Pierce County Council appoints replacement for District 2 seat vacated by Hans Zeiger

Ten days after Hans Zeiger’s resignation as the Pierce County Council District 2 representative, the council selected Puyallup resident and Republican Paul Herrera on Tuesday to take over the seat.

Per county bylaws, when a council member resigns midway through an elected term, that member’s political party submits three candidates to the council for consideration. From that list, the council then decides who will fill the position.

Zeiger, who announced in June he would resign from the council, officially stepped down on July 31. Meanwhile, the Pierce County Republican Central Committee called for residents who had been registered voters in District 2 for at least a year to submit applications for the empty seat. The district encompasses most of north-central Pierce County, from the Milton-Edgewood area south through Puyallup and into South Hill.

Herrera is a Puyallup Tribal police officer and military veteran formerly stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He applied and was one of three names the Republican Central Committee submitted to the six active council members, in addition to Tom Swanson and Will Gunderson. Before the Tuesday vote, all three candidates were interviewed by the council in a public forum. After public comment, the council agreed on Herrera.

“I feel great,” Herrera told The News Tribune in a phone call about an hour after the decision. “Being in a leadership position to help the community be better is where I need to be.”

Herrera, 50, will be sworn into office later this week; he could have been sworn in at the forum, but he preferred to wait until his wife could attend the ceremony. Once the selection becomes official, he will inherit Zeiger’s former responsibilities, $120,284 salary, and December 2024 term remainder. According to Pierce County chief of staff Chris Carlson, Herrera will have the opportunity to run for re-election.

“Hans Zeiger was a great candidate,” Herrea said. “He represented District 2 very well, was in the state Legislature for a long time. He had a whole plethora of experience.”

The council member position is full-time, and Herrera plans to resign from the police department in the immediate future. His new job will require him to step down from his appointments to the Pierce County Veterans Advisory and Equity Review Boards. Herrera does plan to maintain his appointment as Veterans of Foreign Wars Washington State commander, a role he was elected to earlier this summer.

While this is his first Pierce County political appointment, he ran for Puyallup City Council in 2019. He lost to current City Council member and former mayor John Palmer.

As a County Council member, Herrera said that he would have two immediate, pressing priorities: increasing the number of police officers in District 2 and aiding the decision of whether South Hill becomes its own city. Broadly, Herrera also wants to focus attention to housing affordability.

“I can’t predict the future,” he said. “But I can predict one thing: They’re [constituents] gonna get 100% from me. I’m glad to continue to serve my community like I served my country, with all my heart.”