It is encouraging for the future of Puyallup that so many citizens applied to fill the District II city council seat vacated by Kathy Turner, who was elected to the At-Large position.
We congratulate the 19 people who expressed interest in the city’s civic affairs. It’s a shame, though, that these 19 people didn’t join the process during the fall general election, when the community would have had a greater opportunity to get to know them.
We assume every applicant has a sincere interest in serving the community and that their interest wasn’t simply because appointment did not involve the rigors of campaigning.
Most of the candidates told council during the final interviews on Friday that they didn’t file for elected office because they were content with Turner’s representation and weren’t opposed to Tami Brouillet moving into her husband’s council position. Why battle against someone with whom you agree? When the District II seat came open, they could step forward freely without ousting a council member they support.
That thought process makes a good argument for term limits. Limiting council members to, say, two or three terms regularly rotates new faces and fresh ideas. But, it also means eliminating long-time council members who are serving the community well.
Ultimately, the council came to a wise decision Friday when they voted 4-2 to appoint Rick Hansen. He stepped forward to participate in the general election. He campaigned, door-belled and invested a lot of his time and energy. That’s something no one else did.
And, nearly half of the city’s voters supported him. Turner only narrowly edged Hansen by 12 votes in a recount. It’s obvious that Hansen represents a significant portion of the electorate. If Hansen had received only 10 percent of the vote in November, council could have justifiably looked elsewhere. That wasn’t the case and so council would have done a disservice to voters by disregarding his strong showing.
We hope the men and women who vied for the open seat don’t walk away from civic engagement. We urge them to apply to serve on city boards and commissions. And we hope to see some of their names on the next municipal ballot.
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