The Olympian endorses these candidates for Olympia City Council

Olympia has had a tough couple of years.

Like Lacey and Tumwater, it’s been dealing with a pandemic and a summer that turned up the heat on the need for climate action. But unlike its neighbors, Olympia has a downtown and is the state capital, so it’s also been ground zero for civil unrest over racial injustice and vaccine mandates. And, of course, it is the epicenter of homelessness and the struggle to reduce it.

All that makes serving on the Olympia City Council challenging, and the choices Olympia voters make important. Voters have choices in five races — a majority of the seven-member council. Today we cover three of them; the other two will be on Sunday’s editorial page.

Jim Cooper and Spence Weigand

One of the hottest races is between Jim Cooper, who has served on the council since 2011, and real estate broker Spence Weigand. Cooper’s day job is CEO of the United Ways of the Pacific Northwest. Weigand owns a real estate business.

Cooper chairs the council’s finance committee, and is the city’s representative and chair of the Regional Housing Council, a consortium of local cities and the county, and the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency. He lists his priorities as housing, especially permanent supportive housing, climate work, and criminal justice — all of which he says are related to addressing inequity.

Weigand, an outspoken advocate for a “common-sense business approach,” acknowledges that current council members “are doing their best” to address homelessness, but that “it’s not working.” He advocates funding more permanent housing rather than services to tent camps, creation of a citizens advisory board to streamline building permit processes, and revisiting impact fees to get more affordable rental housing built. His mantra is “build, build, build.” He chose to run against Cooper because he is the longest-serving member of a council he thinks is characterized by “self-congratulatory backslapping.”

We are taking a deep breath and endorsing Weigand. He may initially be a bull in the china shop of the current council, and he will have a steep learning curve. But he will bring deep expertise with business and real estate, and will ask questions not currently being asked. He will break the group-think bubble at City Hall and be a voice for local businesses. He is direct and a potential bridge-builder — if, as we hope, he can find ways to work well as part of a seven-member team.

Yen Huynh and Robbi Kessler

Yen Huynh was appointed to the council last January to fill a vacancy left by now-state Rep. Jessica Bateman. She is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who holds a master’s degree in public administration. She works as an equity consultant for the Department of Corrections. Her priorities are public health and safety, economic development, climate justice, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She rates the council’s work on homelessness as “progress, but not perfect,” and cites the council’s challenge to “thread the needle of a humane response that also does right by businesses and visitors.”

Kessler is an attorney who worked for the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, and as committee staff for the state House of Representatives. She emphasizes the need for more regional collaboration to address homelessness, including help from state government. She says voters should choose her because she will not need mentoring as a new council member.

We endorse Huynh, who can bring a number of valuable lenses to decision-making.

Clark Gilman and Candace Mercer

Clark Gilman has served on the council since 2016 and is now Mayor Pro Tem. Before joining the council, he was chair of the city’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee. He is a relentless advocate for working people, a carpenters’ union activist, and classic left-liberal.

Candace Mercer is a political iconoclast and writer who was moved to run because of the homeless crisis and a camp that was behind her house for a time. She believes no one on the council understands people who live in tent camps as she does.

We endorse Gilman for his leadership and experience.

This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.