Pasco picks first Latina mayor. Council also appoints new member

Pasco residents are starting 2022 with a new mayor and a new representative on the city council.

Blanche Barajas was selected in a 4-3 vote to be the Pasco mayor for the next two years.

While not the city’s first female mayor, she is the first Latina mayor to take the gavel.

Joyce Olson was the first woman mayor, serving on the city council from 1988 to 1995 and again from 2006 to 2010. That’s when she resigned from the top post to move to Virginia with her fiancé.

Barajas is starting her second term on the council and lives in District 1, which covers a large swath of the city south of Interstate 182 and north of Court Street, and into east Pasco.

Both Barajas and Councilman Pete Serrano were nominated for the position, last held by Saul Martinez who retired last year after serving Pasco for 11 1/2 years.

Barajas served as mayor pro tem in 2020 and 2021.

She was replaced in that position by Councilman Craig Maloney, who also was elected in a 4-3 vote against Serrano.

Maloney also is starting his second term as a council member. He represents District 6, which extends from 26th Avenue east to Cedar Avenue, between “A” Street and Court Street.

The two were selected to lead the city only after the six council members interviewed and appointed a replacement for Ruben Alvarado.

Alvarado resigned last month so his family could move to Walla Walla, where he is the new regional director of Communities in Schools of the Blue Mountain Region.

Joseph Campos was unanimously elected by the council to fill the seat for the last two years of Alvarado’s term. He will face election in 2023.

Campos lives in District 2, which covers most of the area east of Highway 395, south of “A” Street and east of Cedar Avenue.

He most recently served as vice chair of the Pasco Planning Commission, a volunteer position he held since May 2017. He works for Washington River Protection Solutions.

Campos, in his application for the council appointment, said he wants to “represent the voice of the community in District 2.”

The other applicants were Tanner Knighton, Jesse Campos and Alexia Estrada.

This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 12:48 PM.