Normally, a water and sewer district commissioner election is a “sleeper election” – no one pays attention to it and usually there are no contested seats. There is a contested (sort of) commissioner position this fall for the Cedar River Water & Sewer District, serving residents and businesses from Fairwood to Hobart down to a northern portion of Maple Valley.
Ronald Harmon and Gregg MacDonald are running for the same position of CRWSD commissioner.
Harmon, incumbent, was chosen to fill last fall’s vacant CRWSD commissioner position from a field of three candidates. In a recent interview, Harmon cited his experience in government and long-term planning serving on the City of Kent Council for 2 terms during which time he was on the Budget Committee and Public Works Committee, and chaired the Public Safety Committee, as experience contributing to his qualifications to be a commissioner of CRWSD. He also cites to being appointed to the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission by Governor Jay Inslee and his many years leading teams of people while working as a manager for various companies in the transportation industry. He spent the last year serving as a commissioner for CRWSD during which time he said he learned a great deal about CRWSD, its operations, history, people, customers, objectives, long-term planning, and more.
CRWSD works with consultants to create a 10-year comprehensive plan, last done in 2016 (it runs1279 pages long and consumes 191 MB of data, available for download from the CRWSD website), so an update will be prepared soon. Harmon believes that issues that should be addressed in the next planning cycle include planning for growth within CRWSD boundaries, re-examining its water supply sources, continuing to invest in equipment upgrades and acquisitions that decrease costs and improve worker safety, continuing CRWSD’s responsible budgeting, and more. He is proud that CRWSD has a summer internship program from which prospective employees can be hired, has sufficient emergency financial reserves, seeks government grants to supplement customer payments (especially for capital improvement projects) that reduce fees charged to customers and maintain high quality, and has a schedule and plan for replacing worn-out equipment. He spoke highly of the people who work for CRWSD.
This is MacDonald’s second go ‘round attempting to become a commissioner of CRWSD. He ran for the position against current Commissioner Steven Peryear in 2017, garnering only 44.87% of the votes cast. He was contacted by e-mail and phone over the last two weeks and was asked to be interviewed before this article was written. He stated, “I don’t think I’m going to win this election. I appreciate your interest.” Then, he declined to answer any questions and declined to meet with me.
Jennifer C. Rydberg is a retired attorney, grandmother, and mother of two sons who attended Tahoma schools. She served a term on the Tahoma School District Board of Directors and numerous other local Boards. Active in Scouting America, her husband was a local scoutmaster for 25 years; both received Silver Beaver Awards.
