Our picks in Lakewood, Bonney Lake and Metro Parks races

In a handful of Pierce County jurisdictions, only one position is being contested in the Nov. 3 election. That’s the case with the Lakewood and Bonney Lake city councils and with Tacoma’s Metro Parks board.

In two of the three races, The News Tribune editorial board recommends that voters stick with the seasoned incumbent. The third race is for an open seat.

Lakewood City Council

Three City Council members are running for re-election – Don Anderson, Paul Bocchi and Marie Barth – but only Barth faces an opponent. We endorsed her in the Aug. 4 primary and do so again. If the primary results were any indication, voters are inclined to give her a second term; she won 62 percent of the vote in a three-person field.

Also making it through the primary was Ben Gonter, a special education teacher and union official. His idea for the city to buy up a huge tract of low-income housing, demolish it and rebuild homes didn’t resonate with voters.

Barth, a longtime Lakewood real estate agent, has a better grasp of what is and isn’t possible for city officials to do, and she is a voice for small business owners on the council. She deserves another term.

Bonney Lake City Council

Four City Council positions are up for election in Bonney Lake, but only one is being contested, the Position 2 seat being vacated by Mark Hamilton.

Both candidates are credible, but we think David Baus is the superior choice given his level of involvement with the city. Baus, a developer who owns and operates assisted living buildings, is vice chairman of the city’s planning commission and served on the design committee for Eastown. He’s given a lot of thought to the direction Bonney Lake’s commercial hub should take and doing more for senior citizens in the community.

His opponent is Justin Evans, operations manager with Metaltech Inc. in Sumner. Evans shows promise, but we’d like to see him get some seasoning on one of the city’s commissions. Baus already has that, and stepping up from the planning commission to the City Council would not present a steep learning curve for him.

Metro Parks board

Voters in Tacoma’s Metropolitan Park District have a tough choice here: Go with a veteran incumbent who has been a strong defender of parks for many years or take a chance on a promising newcomer with good ideas for engaging at-risk youth and better serving low-income neighborhoods.

We think very highly of challenger Jessie K. Baines Jr., and believe he would make a terrific park board member should he win this race. But we’ll stick with Larry Dahl, who is seeking a third term in Position 3 (he had previously served from 1996 to 2001).

Dahl, a retired construction manager with the City of Auburn, has been a strong voice for common sense over the years; he helped save the district from potential blunders on multiple occasions.

He pushed for the successful 2014 bond measure and now would like to see that it delivers on what was promised to voters. And he’s already been advocating for some of the ideas Gaines espouses for better serving lower-income residents. Voters should give him another term.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Our picks in Lakewood, Bonney Lake and Metro Parks races."