John Ladenburg has sound advice for his successor as Pierce County executive: “Your reach should always exceed your grasp.”
He seems to have been taking his own advice over the last eight years, and it has served him well – making him as strong and effective an executive as Pierce County has ever had. He hasn’t achieved everything he reached for, but it was not for lack of vision or trying.
Ladenburg has been a decisive, big-picture executive, and under his leadership the county has made progress in growth management, economic development, farmland and open space preservation, park expansion, transportation and cleaning up illegal dumps. He has spent much of his time in office trying to fix the problems caused by Pierce County’s notoriously laissez-faire approach to development, which had made it the poster child for growth management legislation.
Ladenburg came into office knowing little about transportation, but he became a regional leader on the subject, representing Pierce County on the Sound Transit board and pushing for mass transit expansion. Although he hasn’t made as much progress as he would have liked on construction of the cross-base highway, his advocacy has at least kept alive a project that is vitally important to East Pierce County.
Arguably the most contentious piece of Ladenburg’s legacy is the Chambers Bay Golf Course. His detractors see it as a boondoggle – a playground for the wealthy, a risky investment for county sewer ratepayers. But supporters of the course – including this newspaper’s editorial board – recognize that it accomplishes at least two goals: It serves as a valuable economic development tool by bringing attention and tournaments to Pierce County, including the 2015 U.S. Open, and it’s a revenue generator that has allowed public access to the site much sooner than anticipated in the Chambers Creek Properties 50-year plan.
Ladenburg hasn’t always been as diplomatic and flexible as he could have been – he could be almost bull-headed once he’d made up his mind about something – but his focus was always on what’s best for Pierce County’s future. He’s worked to make it a better, more livable place for families to raise children and for residents to earn a living without having to commute long distances.
After his unsuccessful bid for state attorney general, Ladenburg’s future is uncertain. We are confident that he will take the drive and skills he employed as prosecutor and executive into his next phase of public service, whatever that may be. We offer our thanks, and wish him well.
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