These questions have been posed to me by various political action groups around Thurston County. If you have a question not listed here, please feel free to email me at: ekunkeljr@msn.com
Why are you running for this position?
Currently serving on the Lacey City Council and am seeking re-election. I am a lifetime resident of Thurston County, an Army Veteran, and own a local Real Estate office in Lacey. My continued focus as an elected is to advocate for common sense leadership which promotes economic growth, public safety, and responsible conservative stewardship of the public’s money and resources.
What are your top three priorities?
- Public Safety
- Protecting the public’s money and resources
- Advocacy for current and future business and commerce
What Leadership qualities and experience would you bring to this position?
Owner Broker/Realtor® with more than 20 years of industry experience in Washington. For Thurston County Realtors, active in Government Affairs, Grievance Committee, current chair of the annual Flag Day Committee, past chair of the Community Service Day Committee. In 2017, I was presented the Realtor Special Achievement Award for my dedication to service for our TCRA and for my local community, and in 2019 was presented the Community Service Award for similar works. Past President of Thurston Multiple Listing and Sales Association - twice, served on the NTHS Boosters, was an ambassador for the Lacey Chamber, and a past board member for the Lacey Gold Star Families Memorial. In the Army, I managed an Administrative office which catered to up to 500 soldiers for planning, pay issues, promotions, assignment orders and human resource management. As a Non-Commissioned Officer, I taught subordinates how to do their job, while training them to be soldiers. I served honorably for almost 12 years. Courage, backbone & common sense are guiding principles in my leadership approach.
What do you feel is the single biggest issue facing your community today and how do you plan to address it?
Last time I answered this question in 2019, my answer was: Our local leadership can do better in dealing with our homeless problem. This still holds true – but primarily for Olympia and Thurston County. I’m very proud of the City of Lacey’s approach to dealing with this issue, but now we have all witnessed a gravitation of campers to areas that are lenient with the behavior – mainly Olympia. One of the biggest issues Lacey faces now is to tackle annexation of the Urban Growth Area near and around Hawks Prairie. It is Lacey’s responsibility to move forward with this in a reasonable manner, per the GMA. And on many levels, it is of benefit to the community with improved civic service, permitting and representation when we finally accomplish this. My intention is to work with the council to push for further annexation.
What’s a recent city or county decision with which you agreed and why?
In our last budget cycle, we have determined that the City of Lacey can move forward with funds we have in reserves to finally build a new Police Station, and we are able to do it without a public ask for more taxes. A new police station is long overdue and will have other uses that are of benefit to the entire community.
What’s a recent city or county decision with which you disagreed and why?
I do not support the ‘Home Fund’ tax that has been imposed on our community. Additionally, the recently formed Regional Housing Committee is concerning to me, as there exists a big conflict of leadership between Lacey and Olympia when it comes to understanding and identifying the root causes of homelessness, and what will be done with those taxpayer funds collected for the Home Fund.
What factors do you think businesses consider when choosing where to locate?
Businesses desire stability, growth and predictability when choosing a location to do business. Common concerning issues are impact fees, exposure, regulation, taxes, and an overall business-friendly environment. Our city management should always be predictable, flexible for the benefit of business, and helpful when it comes to working with business and the private sector.
What role does local government have in economic development and growing our economy?
Our governance on every level should have as little impact on our personal and professional lives as possible. For public policy to be of benefit in new development, our city should be flexible when it comes to land use and zoning, have minimal impact on regulation, and the process of permitting and fees should be clear and predictable.
What should be done in your community to encourage and support new development, either residential or commercial?
Similar answer to the previous question, our city can demonstrate recognizing the value that industry and business brings to our city by being flexible on land use and zoning, minimal regulation, and a predictable process when it comes to permitting, with no surprises.
What do you believe should be done to increase housing affordability?
As a local Realtor, these beliefs are what I have lived by:
- Reasonable supply and demand for housing
- A lower overall cost for developing, including jurisdiction fees and costs
- Reasonable, less constricting land use regulations
Explain your philosophy on planning and zoning. What changes, if any, should be considered?
In one word – flexibility. Our city continues to grow, change and evolve. And for Lacey to maintain and improve its economic vitality, planning and zoning will need to be a careful balancing act of predictability and flexibility. We must be predictable in the sense of cost and structure of planning, and we must be flexible in the sense of an evolving economy that is in competition with other cities for continued growth and prosperity.
What does the term ‘property rights’ mean to you?
As a property owner, you have the right to enjoy and utilize your property however you see fit to do, if you are not causing harm to your neighbors and their private property. Zoning laws should only exist to protect property rights and the public at large. In a perfect world, only property owners would be allowed to vote on measures that have an impact on property taxes, regulation and even land use. Ownership rights should also, within reason, take legal precedence over concerns with environmental issues or endangered species in my view.
When is it appropriate to raise taxes or implement impact fees? Explain.
Being in the industry, I have seen how impact fees literally suck the life out of a buyer or developer’s plans to improve a piece of vacant land – it’s too onerous and expensive to the point of not being worth the investment to do. Impact fees continue to have a detrimental effect on the potential usefulness of vacant property. Raising property taxes has a similar effect, with the added insult of taxing owners out of their homes and forcing them to sell.
Property taxes are a progressive burden on everyone, and I truly believe that our tax burden would be less if the public was more engaged and did more to hold our elected officials accountable to utilize our money more wisely. To summarize my answer, raising property taxes or any other taxes we are burdened with is not even remotely necessary at this point, as we are taxed more than enough already in this community and state.
Summarize your experience creating greater regional economic prosperity?
For more than 20 years I have worked as a Real Estate Professional all over Western Washington. The impact from my business has brought jobs to many affiliates in the industry, such as Lenders, Home Inspectors and Contractors. Our industry brings additional economic prosperity to the communities we serve as more of our citizens become homeowners and bring stability to the region. The estimated average economic impact of each home sale in Washington state is over $130,000, and our industry contribution to the state’s GDP is more than 17%.
In my business, I hire industry related professionals as well as marketing experts, web designers, print and media services, cleaning professionals, and many others. Additionally, I share a compiled list of vendors and merchants in the local area with the clients I serve. The impact of our industry continues to go beyond home sales and provides stability for our community for years to come.
Looking to the future, what do you see is the biggest opportunity for regional economic growth in the Thurston Region?
Lacey has the most regional space and opportunity for future commercial and residential growth in Thurston County. We have surpassed Olympia in population, but our current shortfall is a lack of commerce as compared to Olympia and Tacoma. Housing in Thurston County is in short supply, and all eyes have been on Lacey to help facilitate a solution. But what about jobs and economic prosperity? As we plan for future annexation of areas around Martin Way E and other areas, Lacey needs to view our growth in the lens of a competing business. There are so many of us who reside in Lacey, but we spend our money outside of Lacey. With the right growth plan, this can change for our benefit.
Our sister cities should be in competition with each other for who will provide the best overall economic vitality. One important and effective way to enhance commercial and residential growth is challenging the methods of how we tax and how we assess fees. Impact fees for development are crippling to the point of excessive cost and risk, and our sales and property taxes continually climb to a point of unsustainability. Lacey has done well over the past several years with record tax revenues since the end of the last recession, and we can afford to find ways to scale back our tax burden. If our city has the courage to do things a little differently, and to embrace the concept of ‘lowering the rate, while broadening the base’, Lacey can potentially be in a very good position to remain strong and stable regardless of the state of our economy.
Please state your plans to increase citizen access to government. For example, how will you include the voices of all of those in our communities – racial and ethnic minorities, the low-income, folks who live in shelters and on the street, youth, our elders and others – in planning for our community’s future? What specific plans do you have to reach out to all people so that their concerns and hopes might be heard, and most importantly, be given equitable weight when the city council on which you wish to serve makes decisions?
Lacey City Hall and the business of the city which serves the public is all public access. Regardless of who you are, you are welcome to attend all public hearings, email or speak your input, voice your concerns to our city leaders, and participate or engage in the process of the business of the city. The city is already an open book for all public input – and has even taken steps to help remove language barriers by making other languages available for the information posted on our city website. If there’s an area of concern which causes people to feel differently about the city being open to public input, my recommendation is to bring your concerns to the City Manager and/or the City Council.
Have you ever been homeless? Known anyone who is homeless? How does that affect your decisions on services your communities could provide? Also regarding homelessness, please give us your thoughts on what a county-wide solution to homelessness would look like.
I have never been homeless. When the market crashed in 2008, I lost most of my net worth to include my home residence, two investment properties and a cleaning business. My family was very close to imposing on family and friends with nowhere to go initially. It was the grace of a local landlord that helped us find some sense of stability and allowed us to move into his rental home, despite our destroyed credit. I know people who are homeless, and my biggest concern is homeless kids. As a community, we are providing solutions to help people faced with homelessness. Thurston County is a very charitable community, with lots of great organizations and non-profits. I have personally contributed to the Veterans Service Hub, North Thurston Education Foundation, and the Thurston County Food Bank to name a few. This is what our community is called to do, in my humble opinion.
Have you ever experienced discrimination based on your age, race, gender, immigrant status or economic standing? Do you know anyone who has experienced these types of discrimination? If so, how does that affect your decisions on city ordinances and policies in these areas?
On numerous occasions I have experienced what I felt was unfair treatment from people who look and/or think differently than I do in various situations that relate to employment, promotion, and social acceptance. My perception of the experience is that life is always going to be unfair in one situation or another. There is no existing fix or public policy which could or would force the hearts and minds of individuals to overcome their biases in life. The best remedy in my view is to always be mindful of what your thoughts focus on, be confident in who you are and never view yourself as a victim.
What specific ideas do you have about law enforcement accountability? Do you support a citizen review board for your city’s police department? Why or why not? Do you support the use of body cameras by city police officers? Why or why not?
I believe that parts of our society have created an unhealthy culture that treats our brave men and women in blue like criminals. We have very high standards with psychiatric evaluations, polygraphs, and a standard which very few can enter through to earn the ability to wear the badge to serve and protect our community. We have the ‘best of the best’ available professionals guarding and protecting our community and putting their own lives at risk for our benefit. I’m not entirely sure how a citizen’s review board would benefit from the currently challenging review process, but I do know that the public can voice their concerns and ideas to the city for consideration. Body cameras seem to be one of the best tools our officers have for accountability and clarity in interacting with the public.
Affordable housing is a concern in our communities. The predicted population growth in Thurston County will only increase the cost of housing. Do you think it is the responsibility of cities to ensure that housing is available for people across a range of economic circumstances? If so, what should be included in your city’s planning?
Our government exists for specific purposes – to enforce the law, protect the public, and manage our infrastructure for future growth. Our government does not control the economy, housing market, market rates, or mitigate supply and demand. The best option for city planning in the effort to provide more affordable housing is to incentivize developers. There are several strategies that can be implemented to accomplish this, but the summary is to reduce the city’s fees and costs to make affordable housing projects more worthwhile and economically feasible.
In the past year, how often did you take public transportation, or traveled in some way other than a single-occupancy vehicle, to work, to city events, or to public meetings? What should local government do to help residents reduce their carbon footprint?
I rarely rely on public transportation. And I don’t subscribe to the theory that mankind is accelerating climate change. Our climate is changing, but mankind’s carbon emissions have very little to do with it in my view. What is more concerning to me is the fact that there are people in elected office who personally live in fear of this theory and have authority or influence in public policy. Our government should have nothing to do with attempting to control the behavior of free citizens when it comes to this subject.
How will your city be affected by climate change/sea level rise? Does your city have a plan to address these effects, and what more can or should your city do to respond?
Again, I don’t subscribe to the theory of mankind accelerating climate change. The City of Lacey has partnered with Thurston Climate Mitigation group despite my nay vote.
Still want to learn more? Check out the video below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJUTwS780sE&list=PL6kKZRfmGAdVDzh-rr5wZEV4uIYzyd9fE&index=4