your answers.

Thank you for letting voters get to know you a little bit better.

Kurt Maier, the incumbent council member in position six challenger Kyle Saltz here today.

Joshua Arnold not here but will appear on the ballot.

We thank you so much for your time.

And now to our position seven candidates.

Joining us in studio are Joshua Short and Tony Sanchez.

These gentlemen, the challengers in a four person primary that includes incumbent Ryan Whitton and challenger Colin Michael.

Neither Mr. Witten nor Mr. Michael responded to the invitation to be here today.

But just like with the other race you just saw, we've got two here.

And Mr. Sanchez, we'll begin with your 90 second opening statement.

Right to it, sir.

Sure.

So, hi, I'm Tony Sanchez.

I, moved here from Alaska about three years ago to go work at my dream job out here at LIGO.

It's a cutting edge facility where we do, astronomy.

That's cutting edge.

And, I'm trying to make myself a part of this community.

I would like to, help out this community by, making sure that we have sufficient, bus schedules and, an expansion of the bus system, in such a way that, my coworkers who, and, you know, people at PNNL and the rest of the rest of the city can get around, which would, reduce traffic, all over town, and, could overall benefit the city by, making sure that people can get to the locally owned shops in Uptown.

Another thing I would like to focus on is, making sure that people can, you know, build houses here in, Richland in a way that it's, more affordable.

I think we've got a lot of, approximately about 50% of the of the housing costs are in building codes.

I think we can bring these building codes either, into the future, by just laying them out and making sure that builders have what they need to build, affordable homes.

Or, we can potentially, find other solutions to reduce the cost of the cost of housing.

All right, Mr. Sanchez, thank you.

And thank you for being here today.

Mr. Short, your opening statement, sir, I, Joshua Short, this is my second time running for this particular position.

I was born here in Richland and grew up in Kennewick and really enjoy living in this community and want to see it continue to go along its growth progression as we add more people from different places and expand our industries and do so in a way that keeps that sort of smaller community feel that, you know, a lot of us like in communities and a lot of the ones, from here, you know, also like about it.

And that that takes a lot of different forms.

I'm just running to offer a voice, some potential alternatives to the way that things have been done, a way for us all to move forward creatively together.

And thank you for your time.

Right, Mr. Short, thank you very much for your opening statement.

Let's move on to our questions and a one minute time limit for answers on these.

Really gotta crystallize.

Your thoughts will rotate order of responses starting at the top of Mr. Sanchez in position seven here in an issue that may be on the ballot in November, is whether or not all members of the City council should represent the entire city or whether there should be some distinction.

The wards and at large format of a council.

What are your thoughts on this?

Do you support the idea?

Thank you.

Matt.

Yeah.

I, I am, familiar with the, redistricting of, of, Richland and I do support this.

It does seem like, Northern Richland seems to be underrepresented.

There seems to be, a number of, council members that, are from, kind of the same ish area.

And even if that does mean that, you know, I end up in the wrong district and, you know, you know, have to rerun or, be reappointed, to this position.

I think this is a good idea, because I think all of, Richland residents should be appropriately represented.

I, I'm definitely going to support this in my campaign.

And I know it doesn't say that on my pamphlet, but I'm certainly for this, initiative.

Thank you very much, Mr. Sanchez.

Mr. Short, do you approve of this idea?

Yeah, I do, representation is important.

Of course, as all At-Large positions, we represent or would represent all of Richland, but, focusing representation into particular neighborhoods that might have particular needs and, unique characteristics to them is important.

So a little a little extra on that.

But yes, I do support it.

All right.

Mr. Short, thank you very much.

Let's move on to question number two, then.

Mr. Short, we'll start with you on this one.

And one of the things many entities and agencies are watching right now are their budgets.

I expect you anticipated a budget question at some point this election season, and not many are expecting for their budgets to grow.

So let's talk about federal and state funding as it's reduced or anticipated to be reduced.

How will that affect the city and what solutions are needed?

Federal and state employees live in the city, reduction to their income or ability to provide for themselves and their family brings about all the sort of stress and unrest that usually comes with such, reductions.

Now, looking on the positive side of it, I guess it's an opportunity for neighborhoods and, displaced people to maybe come together and, keep solutions local, help their neighbors help each other.

But that doesn't necessarily fix this sort of a storm that's coming that you've mentioned, this unrest that people will experience.

But the best place to take on that sort of burden is at the community level, at the at the local level where we are here, and I'm sure thank you very much, Mr. Sanchez.

Mr. Short just referred to it as a burden.

The idea that cities might have to take the brunt of some of this.

What do you see as possible solutions to potential budget issues in Richland?

Yeah.

So there's definitely a lot of, budgeting issues that are coming out right now.

And, unfortunately, there's a lot of people out here, who are doing great science and great technology, you know, work out at, some of our national labs and other other facilities out here who are, potentially seeing a budget cut.

And, you know, my loved ones here in town are potentially also on that on that list.

So I'm definitely going to do everything I can to make sure that on both the state, national and even county level, that, you know, our workers have the funding that they need to be able to pay their rents and, you know, make their car notes.

That's important, because, you know, that's what's kind of running this town.

But also there is some amount of, you know, pulling together as a community to make sure that we have what each other, need, because it takes an entire village, and Richland is that village.

Mr. Sanchez, thank you very much.

And along the same lines for question number three of federal decisions and their impact locally, let's talk tariffs.

And Mr. Sanchez, your your first year, what's your understanding of how tariffs might affect the city, especially in industries that are so important here economically.

What can the city do to in that same sort of vein manage the budget in the face of tariffs?

That's fair.

Yeah.

Thanks, Matt.

That so we've got we've got a lot of tariffs that we're seeing here in town.

And that's, that's increasing the price of steel and the price of, building and the price of materials.

And that's going to make everything, go up, in, you know, in price.

And, you know, perhaps some of the things that we can do is, is, try and I imagine, try and try and make some of these things here in town or try to buy them from other locations here, nationally.

And, you know, I understand that there's a limit to this, and I understand that that's going to be probably, expensive on its own.

But, you know, let's also not forget that perhaps we also have a voice here in Richland, and we can use that voice to voice our, you know, to, to to voice our dissatisfaction with the representation representation that we currently have, on the national level.

All right.

Mr. Sanchez, thank you very much.

And, Mr. Short, same question to you.

Is, tariff and import tariff is a tax on the the end consumer.

The importer gets passed on to all of us.

It's going to show up in the products that we buy that are not domestically manufactured.

The logic behind them is that if there's a surplus of things coming in from other countries, then we have the domestic capability to, produce those.

Then the tariffs would create an incentive.

For local manufacturing.

But it's not really the incentive that we have, you know, like with tariffs on silicon and like rare earth minerals and computer parts.

Are we going to create a chip fab here in Richland?

We don't have much forest land for a lumber mill.

It's all interconnected web of stuff.

And yeah, well, what happened nationally is not going to do us, a service locally.

So it's time for us to come together and get creative and help each other here.

Thank you very much, Mr. Short.

Creativity in the face of national decision making, sort of a theme of this forum, as you know, and immigration enforcement across the country does have the radar up for a number of local communities and many of them handling it in many different ways.

A report released just this May from the Washington State Department of Budget and Policy estimated migrant workers at 150 million to the State of Washington's GDP.

So in a region like ours, what is the solution to balancing immigration enforcement and that economic stability?

Mr. short, I'll let you choose how to answer that one.

So I don't think it's anything to pat ourselves on the back for having a large migrant and foreign workforce that doesn't have leverage on its own, that we're underpaying is a necessity for us to have our standard of living.

Kicking people like this out of our communities is a an even further step in the wrong direction.

So we need ways to to bring more in to the country, to help people get along.

And, you know, all for one and one for all it, make, make the dream helping each other.

And because the better that any of us do individually, the better we all do collectively.

Mr. Short, thank you very much.

Mr. Sanchez, that same question to you.

Yeah.

Thanks.

So, yes, we do have a large, a large population of immigrants in the country.

And, you know, there is a crackdown on, you know, removing these people.

And that's going to affect us, that's going to affect us economically.

Because they are people who pay taxes.

And, you know, they're not taking it back out of the system.

You know, they don't they don't get a tax return back.

And, you know, they're doing labor for us.

We've already seen, some of the national, you know, legislations on this being kind of pulled back for, hospitality and farm workers, because, you know, the, the people who own the farms have been saying, hey, you've been taking away my strong labor force.

And so we do have to strike a balance between, you know, having everyone here, and, you know, underpaying them and also making sure that our economy doesn't tank by removing these hard workers.

So once again, we should stand together and make sure that we're protecting our economy and the people that make that economy up.

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

All right.

Let's move on to question number five, and we'll go right back to the top here.

Homelessness top of mind for most cities, including Richland.

What do you see as possible solutions for the homeless issue in the city?

Yes.

Mr.. Oh, me?

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

So, yeah, there is there is, there are people in our, in the Richland community who, maybe are, you know, potentially homeless or otherwise, you know, sleeping around town on the near the uptown ish area, which is unfortunate.

And I understand that this has been kind of something difficult to deal with.

We should be trying to help these people.

We should be trying to make sure that, you know, everyone has the resources that that that they need.

And if we can, we should be able to, you know, get these people the help that they need.

With that said, I also understand that some of this might be drug related.

And even with that said, people, people who are having addictions should be taking care of, in, in the ways that they need to, and so I think, I think that we, we can move forward as a community.

There's not that much homelessness here.

We're not Seattle.

We can take care of our own.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Short.

Solutions for homelessness.

Yeah.

It's we're at the beginning stages of being a problem where we're not as big as Seattle.

The problem isn't as big as Seattle.

So we have the advantage of knowing that this is a little bit of the growing pain of of how at least the, the cities that we structured them, how they work.

It would be nice to see a different local social contract come about so that we treated things like housing and food as basic human rights.

When I have a neighbor or somebody nearby in the community, you know, even camping down at the park, the more worried they are about their own survival, the worse that they act, the better our neighbors are, the better the experience for us.

And to treat, it is a pay to live situation for housing and food is always going to leave people behind.

It's inevitable and charity will never make up for the gaps.

Yeah.

Thank you very much, Mr. Short.

Let's move on to question number six, and we'll start with you here, on local development, Queensgate Drive in South Richland is opened up.

Open up the spring.

That development bringing a Costco local opinion starting to come in on that development.

What are your thoughts on the project and do you see it accomplishing its own goals?

What a development around here is, to be candid, a bit of a tragedy, a travesty.

It's, an assault against nature doesn't fit into the landscape.

It's not for people.

It's, It's not even for the small local business owners anymore.

It's for an increasing number of external parasites to take things from us.

And there are nice amenities and things for the wealthy that can afford them.

But the same group is going to be enjoying these things while also complaining about the presence of the people that can't, and the increasing presence of the people that can't.

All right, Mr. Short, thank you.

Mr. Sanchez, your thoughts on the Queensgate development?

As someone who lives in the Queensgate area and has had to find new places to park my car, I, I both see the problems.

And, you know what they're trying to solve here?

I guess I guess we needed another Costco in Tri-Cities.

I I'm not particularly that big of a Costco shopper, but I also understand that Costco is bringing jobs in, and that's, you know, I, I would love for those people to be able to get, jobs, you know, locally owned businesses.

But, unfortunately, Costco's coming in and they're, they're going to hire people, and I'm okay with that.

Even if they took out an orchard to put up the Costco parking lot, that's rather unfortunate.

And definitely has kind of ruined my view because now I look at this giant side of a Costco.

But also, you know, it is business here in Richland and that's going to bring in, tax money and revenue for us.

So all right.

Thank you very much.

Let's move on to question number seven from the League of Women Voters.

This one sort of philosophical about how, city council should govern, certainly in the context of what you might call ideological and move ability.

And should a city council as Richlands is be nonpartisan.

And what does it mean to govern a city in a nonpartisan way?

Mr. Sanchez?

Sure, yes.

So, yeah, I, I do believe that, the city council should be relatively nonpartisan.

And that's because we've got to represent everyone I understand that, you know, not all of of Richland is, you know, you know, conservative, and, you know, there are some progressive I work with a lot of, you know, progressives out there and the, you know, national labs and stuff like that.

So I understand that there are there are, you know, multiple people.

It takes a village to run this community.

And they should be represented fairly.

And I and I, I'm going to do my best to make sure that I'm, you know, doing like a nonpartisan sort of, service here.

You know, despite my, my personal beliefs, but there are certain lines that I won't cross as far as my convictions.

And, I guess I'm running out of time, but we can get into that later.

All right.

Thank you very much.

We do have time for closing statements as well.

And this may fit along those lines of stating your case, but do you believe a city council should be nonpartisan?

And what does it look like to govern that way?

Yeah, it should be nonpartisan.

Most people should probably be nonpartisan.

This isn't some sporting event of teams against other teams.

Politics is just groups making decisions together.

There shouldn't be, like, weird fractured lines drawn in the sand.

It should, I guess, be about ideas and to an extent, the ideology that drives them.

And as people hoping to be representatives ourselves, you know, we've we've got opinions and, things that we would like to see, but this is about.

Allowing the community to speak, synthesizing, becoming a place where the different voices can turn into, a way forward for all, I'm sure.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Or eighth and final question here talks about a rule in the length of a term on the Richland City Council.

Most council member serve four year terms.

However, the winner with the least votes will serve two years.

We just talked to the gentleman who is serving that two year term on the council.

So among the races up for grabs, position three, four, six and seven, one of those winners will serve for two years.

Mr. short, you'll go first here.

What's your opinion on that rule?

Does it need to be changed?

Yeah.

It's the one that ends up winning with, the tightest margin or something like this.

The least number of votes, amount of votes according to count.

Yeah.

It's keeps it spicy, I guess.

I don't see a big reason, but, to get rid of it.

But really, if we were going to make a change as to how, like, the election cycle works, ranked choice voting would be an amazing one.

So that we're not doing this.

That's a great way to keep Partisanship out of things to to have people able to select from the entire the choice of people ranked and see where we overlap together.

Yeah, beats the winner take all.

And trying to find a simple majority.

All right, Mr. Sanchez, same question.

Yeah, I, yeah, I, I don't mind, a shorter, you know, length of time in office.

I'm okay with that.

That gives different voices, an opportunity to do things in the in the community.

And I think that's, I think that's probably for the better.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. Sanchez.

And, want to thank you for the answers to all of those questions in this forum.

If we could solve many of those issues in a minute, we'd be a much more effective television program here.

We understand there's some complicated issues at play.

So let's reset the clock at 90 seconds to cover anything we missed and give our candidates the last word.

So, 90 seconds Mr. Sanchez, a chance to give your closing statement, sir.

Yes.

I would like to say thank you for for hosting this and, making sure that our voices get heard, and to to the city of Richland.

I know that there's a lot going on, on the, on the national scale.

But I think we should be focusing on local politics.

The local politics are going to be the politics that affect us the most, in this town.

And so let's focus on, how we can help each other, how we can build community, how we can build equity, like in value to the to the community, like literally by by building homes and getting people housed.

Let's make sure that we can do these sorts of things.

So way everyone can effectively fight the fights that they need to fight.

On the state and federal level.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

And, Mr. Short 90 seconds, for your closing statement.

Well, thank you for your time and consideration.

Vote for who you want, but, you know, please vote.

Be involved.

Be part of this community, help navigate it through the tough times that are to come.

And you don't add to the chaos through weird partisan bickering and culture wars stuff that doesn't affect us here.

We are in a wonderful place with the river.

If we can keep it with the walkability, if we can keep it, and nice parks if we can to and more to add to it.

Wealth of types of jobs and people desiring to be in and give back to their communities, to raise families here, to grow here, to work here.

And we've already given the world quite a bit.

And it's been a little bit problematic.

We're a Superfund cleanup site, but a lot of science and cool stuff happens here too.

So let's keep it going.

Vote even if it's not for me.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

That's all the time we have.

We covered a lot for the city of Richland today, and we really do thank you for your answers.

We agree people should get out and vote and should do so with as much information as possible.

Tony Sanchez, Joshua Short, thank you for being here today.

And that covers this race for position seven.

Don't forget Mr. Short, Mr. Sanchez also running against Ryan Witten and Colin Michael, candidates for the Richland City Council.

We thank everybody for their time.

And one more overall.

Thank you.

As with all of our forums, we want to highlight appreciation for our candidates who took the time to be at our WSU Tri-Cities studio.

This is voluntary, but it's clear we all see the value in these forums and debates.

We spoke with a number of candidates in eight different races this week and every moment was important.

So thank you to everybody who responded and said yes to this program.

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

And here's where we remind you of the deadlines to get registered.

You can register in person all the way through Election Day.

You should see your mailed ballots, those of you registered for mail voting as early as July 18th.

For Mail-In Voting Registration, you have until July 28th to finish that registration.

Well, this wraps up our vote 2025 series covering races in Richland and Kennewick.

And a final note before we sign off, those of us here at fought hard this year in the face of public media cuts to bring this coverage to you.

The numbers are clear a supported public media results and a more well informed public and a more representative government.

We thank those of you who've continued your support of Northwest Public Broadcasting.

We hope to bring you more coverage moving forward, and be sure to stick with TV on air and online for coverage of the 2025 election.

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

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

Have a great night.