For the first time in eight years, Pierce County will have a new director who will lead Washington’s second-largest county.
Democratic Pierce County Council member Ryan Mello and Republican state Rep. Kelly Chambers are the two candidates vying for the seat. Chambers is a former teacher and co-owner of a home health care company and became a ranking member of the Washington House Regulated Substances and Gaming committee.
Mello’s first elected office came 17 years ago on the Tacoma Metro Parks Commission. He also served on the Tacoma City Council before the Pierce County Council.
Outgoing Director Bruce Dammeier is term-limited, and the county looks and costs much differently than it did when he first took office. In 2017, the median home price was $313,000, up 83% to $575,000 today.
Candidates to replace Dammeier — Democrat Ryan Mello and Republican Kelly Chambers — have different plans to increase the supply of housing to address the cost of housing.
Chambers is trying to facilitate reform, saying, “I think our builders want more predictable timelines because we already know we have to build housing and bring it online.”
Mello led an effort to pass the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Act, which created a sales tax intended to finance affordable housing projects. It has tripled the province’s spending to $18 million and has already housed people. However, according to a report from the Tacoma News Tribune, the 300 units created each year are a fraction of what the county needs.
“We need to help people into their homes and prevent them from being displaced because they can’t pay the rent because they don’t have enough income or because their property taxes may be too high, like many seniors on fixed incomes,” Mello said. .
Mello’s time on the Pierce County Council was occasionally highlighted by disagreements with Dammeier on key issues, such as what kinds of shelters should be created and funded and where to find them.
Mello has supported a strategy of different types of shelter models, mainly small residential villages and safe park locations, as opposed to more communal shelters. He also believes in spreading resources across the province.
“Having everyone come to Tacoma for services is not only unfair to Tacoma, but it’s bad for the people experiencing homelessness,” Mello said. “We know people do better when they can stay closer to their social network.”
Both Mello and Chambers point to the Veterans Village model as an effective method.
Earlier this fall, the Tacoma City Council sent a letter to Dammeier complaining about the disproportionate share of resources the city devotes to homelessness, compared to other parts of the county.
“It has become increasingly clear that our efforts alone are insufficient to address the broader regional crisis,” the letter said.
While she disagrees with the Tacoma Stability Site, Chambers believes this model should continue because of the access to medical treatment and services already in the city.
“I don’t think the rest of the province wants to see these temporary tent encampments spread across the province in different communities because the resources don’t exist in those more rural areas to meet the needs of the homeless in the first place. population.” Chambers said.
Both Mello and Chambers support community courts (also called drug courts or diversion programs) that help people drop criminal or misdemeanor charges for completing training or treatment. Chambers hopes these services are better connected across the state. She also supports the re-establishment of 72-hour drop-off centers in the province.
“They closed because they didn’t have a sustainable financing model,” Chambers said.
Mello’s time at the County Council has overseen the doubling of the number of detox beds, although he admits those beds quickly filled once they were expanded.
“These are real strategies and they use public resources to invest in them,”
Both candidates are committed to funding the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office to recruit and retain new deputies.
Below are the unedited, uncut interviews for both candidates.
