Centralia City Council tries again with interviews for vacancy

May 8-The Centralia City Council had a bit of déjà vu this week, holding another round of public interviews for candidates to fill the council's District 1 seat vacancy just over a month after the first attempt.

Council members questioned two candidates and residents of the city's District 1 territory Tuesday evening during a special meeting that started at 6 p.m. and lasted just 28 minutes.

Once again, the council welcomed the candidates into the room one at a time and asked each of them five questions, one question for each council member in attendance. Deputy Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston was not present due to an excused absence.

On top of the same end goal and the same meeting format, the Tuesday meeting featured one of the same candidates as the previous interview session. The council interviewed Meri Bretthauer, who also applied and interviewed during the previous appointment cycle, and Centralia business owner Jan Nontell.

Nontell took the floor first, being invited into the council chamber from another room and taking a seat at the tables reserved for presenters and public commenters. Bretthauer did the same roughly 15 minutes later.

Unlike last time, the council did not announce its decision at the end of the interview session. As previously decided by the council, it will delay its decision until the following city council meeting on Tuesday, May 12, giving members of the council and the public alike time to consider the candidates.

The city council discussed revamping its appointment process last month after the failed appointment of Cameron Bluhm. In a previous meeting, council members approved a more rigorous application and spoke about drawing out the process of a final decision on the new appointment.

For previous reporting by The Chronicle on the candidate appointment process, visit https://tinyurl.com/4pkdn597.

Question One

Like the last public interview session, Councilor Kevin Curtis kicked things off. He asked both candidates to describe what they believe are the biggest challenges facing Centralia and its residents.

Nontell said she sees the biggest challenges facing the community as symptoms of relatively high poverty rates in the area. She added that she feels improving housing supply for all income ranges and attracting high paying jobs to the area are the issues the city most needs to address.

According to Bretthauer, one of the largest problems facing the community is a lack of fresh paint, street signs and unaddressed potholes. When asked for the biggest issue, Bretthauer said the city needs to "throw a lot of paint around."

Question Two

Councilor Tucker Voetberg asked the council hopefuls how and if national issues or current events would impact their decision making on local issues. The candidates offered similar responses for the most part, with a general feeling that Centralia's issues are its own.

Nontell said she didn't expect national issues to affect her local decisions unless they had a direct impact on the local community, stating that she could "separate the two easily."

Bretthauer said she would like to believe that the city's affairs are relatively isolated from national issues. At the same time, she leaned into the same approach as her last interview, attempting to be very upfront about her lack of experience with the council's affairs and how national issues might impact them.

"I'm not privy to all the information you are," Bretthauer said. "I would be brand new, and would have to do a lot of research, to see how that would actually interact with what we are doing."

Question Three

Mayor Chris Brewer took on the third question and asked each of the candidates to provide a past experience with local government and to share how they would seek to represent underrepresented groups in the community.

Bretthauer described the process of applying for council as her first direct interaction with her local government after previous jobs required long hours and made it difficult for her to find the time to engage. Concerning hearing from residents who may be less vocal, Bretthauer said her job as a Lewis County Transit driver helps her meet and hear from people of all walks of life.

Nontell, on the other hand, highlighted her familiarity with the Centralia City Council and its affairs, pointing out her regular attendance at council meetings over the last decade and her years of service on the city's Historic Preservation Committee. Nontell is also a local business owner. She operates the Rectangle Gallery and Creative Space along Tower Avenue.

Nontell said listening first, tackling hard conversations head-on and engaging with city issues outside of the council and the local government structure would help her to hear from her constituents.

"That, I think, is the main job of the councilors," Nontell said. "To be the voice of the people, to be available to listen, to be available to talk to people, to reassure people, to bring their ideas back."

Question Four

Councilor Adrianna Garibay asked the candidates how they would approach large projects in the city.

Nontell revealed that she works on large projects for a living in her day job as an "institutional change specialist." She said the biggest part of her job is writing grants for projects similar to those the city would take on.

Bretthauer said it would be a matter of "extensive research." She added that she would hope to boil projects down to the numbers and local impact and compared managing the projects to managing a household budget.

Question Five

Finally Councilor Ray Chapman-Wilson asked the interviewees to share their thoughts on the city's temporary moratorium on large warehouses in the area and what they considered to be the benefits or negatives of the restriction.

Bretthauer's exact stance on the moratorium was unclear. She advocated for a balanced approach, seeming hopeful that warehouse and industry development would help the area grow and bring jobs. At the same time, she called for the city to "really connect" with people living near the areas expected to be developed into warehouses. She also argued that new warehouse construction should have tenants and uses already identified before construction.

Nontell has been outwardly in favor of the moratorium and said during her interview that she would like to see the restriction on warehouses larger than 250,000 square feet made permanent. In support of her stance, Nontell said she doesn't believe the city has the infrastructure needed to deal with many large warehouses. She added that she is concerned the warehouses will go progressively toward automation, bringing fewer and fewer low-paying jobs to the area.

Instead, she advocated for the city seeking to support more small local businesses and supporting programs that help those small businesses grow.

"If we look at smaller but more fulfilling, better jobs that pay higher wages, I think we can, in the long run, come out way ahead," Nontell said.

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