Sumner’s new council member to donate half his city salary to charity
The Sumner City Council has a new member, and he has pledged to give half his council salary away.
Council member Josh Hamilton, 45, was sworn in at the Feb. 1 Council meeting to fill the last year of former council member Melony Pederson’s four-year term.
He intends to donate half of his $1,100 a month salary to a local nonprofit organization.
“It’s one way to give back and help out,” he told The Puyallup Herald.
Thirteen people applied for the position. After council review and interviews, Hamilton was appointed to the seat on a 4-2 vote Jan. 25.
Hamilton, president of International Wood Products, has been on the city planning commission for the last six years.
He spent most of his childhood in Sumner and graduated from Sumner High before attending Western Washington University in Bellingham. He traveled around the Pacific Northwest, and he and his wife moved back to Sumner in 2006 to raise a family.
The position will be on the November ballot, but Hamilton doesn’t intend to run for election. He sees filling the vacancy as a civic duty.
“I could envision my kids living here for a long while, and I wanted to have a part in the future of Sumner and help give it direction,” he said. “I want to give some examples of civic duty to my kids and show how we can volunteer for the community.”
He looks to focus on the pandemic and its financial impacts to Sumner businesses in his year on the council.
“Hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccination, but we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Hamilton said. “Any ideas from the city could go a long way.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
