Election 2025: 3 questions for Tumwater City Council candidates

The Olympian reached out to candidates in contested races in the Nov. 4 General Election to ask about pressing issues facing their jurisdictions.

You’ll find the answers we received from Tumwater Mayor and City Council candidates below. You can also learn more about candidates through the county’s official Voters’ Pamphlet.

The Olympian will post similar stories on the Port of Olympia, Olympia City Council, Lacey City Council, Tumwater School Board, and Olympia School Board elections elsewhere on our website.

Ballot drop boxes are the most efficient way to return your ballot. There are 31 ballot drop boxes located across the county. Or mail your ballots in time for them to be postmarked Nov. 4 or earlier.

Mayor of Tumwater

What should the council do to ensure residents of Tumwater feel safe in the city?

Leatta Dahlhoff: To ensure Tumwater residents feel safe, the council must prioritize both physical and emotional safety. That means investing in community policing rooted in trust, transparency, and cultural competency. It means ensuring well-lit streets, responsive emergency services, and safe public spaces for all ages. But safety also includes mental-health access, domestic-violence prevention, and youth-engagement programs. The council should partner with schools, nonprofits, and neighborhood groups to co-create safety strategies that reflect diverse lived experiences. Regular gatherings out in the community, multilingual outreach, and trauma-informed training for city staff can foster a culture of care. Safety isn’t just about enforcement — it’s about belonging. When residents feel seen, heard, and valued, they feel safe. Tumwater deserves a city council that listens deeply and acts boldly to protect every neighbor’s dignity and well-being.

Lance Brender: Tumwater’s security is thankfully in a good place relative to the rest of Thurston County (with a crime rate 10 to 20 points less than Lacey, Tenino, or Yelm, and half that of Olympia, according to city-data.com). I will maintain this trend by providing steady funding for our police, fire, and emergency services. My plan to support emergency responders includes buying police bodycams, making preparations for a third fire station to serve the south of Tumwater, and fully funding our partnership with MedicOne. Furthermore, I want to increase our police force from 75% to 90% manning (relative to our 70,000 person daytime population), direct the police department’s participation in the Department of Enterprise Services program (buying equipment the government already owns at a fraction of the cost), and create SWAT interoperability with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

What do you envision for historic properties such as the brewery and former WSDOT headquarters, and how can the city make that happen?

Dahlhoff: Tumwater’s historic sites — like the brewery and the former WSDOT headquarters — hold stories that deserve new life. I envision these spaces transformed into vibrant community hubs: cultural centers, artist collectives, small-business incubators, or mixed-use developments that honor their legacy while serving today’s needs. The city can lead by facilitating public-private partnerships, offering incentives for adaptive reuse, and engaging residents in visioning sessions. We must ensure redevelopment reflects community values — not just profit. That means prioritizing accessibility, sustainability, and local ownership. Imagine a restored brewery hosting community events, local vendors, and historical exhibits. Or the WSDOT site reimagined as affordable housing with green space and child care. These properties are more than buildings — they’re opportunities to unite past and future. With inclusive planning and bold leadership, Tumwater can turn abandonment into belonging.

Brender: City government must take the lead in addressing these abandoned properties, because frankly no one else will. Regarding the brewery, there are local stakeholders that have the money to rehabilitate the facility right now, but they are waiting for their elected leaders to set the right conditions. At the time I am writing this, I am one week out from flying to California for one-on-one negotiations with brewery owner Chandulal Patel to discuss returning ownership to local hands. Once back under local control, I will incentivize the private sector with public-private partnerships, like freezing city taxes for the brewery at their current rate. If a new owner uses private funds to clean up the site, I will work with the council to hold rates at their current level until total taxation is equal to the cost of environmental clean-up (after which, they will pay taxes at the standard rate). This transfers no tax burden to the public and allows the private sector to do what the town needs, all while creating local jobs. I will seek similar arrangements for the WSDOT facility.

Tumwater’s population is expected to boom. What should the city do to ensure housing keeps up?

Dahlhoff: As Tumwater grows, housing must grow with it—equitably, sustainably, and creatively. The city should prioritize diverse housing types: duplexes, townhomes, ADUs, and affordable apartments. We must streamline permitting for projects that meet community needs and incentivize developers to include affordable units. Growth shouldn’t mean displacement—it should mean opportunity. That’s why we need tenant protections, rent-stabilization tools, and partnerships with land trusts and nonprofit builders. Infrastructure must keep pace too: transit, schools, parks, and utilities. The council should center community voices in planning, especially those historically excluded. Let’s build neighborhoods where teachers, nurses, artists, and elders can thrive — not just survive. With thoughtful policy and inclusive vision, Tumwater can grow without losing its soul.

Brender: Housing prices are high because demand exceeds supply, and demand is strong because people love Tumwater and are moving in (a good problem to have). With this being the case, the answer to stabilizing housing prices is controlled growth in the number of houses and rentals equal to the growth in population. Supply increases will drive down the rise in housing cost through market competition, and my administration’s goal is to lower that rate as close as possible to that of inflation. However, we must do this without losing our environment and the small town nature of Tumwater. We balance these needs by increasing the development of greenspace requirements, removing regulations on additional dwelling units and add-ons to existing houses, incentivizing paths to independent home ownership, and placing protective ordinances around old growth and agricultural lands. In short, I intend to adjust our policies to build closer to and in harmony with nature — not pave it over.

Tumwater City Council Position No. 5

What should the council do to ensure residents feel safe in the city?

Rachelle Martin: Tumwater is a statistically safe community. However, every community benefits from oversight on law enforcement. Olympia has a police auditor and community oversight board. Tumwater does not have the scale of issues that Olympia faces so instead of having a city specific auditor and board, the Tumwater City Council should advocate for a county wide oversight structure that would work with all of our Thurston County communities.

There are increased policing measures from the federal government through ICE. Our community will never be safe if our local government is complicit in the illegal detention of any residents. The Tumwater City Council needs to mandate that TPD will not cooperate with ICE.

But even doing the absolute basics and mandating body cameras would be helpful in developing some kind of trust in the community by creating some kind of accountability. TPD is long overdue for mandatory body cameras.

Meghan Sullivan: I applaud Tumwater City Council’s investment in crisis response and mental health services using certified clinicians and peer counselors to support people in crisis. This proven approach better meet the needs of community members in crisis, and frees up first responders to focus on what they were hired to do. I also support the City Council’s priority to equip officers with body-worn cameras to increase transparency, safety, and trust. Public safety also means safe roads and sidewalks, and inclusive spaces where everyone feels welcome. As your Tumwater City Council member, I’ll continue advocating for safety practices rooted in prevention and community partnership.

What do you envision for historic properties such as the brewery and former WSDOT headquarters, and how can the city help make that happen?

Martin: Ideally both properties would fall under the City of Tumwater’s real estate holdings and would be used for the public good. The buildings that are failing should be responsibly demolished. Buildings that may be damaged but salvageable should be made into public or industrial spaces.

The industrial spaces could be retrofitted into classrooms. Creating a satellite campus for New Market High School or SPSCC to run vocational programs would be ideal. People need opportunities and spaces to learn practical skills; mechanics, construction, plumbing, electrical, etc. Educational groups could partner with labor unions to increase apprenticeship opportunities.

If there are spaces that are more conducive to a community space, rather than an industrial classroom, then the space should be used for a local history museum with accessible meeting rooms for groups that want to join together in community.

Sullivan: I’ve heard from hundreds of Tumwater residents, business owners, and neighbors who want the brewery site to be revitalized as a vibrant community hub. As a heart of Tumwater, I envision a mix of public spaces, trails, housing for all income levels, locally-owned businesses, and other regional amenities. Understanding the unique environmental constraints of the brewery properties, I view the City’s planned Environmental Impact Statement process as a critical step towards redeveloping both the brewery and former WSDOT headquarters sites. As your Tumwater City Council member, I will work to ensure the City plans collaboratively — centering community, equity, and sustainability — to reimagine these historic spaces and forward realistic redevelopment efforts to best meet our growing community’s needs now and in the future.

Tumwater’s population is expected to boom. What should the city do to ensure housing keeps up?

Martin: Tumwater has a large amount of open land that would be suitable for both single family as well as multi family housing. If properties are built, people will buy them. Ultimately it will be up to the City Council to create policies that will dictate what kind of people can afford to live in Tumwater. Do they only want families that can afford $600,000+ homes to live here? Or will they create policies for social housing? Will they limit the square footage of buildings so there is a variety of options for buyers? Will they encourage mixed use facilities so people that are not car users can also live in this community? The housing market will absorb whatever the Tumwater City Council allows to be built. It’s up to the Council to say if they think an economically diverse community is preferable to an upper class commuter community.

Sullivan: To accommodate projected growth, Tumwater must employ a multi-faceted housing strategy that includes regional collaboration. I support using zoning tools and streamlining development processes to promote increased housing density and diversity, and protect existing low-income housing including in manufactured home parks. To plan for smart growth, we need to build more housing across all income levels, including more that’s affordable, walkable, and connected to transit, jobs, and schools. That includes townhomes, duplexes, and apartments for families, young professionals, and seniors alike. I also support exploring innovative funding strategies and public-private partnerships, we can promote growth in line with our values of inclusivity and sustainability. As your City Council member, I’ll also advocate for renters, and work to ensure growth doesn’t displace longtime residents. As we continue to integrate state policy directives and prioritize environmental protections, we can preserve what is great about Tumwater while centering the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors.

This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

Ty Vinson

The Olympian

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Ty Vinson covers the City of Olympia and keeps tabs on Tumwater and other communities in Thurston County. He joined The Olympian in 2021. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. In college, he worked as an intern at the Northwest Indiana Times, the Oregonian and the Arizona Republic as a Pulliam Fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription