Realtor, sports consultant say they are running for Lacey City Council
.jpg "Sports consultant, Troy Kirby (left) and Realtor, Ed Kunkel, Jr., are running for Lacey City Council.")
Sports consultant Troy Kirby and Realtor Ed Kunkel Jr. say they are running for seats on Lacey City Council.
Kirby and Kunkel join local business owner Lynda Zeman who announced over the weekend her intentions to run for a city council spot in the fall election. Realtor Sarah Morris also is considering a run for a council seat, but she isn’t yet ready to announce her plans.
Incumbents Lenny Greenstein, Jason Hearn and Rachel Young are up for election this year, but Young said this week she will not run for re-election. Greenstein’s re-election campaign is under way, while Hearn has yet to file paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission.
None of the candidacies are official until filing week in May.
Kirby, 43, is the owner of Tao of Sports LLC and the Lacey Pocket Gophers soccer team, and he serves on Lacey’s parks board as a volunteer. He is running for the Position No. 1 seat held by Hearn.
Important to him is that the city’s local sales tax and business and occupation tax rates remain competitive so that the city continues to be a destination for new businesses.
He’s also concerned about the prevalence of people camping in their vehicles, particularly in the Woodland Square Loop area of the city. Kirby’s not sure what the solution might look like, but he wants to make sure the city has a plan to address it, he said.
Kirby attended Timberline High School.
Kunkel, 51, also a product of North Thurston Public Schools, later served in the Army and has worked in real estate for the past 19 years.
Kunkel, like Zeman, is running for Young’s Position No. 3 seat.
Homelessness is an important issue for Kunkel. He wants to find common-sense, compassionate but firm solutions to help get people off the streets and back to stability, he said.
Kunkel speaks from experience: When the stock market crashed about a decade ago, triggering the Great Recession and hitting the real estate industry hard, Kunkel lost his home to foreclosure, he said.
He also wants to curb frivolous spending by the city. Kunkel, like Zeman, is concerned about a replica train depot to be built next to an expanded Lacey Museum on Pacific Avenue. The city estimates its cost at between $800,000 and $900,000.
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 7:00 AM.
