Holly Smith to fill Position 4 council seat through December

About Holly Smith from the NVN:

Ed. note: Ms. Smith reported on her application that she worked for a Fortune 500 company for 38 years, form which she retired. The Yelm City Council chose Smith to complete the term through December of Tad Stillwell, who resigned when he moved out of city limits.

Smith is an office manager whose priorities for Yelm are law enforcement, youth and infrastructure.

“I’ve seen a lot of change and growth in Yelm, some great, some maybe not so great,” Smith wrote in her application for the position. “I’ve always been interested in local politics and processes. As a supporter of many local businesses and talking with neighbors, etc., I would like to serve to be a voice for the people and to be a part of the continuing process of improving the city of Yelm for everyone.”

At the meeting, Smith said she intends to run for council in the general election, though she has not made a final decision on the matter.

“As far as credentials, I’ve lived in the city of Yelm for 25 years,” Smith detailed at the meeting. “I’ve done everything from Booster Clubs, garbage cleaning, Prairie Days, the jazz festival .. and I’m still active in the community through the Lions Club. I sit on their board and also through the state park outreach.” Read more

Joe DePinto explained his vote on Facebook:

At tonight’s city council meeting we selected Holly Smith, a political newcomer but not someone new to Yelm to the council seat that Tad Stillwell vacated.

After a 20 minute executive session we came out and went through a nomination stage. 3 of the 10 applicants recieved a nomination with a 2nd, which were Holly Smith, Line Roy, and Wilbur Hutcheson.

At first the Mayor called for a vote on Wilbur Hutcheson who recieved votes from myself, Carmody and Blair. The next vote we got clarification from the Mayor that we would retake the vote with each council member voting for their top choice and if anyone got a majority, they would become appointed.

The votes were in this order…Blair – Hutcheson, Carmody – Hutcheson, Curry – Smith, Wood – Smith, DePinto – Smith, Kaminski – Smith.

You may ask why I flipped from my first vote and here’s my reason. Assuming Kaminski was voting for Smith and that it would be a tie, I wanted the council to come to a majority decision. In the past the Mayor has broken the tie everytime since I’ve been on council. Hutcheson and Smith were both great candidates (as was every single candidate IMO) and I was pleased it came down to the two of them. I believe this is the first time in Yelm’s history that we have ever had 4 women city councilmembers serving at the same time. It’s not my reason for voting for her, but a historic moment nonetheless.

Thank you to everyone who applied for the position and I hope you all decide to run this year! Congratulations Holly, welcome to the Yelm City Council!