For the Elma Chamber of Commerce’s October meeting, members had the opportunity to hear from candidates running for office that represent the city of Elma and surrounding area.

The candidates able to attend were Jeff Redmond, East Grays Harbor Fire District, Position 3; Jacob Cristelli, Elma City Council, Position 2; and Shannon Brear, Hospital District 1, Position 5. Candidates had the opportunity to provide a three-minute introduction and their platform, followed by a Q&A.

Redmond, who is running for re-election, shared that he used to be an EMT firefighter with the district before merging with the city of Elma Fire Department.

“We have a lot of exciting things that we’re doing [at the district],” Redmond said. “We’ve been able in the last two years to hire three more staff members. We have a new ambulance coming on board first part of this next year. We have hired a new fire chief, a young fire chief. He’s not even 40 yet. He’s very, very excited. He has a huge vision for the district, and he has a passion to work with the local community, the local hospitals, out of the jurisdiction and within the district.”

Cristelli opened his comments by saying that his great-grandfather served on the city council in the ’80s.

“I feel like I have a good understanding of what it means to live in Elma and to be here. I think, moving forward, Elma has an exciting opportunity to grow, but we need to responsibly guide that growth,” he said. “We’re seeing an influx of business and people into town, and I think that we need to ensure and properly fund public services so that we can ensure that the services are able to keep up with the increased demand. That includes increasing funding for our police department.”

He added that affordable housing is an important issue for him. Coming back home, “it’s very hard to find a place to live here, let alone an affordable place to live,” Cristelli said. “So I believe that we need to look at what we’re doing in terms of zoning, in terms of taxes, in terms of permitting, so that we can best foster the growth for our city going forward.”

For the last 15 years, Brear worked for both Mark Reed and Summit Pacific Medical Center.

Now retired, “I want to stay involved because I love the position. I love the forward thinking that we’re going to. I love the vision,” she said.

Brear shared the experience of being there for Summit Pacific’s Wellness Center groundbreaking and its opening in 2019.

“It’s just great to be with such an establishment that’s doing so many wonderful things for this community,” Brear said. “I just want to stay involved.”

What follows is an excerpt of the questions posed to the candidates; the questions and the answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Question: How will Summit Pacific be impacted by the federal budgetary issues?

Brear: I cannot speak on behalf of Summit Pacific. I’m listening to the news, but I’m not that involved in the government process. There may be someone here who would like to speak to that issue, but I’m hoping that the cuts don’t hurt. I think Summit Pacific is a crown jewel for the whole county, especially for Elma. We are so fortunate and so blessed to have a really world-class facility in our little town, and I would hate to put that in jeopardy.

Question: Jacob, you mentioned increased funding. Where would those funds come from? Presumably raising taxes, and if that’s the case, what taxes?

Cristelli: I think that taxes need to be examined on a case-by-case basis. With the recent 0.1% public safety tax that was introduced, by passing that tax it opens the city up for additional grant funding toward public safety. In this case, where it’s a relatively small tax, I would be okay with that. However, additional taxes, as of right now, I do not agree with because 40% of the city budget is funded through grants, and yet we don’t have a grant writer on staff. Until we exhaust all other options, taxes should not be raised.

Question: Do you support that increase in sales tax that you just mentioned?

Cristelli: The 0.1% public safety tax? Yes.

Question: There’s a police levy that didn’t pass the first time and it’s on the ballot again for the second time. The police department needs to grow because our community is growing with a lot of new businesses coming in and our population is growing. Are you in favor of the police levy?

Cristelli: I was talking to my uncle [Ryan Cristelli], who is a sergeant. There are as many officers at the police department as there were when he was hired over 20 years ago. We’re not keeping up with it. There are times when there’s only one officer on duty. And while I think that we’re blessed to live in a community where we don’t have to worry about crime most of the time, I don’t think that we should be putting our residents or officers in a position that there’s only one person on duty, if danger happens. So I definitely support the police levy. It didn’t pass, and so I think that it’s an unreliable way to fund the police department, and I would like to look for more permanent and steady solutions going forward.

Question: What is your feeling on the B&O tax being discussed by the city council?

Cristelli: I understand what they’re trying to do with it and targeting big businesses so that small businesses aren’t affected. But we need to be careful with it because, at this time, we have the opportunity to bring big business to Elma to provide jobs and additional economic output for the community. I don’t want to see us kneecap the potential growth, economic growth of our town in that way. I do think that we need to be more aggressive and proactive with grant funding, and I think that is primarily where we should look for funding going forward.

Question: If you were re-elected, what changes would you make at East Grays Harbor Fire District?

Redmond: We hired a grant writer this year and are pursuing grants ourselves. Before the end of the year, we will get what are called combi tools, and they’re $40,000 a piece. Rather than shifting that burden onto the taxpayers, we’re doing everything we can to get grants to cover everything we can possibly cover.

There’s a lot of grants that we don’t qualify for, unfortunately, but as our community grows and our tax base grows, we’re hoping that will help us to do things. We need a new station desperately. The fire station was built when I was a kid, and I’m 56 years old. The bays where we park our rigs were condemned decades ago after an earthquake, but we still have to use them.

We hired a consulting firm to tell us where we needed to grow as a district to make sure that our five stations are within our most frequent call radius. The good news is that they are; the bad news is that they are woefully under maintained and they have no handicapped access. They’re just way behind on current standards.

There’s a lot of things that we need to do for the fire district and for the citizens. Our big focus right now is pursuing grants rather than raising taxes. I do not support a levy lift, because I don’t think that we should shift the burden onto the taxpayers. But when we go for a station, we will definitely have to try and get a levy passed to build a new station.

Question: The city passed a new set of fees for permitting, which is a very long list and it’s pretty extensive, and it’s not encouraging a low-cost building. How would you help with some cost-saving measures or adjusting so that it would encourage builders to build homes or multi-unit buildings in Elma?

Cristelli: When I talked to a member of the city council about when that fee package was passed, the reasoning given for it was that it puts us on par with other towns our size, but to me, that’s a little bit of an unsatisfying answer. While I don’t think that the city should be, quote unquote, taken advantage of by builders, and I do think that some fees need to be paid, from my understanding, they were a little bit higher than probably needed to have happened. I think that if we can review it at any time, we should definitely do that.

I think that reestablishing connections with the builders is important. We need to be a little bit more conscious, the city council should be, about the effects of what we’re passing and the relationships that we’re maintaining with key stakeholders in town.

Question: To all candidates, what legacy would you like to leave when you exit this position?

Redmond: I plan on being a commissioner as long as I can be. I love the fire service. I love the role that our firefighters play in our local community. My personal legacy, I would like to see us build a new station here in Elma and increase our staffing and possibly bring in other towns too, so that they can help us bolster our services and we can actually help them too.

Cristelli: We’re at a really exciting point here for Elma where we can see a lot of growth going forward. And so, for the legacy of the town, I want the 2020s to be seen as kind of a turning point for the town, when there was, economic prosperity and growth, almost a new era for the town.

Whereas for me personally, we’ve talked about, transparency and efficiency of local leaders, but I think also an important aspect is visibility and being a visible member of the community. I want you to, if we pass each other on the streets, you can yell at me if you want to, or we can have a polite conversation about something that’s going on. I feel that we’re fortunate to be in a town this size. It allows us to have more personal connections with each other and those connections should extend to local government as well.

Brear: My legacy would be to continue the wonderful work that Summit Pacific has been doing since I’ve been here and even before then. I know that the community has always been very involved with the hospital. Now that we’re doubling, the size of everything continues to grow. I want to continue to be a part of that and pass that along to the next person who wants to continue the wonderful work that Summit Pacific is doing.