West Richland City Council Pos 3
Gail Brown
Elected Experience
My name is Gail Brown. I am asking the citizens of West Richland to reelect me to the city council. When the city officially incorporated in 1960, I was one of the 1,347 citizens that lived here. I enjoyed my childhood, lived...
Engagement:
- Nancy Aldrich
Endorsements and letters
Donors
No donor data reported
May Hays
Elected Experience
Currently, I have no city council experience. I am looking forward to it!
Other Professional Experience
My full-time job is working with Benton REA as a Community Relations Operations Specialist working with West Richland...
Engagement:
- Tri-City Herald
Endorsements and letters
Donors
💰$2,332 from 17+ donors, including Washington Association Of Realtors Pac ($500)Merrilee E Hays May Hays ($382)Hays May ($225)Etzel Bruce ($200)Marshall Bob ($200)Ojeda Luis ($100)Calkins Marvin ($100)Roberts Chris ($100)
| Statement A | Strong A | Lean A | Lean B | Strong B | Statement B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citizens should elect me because I will make the best decision I can based on my experience, judgment, and beliefs. |  BrownBoth I do have the experience, judgement and knowledge but citizens input it a priority and should be for all of your council. | Citizens should elect me because I will seek out opinions and perspectives different from my own when formulating a decision. | |||
Our city is not urban and shouldn't pretend to be. We should prioritize traffic flow. | Brown(B) Our city is growing but if the city does not keep its urban core than it will loose its identity. Strong Towns is a new idea on how cities could/should grow. I like the ideas presented and I would encourage others to read and look at this approach. I have added several articles on my Facebook page. It strongly suggest prioritizing pedestrian-friendliness. The city cannot afford the infrastructure maintenance that we currently have and add more everyday. Older roads are falling apart and in some neighborhoods without sidewalks and with very narrow streets not having separated pathways put citizens and particularly our children at risk. They are forced to walk down these narrow streets lined with park cars on either side and in one neighborhood that means walking to and from school. While the city has been working hard at adding to the path system there are not plans on connecting our established neighborhoods. When asking staff and the Mayor about improvement to these areas the response has been "Why should we all have to pay for it". I find this totally unacceptable. Our citizens should not accept this answer. We all pay taxes. | Our city needs to grow its urban core and should prioritize pedestrian-friendliness, even if these things make for slower traffic. | |||
The city has a role to play in cost of living and affordable housing. | Brown(A) Yes, the city has a role to play in making sure there is affordable housing. This is primarily through zoning but there are other ways. The state offers tax breaks for investors/contractors who actively offer affordable housing for a given amount of time. Assisting these contractors/investors, etc. will help with that process. The city could also establish its own incentives. Habitat for Humanity has been trying (for some time now) to do a project here in the city with no success. Land is scarce Unfortunately right now we are seeing housing prices going through the roof. COVID has forced material cost to an all time high. COVID has also caused many landlords to sell their properties thus taking them off the market. If the eviction moratorium stays the way it is landlords could have potentially lost 2 years of rent (worse case). If it gets extended this could more. (B) There is no question that marketing plays a big role in this. City staff and council need to understand these issues. It was suggested by a councilmember that the city has plenty of affordable housing with the trailer parks. | Cost of living and housing affordability should be left solely to the market. | |||
Cities should rely on the private sector to create projects that enhance culture. | Brown(A) West Richland struggles just keeping its parks mowed. While I thinks cities should help with enhancing culture the city at this time does not have the funding. We recently leased property that in my opinion will be a city loss not a gain. The city has the least amount of park land per capita than most cities in the state. At the same time it has one of the highest percentage of younger children. The city council needs to set priorities that are beneficial to all our community. | Cities should help fund major capital projects that enhance the vibrancy of local culture. | |||
We should control and guide suburban sprawl even if doing so affects short-term economic growth. | Brown(A) West Richland has a large section of housing with 1 or more acres. This hurts are city as we are unable to collect the taxes we would if the area was more developed. The state's growth management act discourages sprawl and continuing with the sprawl could have consequences in regards to that act. The city needs to use zoning as a way to discourage sprawl and best utilize the city. | We shouldn’t restrain free market development; it's critical to our local economy. | |||
A local majority is against cannabis legalization and therefore we should not allow cannabis businesses in our city. | Brown(B) Technically they are correct. Federally cannabis is illegal, however the state voted for it to be legal. I have always felt that cannabis should be legal. The demand for it has always been to large for a law to deter it. Proabortion comes to mind. These businesses have been up and running for a few years now. The fear that it would bring in undesirables has been proven false. These businesses have been working in a professional and educated manner. Many of them donate generously to their communities. The state has said they would be distributing more shares of the tax money, from these businesses, to local governments. It would be foolish to pass up the extra tax dollars that our community could use for a fear that has been proven not to exist. | Cannabis is legal in the state of Washington and running a cannabis business should be legal in our city. | |||
The city has a responsibility to control homelessness by code enforcement. | Brown(A) I spent several years working in housing and with the homeless. That said I think code enforcement is one of the most important things that a city should set up. The city of West Richland has done its citizens a great disservice with the lack of code enforcement. Years of nonenforcement has made some communities not only undesirable and unsightly but unhealthy and unsafe.. The city added a 1/2 time code enforcement officer a couple of years ago and this does not reflect on them at all. What is does reflect is a deficiency in our policies that the council has not taken up. Forcing complaint before action sets up unsafe situation with neighbors. This needs to stop. Council needs to take on this issue. Updates these ordinances and add policies on how we should plan for homelessness. The city continues to ignore these issues. I live in an area where we currently have three homeless living and code enforcement is nonexistent. I am 62 and have a grandson living with me. I don't want to deal with this day in and day out, but there needs to be a plan that has some positive alternatives to the homeless situation that at the very least offer sanitation, water, etc. | The city has a responsibility to reduce homelessness by addressing its systemic roots. | |||
The city needs to invest more in mental health and other vital services so that police departments don't need to wear so many hats. | Brown(A) I don't think we are over funding the police I think we are underfunding mental health and drug and alcohol facilities. Cities utilize their officers to deal with homelessness but give them no alternatives to take them for assistance. Cities utilize their officers to deal with drug and alcohol issues but give them no facilities to take them to detox. We give our officers some "no win" jobs. We don't need to defund the police we need to fund services that they can utilize and work with to assist these individuals. | Redistributing police department funds will only put greater strain on existing officers. |