Tumwater City Council member resigning

A member of the Tumwater City Council will resign her post later this month.

Nicole Hill will step down Jan. 17 because she plans to move to Phoenix to work on desert and grassland conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy in Arizona.

Hill was appointed to the City Council in 2012 to fill the seat held by Ed Stanley, who died that year. She was elected to a short term in 2013 and to a full term in 2015.

“During that time we did a pretty significant annexation and grew our population by about 30 percent. It was pretty exciting to add new neighborhoods to our community,” she said Thursday.

As for challenges still facing the city, Hill points to homelessness and the need for mental health services. In September, she called for the creation of an ad hoc committee to address homelessness, and the City Council has since agreed to have regular discussions devoted to housing.

“I’ll be watching that closely because I think it affects everyone’s life more than they realize,” she said.

Hill led the city’s Public Works and Lodging Tax advisory committees and represented Tumwater on the Thurston County Economic Development Council. She also was part of a group called Better Thurston that proposed changes to the structure of county government.

The City Council plans to discuss ways to fill Hill’s seat at a work session Tuesday.

This story was originally published January 4, 2018 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Tumwater City Council member resigning."