Pierce County Council news story.
August 9 the Pierce County Council appointed Paul M. Herrera to fill the vacant 2nd Pierce County Council District seat.
The appointment came after questions from councilmembers, followed by public comment.
Pierce County Council Chair Derek Young thanked the other finalists for volunteering to pursue the appointment.
The three candidates, Paul Herrera, Tom Swanson, and Will Gunderson, were submitted to the Pierce County Council from the Pierce County Republican Central Committee. Per the Pierce County Charter, when a seat for partisan office is vacated, the Council shall fill the vacancy by appointment from a list of three people submitted by the County central committee of the major party represented by the official in office. Departed Councilmember for District 2 was Republican Hans Zeiger.
“We’re grateful that the Pierce County Republicans sent us a diverse slate of highly qualified candidates. Each brought their own strengths, making it a difficult choice for the Council,” Young said following the appointment.
“Mr. Herrera’s qualifications and experience should provide the constituents of District 2 good representation but also bring his unique perspective to the Pierce County Council,” he continued. “We welcome Mr. Herrera joining the Pierce County Council and look forward to working with him to create a better Pierce County.”
With the appointment today, Mr. Herrera fills the seat vacated by Hans Zeiger on July 31, 2022, and for the remainder of his term to December 31, 2024.
We would like to Breathe Easy and not have to worry about the economy being closed again. Lessons need to be learned and Pierce County Council members pledge never to support health officials closing the economy again. Economists from John Hopkins found that closing the economy did zero in contain COVID and resulted in hyperinflation as massive government funds were dumped into the economy to pay people to stay at home.
Good news is the new school recommendation on mask is finally rational. If sick wear a mask. If sick, go home. This was the original CDC recommendation, which was changed by UW IHME, Dr. Christopher Murray and enforced by Dr. Chen, Pierce County health executive to wear masks all the time. This was proven to be unhealthy only to be done by trained health professionals. As public servants both men knew in advance mandates and blue masks would not work. Vaccination works, under Freedom to Choose.
Please call on the Pierce County Executive and Council that hires and fires Dr. Chen to have a public inquiry so the people may ask, “Why did you follow mandates when you knew in advance 40% of Americans would not follow them. Did you force people to wear blue masks only to make people “feel good? Were you trying to save your job by “doing something” , “Doing anything” pandering to the mob, rather than practicing good science?
For more on this issue see http://www.PHASE4..US Remember, Phase 4 was what Dr. Murray and Dr. Chen called “non-essential people” like us at the beginning of the pandemic. Pierce County needs an accounting and answers, so Polecat Medicine does not come back ever again. This is about holding people accountable.
Dear Councilman Herrera, I am calling on you to oppose Resolution R2022-114 at your first council meeting on 8/16/22.
This resolution appoints two individuals to the Pierce County Ethics Commission; however, the lack of diversity and transparency in the process is of great concern. I voiced my concern to Chair Young last Tuesday, but there has been no progress in making the resumes of the nominees available to the public, and the vote is less than a week away. Since the ethics commission’s inception in 1982, resumes have been a part of the resolution. What are Executive Dammeier and the council hiding?
These nominations appear from Executive Dammeier’s Rolodex and did not make it a fair process to find the most qualified candidates. For example, on a nominee, Mr. Batey only has one year of private sector experience yet is filling a private sector role; how is only one year of experience the most qualified? Nothing is known about the other nominee, Blake Patton; as there is no LinkedIn profile, website, or Facebook page, there is nothing on this individual to understand whether they’re qualified for this role. How can the county council approve the nominations knowing nothing about the nominees?
My other concern is the lack of diversity on the ethics commission – the commission only has one female of the five positions, the remaining four commission members being older, white males. It also has three attorney members (making the majority vote), whereas the commission bylaws only require one member to be an attorney, so why allow the attorneys the majority vote? One attorney is enough. It is supposed to be a non-bias commission comprised of at least three members from the private sector (there is no minimum requirement for public sector backgrounds, so all five members could and should be from the private sector). However, the public sector currently holds the majority vote because there are not the required three commission members from the private sector. No one of color is on this board; it greatly lacks diversity. If this is supposed to be a nonbias board, why is there no diversity among the commission members? It certainly does not represent the people of Pierce County.
Also, a future suggestion is that the county council draft a resolution that would protect complainants (whistleblowers) from retaliation. Sadly, two complaints were dismissed at the ethics commission meeting yesterday because they were anonymous. People are scared to speak for fear of retribution from county officials once their complaint becomes subject to public records request. Without whistleblower protections, complainants could be fired or retaliated against with no protections. No one in the county should be fearful and be silenced from reporting county employees and officials who may be violating the ethics code. Their voices must be heard. Thank you, and I look forward to working with Councilman Herrera and hope he will oppose this resolution.