Three people are running for the Pierce County Council’s District 7 seat, a full-time job that covers Ruston, Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula and parts of northwest Tacoma.
The candidates are Mike Solan, a Republican; Brenda Lykins, a Democrat; and Chuck West, an independent.
Solan is a Seattle police officer and the former president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. He sometimes drew controversy during his time with the Guild, including for comments he made that suggested Black Lives Matter Activists shared responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Solan moved to Pierce County five years ago after he said activists protested outside his home in Seattle.
“As a father and a husband, my main motivation is to protect my family at all cost,” Solan said. “So we moved down to Pierce County for that anonymity. And we were off the grid. You couldn’t find me.”
Solan did not register to vote in Pierce County until earlier this year. He was initially disqualified when he filed to run for the county council seat, because the county charter says “all Councilmembers shall be residents and registered voters of their council district for at least one year immediately prior to filing.”
Solan sued, arguing that the language was unconstitutional. A judge agreed and let him back on the ballot.
Lykins, Solan’s Democratic opponent, is a member of the Pierce County Charter Review Commission, which oversees rules about residency. She is okay with the judge’s decision.
“I think anything that limits people to be able to run for office isn’t necessarily a good thing,” Lykins said. “I disagree with [Solan] on many things, but I do believe in the right of people to run for office.”
Lykins is a nurse practitioner who previously served as a Gig Harbor City councilmember. She was endorsed by the outgoing District 7 councilmember, Robyn Denson, and said she decided to run because she is passionate about public service.
“I think there’s a great opportunity in local government to work together to create good things for people’s lives,” Lykins said.
The independent candidate, West, is a Peninsula School Board member and a retired fire department battalion chief. He said he is running because he feels like the Pierce Council Council overlooks residents in rural areas.
“The regulations to try to stop growth in the rural areas really takes away from the ability to serve the rural areas,” West said.
Public safety funding
All of the candidates said public safety is a top priority, but they disagree on how to improve it.
In March, the Pierce County Council approved a new .1% sales tax to fund public safety. Lykins supports the tax.
“Having a direct source to help fund public safety I think is critical,” Lykins said. “It’s a priority that people really emphasize. It’s one of the top things we hear about. People want to feel safe in their homes.”
Lykins said the county is facing significant financial pressures and that the new revenue is essential to maintain public safety services. She noted that visitors to Pierce County will also be paying the tax, so it’s “not just on the shoulders of residents.”
West and Solan said they support funding law enforcement, but they worry the money will not be properly allocated.
“It seems like the sales tax was just meant to shuffle some of the funding that was already there into other areas,” West said.
Solan said he would have supported the tax if it was solely dedicated to retaining officers, but he worries it will be used for other programs that don’t need it. Solan didn’t provide specific areas he would want to cut but said he would perform an “emergency audit” of the county’s budget if elected.
Solan said negotiating a better union contract would help address the county’s problems with recruiting and retaining deputies.
“It’s a fundamental shift in ideology and mindset to allocate proper money to make sure your employees that provide law enforcement services feel as if they’re being respected and feel as if they’re being compensated fairly,” Solan said.
West argues that officers’ “hands are tied” by the state government’s police reforms, and that he would push lawmakers in Olympia to roll back reforms if elected.
Police are “afraid to act, they’re afraid to get sued,” West said. “Everything in the political climate is pointing at law enforcement as the bad guy. They're not. They’re good people.”
Lykins said she is interested in increasing behavioral health and crisis response programs so police can focus on crime. As a Gig Harbor City councilmember, she said she worked to create the city’s first position to manage housing, health and human services, which helped families involved in law enforcement.
“They would help coordinate, provide services, follow up so the officers could focus on providing law enforcement,” Lykins said. “I talked to a Gig Harbor police officer that I know recently, and he said it is the best thing that’s ever happened to the city.”
Ombuds and the sheriff
As a member of the charter review commission, Lykins pushed for an amendment to the county charter that would create an independent ombuds office to investigate complaints about the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. Pierce County voters will decide whether to enact it in November.
“That oversight, in the long run, can prevent some of the tort claims and insurance claims and fraud and abuse and just make it transparent,” Lykins said.
Solan is opposed to the ombuds proposal because he thinks it will be “activist led” and create a “negative atmosphere” for officers.
“If you’re an [police] employee, how does that make you feel?” Solan said. “If you think your staffing crisis is bad now, just wait until that’s a reality.”
Another measure on the ballot in November asks Pierce County voters if they want to change the charter to make the county sheriff a position appointed by the County Executive instead of elected by voters.
Lykins supported it in her role with the Charter Review Commission. Solan is opposed, because he thinks it is “disrespectful to the regular citizen.”
West said he is a “little up in the air” on the sheriff proposal.
“I like things going to the voters,” West said. “The voters are going to be the ones to decide this time around whether or not it’s going to go that way, so I’ll respect whichever way the voters go on that.”
The three candidates said they are also focused on balancing development with preservation in rural Pierce County, and finding ways to address the county’s budget problems.
A fourth candidate, Anne E. Jolie, will also appear on the primary ballot, but she told the Tacoma News Tribune that she is not actively running and supports Solan’s campaign.
Ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Aug. 4.
