It took four votes and a bit of drama, but Pierce County Council appoints a new member
After several hours of debate and three split partisan votes, the Pierce County Council on Tuesday evening approved current Fife deputy mayor Bryan Yambe to be the new Democratic District 5 council member.
Yambe replaces Marty Campbell, who was elected Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer in November. He is serving his third stint as Fife deputy mayor and his fourth term on the Fife City Council. District 5 includes the communities of Browns Point, Dash Point, Fife Heights, City of Fife, Midland, North Clover Creek, Tacoma’s Eastside and Northeast Tacoma, Parkland, Spanaway and Summit-Waller and Port of Tacoma.
The unanimous council vote came after three votes to fill the seat failed along party lines. If the council had not been able to agree on a candidate, they would have had until Feb. 28 to decide before the governor would appoint the candidate.
The Pierce County Council interviewed three candidates for the position last week before tabling the appointment nomination until Tuesday. Each candidate was asked three additional questions from Republican council members Tuesday about their job and leadership experience, how they would work to improve tribal relationships and how they would balance fiscal responsibility and the funding of critical public investments.
During a roll call vote, initial efforts to appoint Yambe failed 3-3 with Democrats Robyn Denson, Rosie Ayala and Jani Hitchen in favor and Republicans Dave Morell, Paul Herrera and Amy Cruver opposed.
Efforts to appoint current District 5 planning commissioner and manager of the governor’s Subcabinet on Business Diversity Kimber Starr also failed with the same vote tally, as did a motion to appoint International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union longshoreman Jeremy Williams.
The Democrats expressed their disappointment and frustration after the failed votes before the council went into an executive session and eventually returned to vote 6-0 in favor of Yambe’s appointment.
Yambe begins his role immediately and will serve through the end of 2025. The position will be on the ballot in the 2025 general election and again in the 2026 general election. Yambe indicated in his interview with the council that he would run for office in 2025 and 2026 if appointed.
Democrats expressed frustrations
After the three failed votes, Denson said she thought all three candidates would be good choices for the council and said it was unacceptable that people in District 5 had no county representation for two weeks.
“This isn’t a game. This is the work that we were elected to do,” Hitchen said, echoing Denson’s sentiments. “We were given this job by the people that elected us to represent our districts, to speak on behalf of Pierce County, not our governor. And I would really like to be able to move forward. I would really like to have somebody appointed.”
Ayala also expressed her frustrations about the split votes, apologizing to the candidates for the time and work they put into preparing for their consideration.
Cruver replied that the appointment “is a very difficult decision” with “many different dynamics on this.”
“We’re not without ability here to address any of the issues District 5 might have. They have been well taken care of in the past, and they will continue to be well taken care of,” she said. “This county is not on fire. And it is imperative that we make the right decision, and so having the time that we need to further investigate to do this, I think it’s important doing the due diligence.”
Morell said he needed more information to make a “responsible, respectful decision” and said in the past council leaders have always been able to reach a compromise.
“Nothing’s on fire. There is nothing that can’t wait a couple of weeks,” he said. “District 5 deserves the best choice that we can make.”
Herrera did not make a comment at that time but, after the council voted to appoint Yambe, he said he appreciated working with his colleagues and thanked those who applied for the role.
“It was definitely not a game. I don’t think anybody here thinks this is a game,” he said. “It’s a very serious thing. District 5 is very special, just like all the districts, and we want to make sure we got this right, and we’re glad that this council took some pause today with a couple executive sessions and talked it out.”
New council leaders appointed
At the end of the meeting, the council, with Yambe also voting, approved appointing Hitchen to chair, Herrera to vice chair and Denson to executive pro tempore.
The executive pro tempore would hold office and perform the duties of Democratic Executive Ryan Mello in case of the absence or temporary disability of the Executive. The executive pro tempore does not have the power to appoint or remove any officer or to veto any acts of the council, according to the Pierce County charter.
At the end of the council meeting, Yambe thanked the council and other candidates for putting their names forward.
“It is proof that our democratic systems work, and it’s proof that despite how sometimes we disagree on nuances, overall we’re trying to do the same thing and trying to make sure that our communities are safer and that our communities are a better place,” he said. “This is not something I take lightly. I look forward to working with you no matter what party that you come from … at the end of the day, I am your County Council representative, District 5, and so those issues that you have, I’m interested in being able to be a problem solver.”
Yambe also thanked his mother, who was in the audience, for taking him to council meetings as a child because she couldn’t afford child care.
“I was the kid in the corner, drawing with crayons and listening to the adults, and it always seemed that the things that they were talking about were interesting and that they were important,” he said. “And so every time I come into this position, I think about how I was that little kid in the corner, I was drawing, and that’s how I sparked my interest in local government. So I appreciate it, and it means a great deal, more than I can say.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
