Conflict shut down Q&A for East Pierce mayoral candidates before the election

A mayoral race has generated heated discourse in East Pierce County.

Milton, a city of nearly 9,000, is getting a new mayor for the first time since 2017. The current mayor, Shanna Styron-Sherrell, has elected not to run for re-election.

“It has been eight years, I feel I have accomplished everything I have set out to do for the city,” Styron-Sherrell told The News Tribune. “I’m ready to move onto another chapter of my life.”

Three candidates are vying for Styron-Sherrell’s seat in the primary election on Aug. 5. The top two vote-getters will face each other in November’s general election. The candidates are:

• Steve Whitaker, a council member and the current mayor pro tempore.
• Megan Sheridan, a former member of the Maple Valley City Council who moved to Milton in 2021.
• Bruce White, a council member who also served on the Kent City Council from 2002 to 2005.

Heated discourse about the race prompted moderators to shut down a Facebook group recently that was meant to help residents get to know the candidates.

Milton in the Middle

Susan Johnson – a former council member who serves on the city’s planning commission – got the idea to make a Facebook group, “Milton in the Middle,” at the end of May.

“I did create Milton in the Middle for purposes of discussion to create a question-and-answer forum for the three candidates in Milton,” Johnson told The News Tribune.

“Milton is known for controversial mayoral elections – one of the events that caused an issue is: ‘Do we want only Milton people to be participating in this or do we want to open it to everyone?’” Johnson said about the Facebook group. “At first it was closed, you would be approved to come in – and then I talked about it with [one of the admins] and said, ‘Let’s just do it, let’s just open it up.’”

Afterward, Johnson said, posts about national politics started flooding the group.

“After it was opened up outside of Milton – Fife, Edgewood, anyone else – we started seeing the real politicization in a nonpartisan race occurring,” Johnson said.

On June 8, Styron-Sherrell made a Facebook post encouraging people to keep partisan politics out of the race.

“Voters should be evaluating candidates based on their character, experience, community involvement, and ideas, not their presidential vote or party affiliation,” Styron-Sherrell wrote. “Asking a local candidate who they voted for at the national level, especially after the last election, is both irrelevant and inappropriate.”

Johnson paused the group on July 21. Posts within it are still visible, but no one can post or comment in the group.

Sheridan’s time in Maple Valley

Conflict arose after Johnson posted minutes from 2018 meetings of the Maple Valley City Council in the group, including minutes about Sheridan leaving the council.

Johnson said that while she posted Sheridan’s minutes first, she also posted minutes from Whitaker and White’s time on the Milton City Council as well.

“You need to know the history of your local government and who’s done what and who’s done well and who hasn’t done well,” Johnson said. “I posted something from Maple Valley and all of it was directly from their website and then from a conversation with their city clerk.”

Sheridan told The News Tribune that after Johnson’s post, she got slammed with calls and messages accusing her of abandoning the City of Maple Valley. She said she left the city in 2018 because her son, a young Black man, was the target of racial attacks.

“He no longer felt safe and my number one priority is going to be to protect my kid and others – obviously, as a mom, protecting him [comes] first. We made the decision to move out of Maple Valley,” Sheridan said. “So I shared that I was resigning from my seat and it was due to family concerns and left it at that.”

Sheridan moved to Milton in 2021. The News Tribune asked her what made her decide to run for office again.

“I was an empty nester and saw that there was a need in Milton for a leader who looks at things proactively and making sure that we as a city are implementing a proactive strategy that’s really based on facts and data,” Sheridan said.

When The News Tribune asked Whitaker about the social media discourse surrounding the race, he said he hasn’t given it a lot of energy.

“It’s been like that since we’ve lived here and that was before social media was a big deal,” Whitaker said. “I’ve lived in Milton for 20 years and it’s, like, the elections have always been like this. They’re passionate.”

When The News Tribune asked White about it, he laughed.

“I’m sharply aware of it — however, I have decided not to engage in it at all,” White said. “I just decided that people that are engaging in the nastiness have already made up their minds and me injecting myself into it wasn’t going to change anyone’s mind.”

‘Personal agendas, misinformation, and divisive behavior’

Styron-Sherrell, who initially planned to stay out of the race, endorsed Whitaker the same day Milton in the Middle shut down.

“He is thoughtful, grounded, and committed to serving the entire community with transparency and respect,” Styron-Sherrell wrote. “At a time when personal agendas, misinformation, and divisive behavior are far too common in our local politics, Steve stands out for his honesty, humility, and steady presence.”

What are the candidates’ visions for Milton?

When The News Tribune asked the candidates what their priorities would be if elected, all of them mentioned traffic.

“Our leading indicators that we could directly focus on for our community is traffic – and taking our existing traffic data and making sure both are included in a traffic improvement plan and grants are directly tying into that data and using it effectively,” Sheridan said.

Sheridan also mentioned that she would keep an eye on Milton’s new “megachurch” along Taylor Street, and monitor its impacts on traffic.

“We’re probably a year or two out from really understanding the impact there,” Sheridan said.

White said traffic is a big deal because people speed through Milton and put residents at risk.

“The number one complaint that I get at people’s doors is that Milton is used as a pass-through town – people are speeding,” White said. “I want to be transparent and listen to residents.”

Whitaker talked about both traffic and infrastructure. He said he would address speeding with stoplight and school zone cameras, then use the money from those cameras to fund sidewalks.

“Once we pay their fees and we pay the vendor for their portion, the money that’s left over is going to be used for a fund in public safety which would also include sidewalks,” Whitaker said.

Whitaker also said he would make it a priority to keep up with the city’s growth by keeping up with infrastructure, including for affordable housing and for the city’s water supply.

“There’s a deep well that’s being drilled,” Whitaker said. “It’s going through testing and it should be up and running by next summer, so that will help fill that gap a little bit.”

White also supported “fixing our water quality issues” and said he wants to focus on building infrastructure.

“People are asking for us to connect the sidewalks we have and to make the city walkable,” White said. “And there are streets in our town that haven’t been paved in decades and they’re full of potholes and people would like us to do something about that.”

Sheridan said another priority for her would be economic development.

“I owned a brick-and-mortar business, so I understand how local businesses are impacted by what their cities do,” Sheridan said. “With economic development, we can take retail reports and use it to proactively attract and partner with businesses so we know the data’s available.”

Sheridan said this would drive economic development and allow the city to “diversify our tax burden on our residents and businesses.”

All of the candidates did agree on one thing: their love for Milton.

“It’s just that common love for the City of Milton,” Whitaker said. “Everybody wants the best for Milton and I think when you have that in common focus, then that’s powerful.”

White said that extends to the candidates at the heart of the heated race.

“I can call Steve and I can call Megan and we can have a great conversation,” White said. “We have our disagreements, but we will come out of this, whoever wins, as friends.”