Interim Mayor JW Foster
Photo credit: City of Yelm

* Will Foster chose what is best for him or what is best for the community?
* City Council Position 3 to be appointed tomorrow evening
* Long-time public servant Bob Isom’s resignation left this seat vacant
* Six candidates applied for this position
* Two are former Council candidates who lost in previous elections
* This will be the 5th new Councilor seated within the last year
* Mayor Foster will define his position by this selection
* Will Foster choose a JBLM candidate or stay with “The Old Guard”?


On tomorrow evening’s City Council Agenda, Mayor Foster will appoint a councilor for position 3. Like Councilor EJ Curry selected for position 1 to fill JW Foster’s vacated seat when he was appointed Interim Mayor, Position 3’s seat is an interim appointment until the public vote in the November 2017 election.

All of the candidates who recently applied for the vacant council position 1 reapplied for this seat, except one. The new applicant is Jim Helms, a ten year Yelm resident who moved here when stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) during a 23-year Army career. Helms outlined his passion and vision for this position in the Nisqually Valley News.

Helms joins the previous applicants Scott Bannister, Scott Bradley (also a JBLM veteran), Terry Kaminski, Jennifer Littlefield and Lanakila Washington, all profiled in the Nisqually Valley News September 8th.


– Editor’s Note:
If change were truly to occur here, Mayor Foster will see the value of appointing one of the well-qualified JBLM veterans so that the more than 35% of Yelm’s population who are associated with the military will properly be one-third represented on the City Council (Councilors Carmody and Stillwell are also military veterans). Foster previously appointed EJ Curry to position 1, a woman providing greater female diversity to the council yet bowing to the interests of what has been called “Yelm’s Old Guard.”

Position 3’s appointment demonstrates whether Mayor Foster is truly interested in public process as he professes,
* by bringing more diversity to the Council to represent the changed population of our town with a JBLM selection,
* or will he further commit to “business-as-usual” in appointment of Littlefield or Kaminski to maintain a majority of The Old Guard in control of decision-making, which is the model of the past and no longer useful, progressive, nor modern for a dynamic future in Yelm?

This may not be an easy decision for Mayor Foster:
Does he follow emotions in selecting who he knows and what is comfortable and best for him
or
does he make a choice based on sound business fundamentals in what is best for the community?
He knows all of the facts!