City of Olympia

This weekend is going to be hot hot hot! Together with Thurston County, the City of Olympia, and Partners in Prevention Education, Interfaith Works is hosting a cooling center Saturday, Sunday and Monday from noon to 6 p.m. at the Old Fire City Hall 108 State Ave. in downtown Olympia.  Please check the InterFaith website for more information about volunteering, donating, and details: https://www.iwshelter.org/code-red.html Donations are needed Bottled water, other cold treats for immediate distribution (no freezer unfortunately), cup o' soups, granola bars, tea, coffee, decaf coffee, creamer, sugar, pastries, sandwiches, fruit, cereal, milk, etc.  Individually packaged sunscreen packets, individual aloe…

Quick. Answer this question: What can the city of Olympia start, stop and continue doing in order to be an inclusive, equitable place for all community members to live, work and thrive? The answer is, there’s no quick answer. But there are dozens of opinions. “Racial justice work is unlike anything we have ever done as a City organization,” Olivia de Breaux, the city’s equity and inclusion coordinator said in a recent blog post on the city’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion webpage. She did not respond to The Tribune’s request for an interview. “We took on this task understanding and feeling…

"Two down! Eight to go!" Those triumphant words rang out across a tent-filled asphalt parking lot in downtown Olympia on a recent sunny spring morning as the first of 10 new homes made its way there by forklift from the Port of Olympia warehouse where it was built. The brightly painted structures were settled in with precision, and safely and carefully leveled on the uneven pavement in an area near the Intercity Transit station. Known as “mitigation site,” it has been home to about 80 people living in tents since the city set it up in December 2018. When the…

Is it a slate? A collaboration? Cooperation? Just what is it? Whatever it is, Olympia City Council candidate Candy Mercer says she’s leading the charge to “flip” the council. Mercer, a frequent, vocal, and acerbic critic of the city’s response to the community’s growing homelessness crisis (more on that here). Mercer is adamant that she has only one goal. “I will continue working on both my campaign and to get like minded candidates elected. My goal is to funnel volunteers and donors to the various campaigns I see as viable alternatives to the current council. In essence, I am running against…

Not yet. And not for a while. The city of Olympia announced Monday afternoon it will not resume its search for a new police chief until late this year.  It gave no timeline for the actual hiring of a new chief for the city’s Police Department, which has been operating under an interim chief since late 2019 and has been beleaguered by allegations of racism, mismanagement of multiple protests in the city over the past year, and unequal treatment of those involved in them. Olympia City Manager Jay Burney, who will select the police chief, said the search will resume…

Burney expects to make a decision in the next few weeks on how to proceed A week after “pausing” a botched search for a new city of Olympia police chief, the Olympia City Manager Jay Burney has not decided when the search will resume. He has determined that when it does, the firm that failed to find at least one finalist’s disciplinary record will not be involved. “The City Manager is still considering the options for continuing the search process. We do know that, when we proceed, we will be moving forward with another search firm,” Kellie Purce Braseth, a…

Less than 24 hours after he announced the four finalists for Olympia Police Chief and praised them for their “vision for policing and their readiness to take on the unique challenges and opportunities facing the city of Olympia,” City Manager Jay Burney has “paused” the search for a new chief. Friday morning, Burney announced that one of the four candidates withdrew after The Olympia Tribune drew Burney’s attention to a past use of force incident involving the candidate.  After Burney announced the finalists late Thursday afternoon, a quick internet search by The Tribune found that finalist Derrick Turner, who manages…

And Then There Were 10. Three more candidates have joined races for the Olympia City Council in what’s promising to be a very, very busy local election year.  Sarah DeStasio, Co-Chair of the Olympia Democratic Socialists of America, is running for the seat being vacated by outgoing incumbent Renata Rollins. She has been a caregiver supporting elders and people with disabilities throughout Thurston County and says unsafe work conditions, low wages and unpredictable schedules at one of her jobs inspired her to help found Capital Homecare Cooperative, a worker-owned caregiving agency. She has a master’s degree in public administration from…