Ryan Mello will be sworn in as Pierce County Executive at the start of the new year after his election victory in November.
Mello served nearly a decade on Tacoma City Council and the last four years as a Pierce County council member.
The relationship between Mello and a county council, that often passes progressive measures, could look much different from his predecessor. Mello is a Democrat, replacing a Republican, Bruce Dammeier.
So, what are his priorities coming into office?
Executive-Elect Mello recently joined All Things Considered at KNKX's Tacoma studios.
Interview Highlights
On affordable housing
I'm really proud of the work that we've done, especially over the last two years at the Pierce County Council. One of our biggest initiatives was to pass what we call the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Act, named after a longtime advocate for affordable housing and homelessness solutions here in the South Sound.
So finally having dedicated revenue for the sole purpose of building new, permanently affordable housing, [to] be able to actually put those dollars on the ground, working with affordable housing developers, leveraging those dollars with the private sector, with the state, with federal resources, to truly build affordable housing at scale, is really big part of our agenda.
On an increase in unhoused individuals in Pierce County
One of the first bills we're going to send to the county council is to allow temporary shelter in the unincorporated parts of Pierce County. Not nearly every homeless person originates in an urban area, and certainly not just from the city of Tacoma. Therefore, the solutions need to be shared across all communities, and certainly in the unincorporated part of Pierce County, which has close to half of the population.
We also know through data that folks experiencing homelessness are best served — they have a better outcome of getting out of homelessness — when they are served and able to stay living closer to where they originate.
On safety concerns
When you look at the data that comes from the sheriff's department, crime is down. All crime: violent crime, property crime, it is all down and headed down.
There's a lot that goes into the justice system and helping people be safe and feel safe. One of the many things outside of the sheriff's department [is] how we can create an ecosystem of community safety?
The kinds of things that I'm going to be bringing to the table and working on in tandem with the sheriff's department are things like making sure we have robust therapeutic courts and diversion court programs so that we can really get at the reasons why a good number of people find themselves involved in the justice system to begin with.
Ryan Mello takes the reins as Pierce County Executive at the start of 2025.
