With the upcoming November general election looming, candidates for position No. 2 on the Yelm City Council Joseph Richardson and Jerry Toompas discussed their visions for if they’re elected councilor.
The Thurston County general election is slated for Nov. 7, and ballots will be available for voters on Oct. 18. Voters pamphlets were mailed beginning Oct. 11.
Joseph Richardson
Richardson was appointed to the position No. 2 of Yelm’s City Council in January of 2022 and is the current acting president of the Yelm Chamber of Commerce. The current city councilor serves as associate pastor at Yelm Prairie Christian Center, volunteered with Yelm Community Schools and served on the Young Life committee.
Richardson said he wants voters to choose whom they feel is the best candidate, even if it’s not him.
“It’s not about self promotion. It’s not about us. We should talk about community. We should talk about others or being together. The more you talk about yourself, sometimes I think it disengages what you could do as a whole,” Richardson said. “This mindset that we have is either win or lose, black or white, gay or straight, it’s all these dualistic mindsets. Why do we have to be this or that?”
Richardson said he recently met Toompas and likes his opponent. He said it is great for the community to have multiple candidates from which to choose in any election, especially for local government.
“If people want to vote for someone else, do it by all means. I’m not doing this to win. I’m doing this so Yelm has options and choices,” Richardson said. “I’m just trying to make sure we’re a community, [that] we can see each other and love our neighbor. It’s not about winning, as far as candidates go. It’s about Yelm winning. If Yelm can get who they want, then Yelm wins.”
Richardson said if he retains his seat, he’d continue looking into how the city can manage its growth while causing the least amount of damage to the city.
“Growth is inevitable. Growth is continuing to happen,” Richardson said. “People aren’t going to like the decisions you make, but we can’t stop this growth. It’s inevitable.”
Richardson said that it’s important for community members to stay involved and engaged in events and activities, and that he has learned so much about the city by participating in the Yelm Chamber of Commerce and eventually the Yelm City Council. He also encouraged anyone interested in government, especially local government, to run for the City Council to have an impact on the city.
“I love the fact there’s another name as an option for Yelm. I don’t like to use the term opponent because those are words that divide. You want to have options for the community, and the good thing is I think, no matter who wins, Yelm will be all right,” Richardson said. “If I add anything to the City Council, I think it’s to help mediate differences of opinions. We need to get people to listen to each other. You can’t listen to each other when we’re angry.”
Richardson said he loves his neighbors and feels privileged to be a voice and ear for them. His time serving on the City Council impacted him greatly, and he feels a deep obligation for the people of Yelm, he said.
Jerry Toompas
Toompas, who served as a government affairs representative and intern at the Washington state House of Representatives, said he has the drive and the ability to make things better for the City of Yelm. The YHS alumni described himself as an analytical person who can get stuff done, claiming he’s good with numbers and reading through the city’s codes and policies.
“I’m the only one that stresses family. I really want to focus on families, standard of living, ensuring that families have activities, and that things are affordable in town. I think a lot of emphasis by the current council is business, which is great, but I think we need someone there to advocate for families,” Toompas said. “I see a lot of small cities, the same size as Yelm, that have community activities such as a swimming pool. I think we should get that done. I think Yelm could really use beautification (by) making the city look nice, having nice parks, having family activities and being a place where people like to come and stay.”
Toompas added that there’s a lot of people who live in communities surrounding Yelm, including cities like McKenna, Roy, Rainier and even Tenino, who come to the city for shopping or community events. He said he’d like to get to the point where the City of Yelm has an event every week throughout the summer.
“My family loves to go out and participate in Yelm. It’s much harder to travel to Lacey or Olympia for the events they have out there. We have the capability, the population, the infrastructure. My vision is that our comfort activities are enjoyable. I’m thinking of regular citizens and how the standard of living is so important,” Toompas said. “There’s a lot of things we can fix. I see the current state of Yelm heading towards being more suburban, and I’d like to see the city prioritize spaces so we can have a more family-friendly city in the future.”
Toompas noted that 50% of the city’s population is under the age of 18, which he said is a neat statistic. He said, if elected, one of his main goals as councilor is to make Yelm a great place for them to live.
Another area of improvement that Toompas said was critical to Yelm is the zoning issue the city currently faces.
“I’d like to see us carve out areas for community spaces. It could be parks, some sort of community center where things are free and families can organize events,” Toompas said. “I really want to see larger businesses come to Yelm. I want to see more citizens working in Yelm. 90% of our population commutes out of town every day, so if we don’t change our zoning or protect business zoning, we’re losing out on job opportunities in Yelm.”
He added the current council is “willing to change” commercial properties into residential properties and acknowledges the city’s need for housing, but he still wants to protect commercial properties within city limits.
Toompas would also like to introduce maximum term limits for Yelm city councilors, which he believes he could accomplish within his first month in office, if elected. He said the current or future council would have to be ready to make that change, but he believes he could communicate that need.
