The Olympian endorses these 2 Olympia City Council candidates

Serving on the Olympia City Council is challenging even in less interesting times. This year Olympia voters will make critical choices in five races — a majority of the seven-member council. Our choices in the first three races were published in Friday’s Olympian; here the other two.

Dontae Payne and Corey Gauny

Whoever wins this open seat will replace Renata Rollins, who is not running for re-election.

Dontae Payne was raised by a single mom, and is the first in his family to earn a college degree. He served six years in the Army, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan. Since moving here with his husband, he has worked as a regional representative for Gov. Jay Inslee and is now Deputy District Director for U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland.

He wants the city to clean up unmanaged tent camps, diversify the housing supply, strengthen regional collaboration, and rethink the property tax exemptions for apartment buildings. He also would like to see more young people on city advisory boards, and creation of a Youth Advisory Council. He believes the city should hire a police chief who understands systemic racism and new state police reform legislation, and will foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and respect for the law.

Gauny is an Air Force veteran who now works as a management analyst for the State Department of Licensing.

He decided to run for office after his uncle was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a mentally ill homeless man. He believes that the city council has undermined the police, which now “enable improper behavior.” He is focused on combatting “crime, violence and vandalism,” and he wants the city to hire a police chief who will push back on the council.

He opposes the creation of a countywide Home Fund, and most everything the city is now doing, but he has no policy proposals to offer that would produce the mental health treatment, housing or other services that are needed to solve the problems he is upset about.

We endorse Dontae Payne, a bright, rising star in public service.

Lisa Parshley and Talauna Reed

Lisa Parshley, who is finishing her first term on council, owns two veterinary clinics that employ 65 people, all of whom earn at least $18 an hour. Her priority is to “take care of those who have the least.” Her priorities are beefing up public safety and economic recovery help to local businesses, integrating racial and economic equity in council policy-making, combating climate change, and addressing homelessness and the shortage of affordable housing.

She chaired the council’s public safety committee and helped pass a levy that funds the community court, crisis response unit, and de-escalation and trauma-informed communication police training. As chair of the committee, she now leads the process to “reimagine public safety.”

She also chairs a committee charged with implementing the recently adopted county-wide climate mitigation plan.

Talauna Reed, a single mother of college-aged twins, is an outreach worker for Interfaith Works, which provides shelter and services to people who are homeless. She has pulled herself out of homelessness but still pays half her income for rent. She has been a community organizer, active in Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and Black Leaders in Action and Solidarity Thurston County (BLAST).

She says she wants to “take power from developers,” create a city Housing Authority, and dismantle white supremacy. She wants inclusive language in the city’s definition of “neighborhood character,” but believes each neighborhood should get to decide what gets built in their area.

She says she does not have an ax to grind with the city regarding the murky circumstances of the death of her aunt, Yvonne McDonald, but she has led protests about the city’s inconclusive investigation of McDonald’s death.

While we respect Reed’s passionate advocacy for racial justice, we endorse Lisa Parshley for her well-rounded, analytical approach to policy-making.