Three of Ellensburg’s seven city council seats are up for election on Nov. 2. Two positions are between current council members and opposing candidates, whereas one is between two new candidates as the current council member is retiring. 

Position 1

Position 1 is between current council member Nancy Lillquist and candidate Kip Storey. 

Lillquist has served on the Ellensburg City Council since 2001. She has a Bachelor’s degree in geology from CWU and a Master’s in water resource management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lillquist said she first decided to run for the city council because of what she felt was a natural extension of her previous involvement in public service.

“I was a member of the League of Women Voters, and I was a member of Ellensburg City Library Board,” Lillquist said. “So I had kind of a natural affinity toward public policy kinds of issues, so it seemed like a good next step to become involved at a higher level in city government and public policy making.”

She said one of her proudest achievements as a member of the city council has been changing the way that Ellensburg designs its neighborhoods.

“One of the things I noticed early on was how we were building our neighborhoods and they weren’t connected, and the streets were wide, and it didn’t feel like the way the core of Ellenburg was,” Lillquist said. “And so through a long process of convening a group of stakeholders, and working through the issues, we now are building neighborhoods that connect.”

If re-elected, one of the issues Lillquist intends to focus on is getting fast and reliable internet to the entire community. While the city currently maintains fiber optics for public entities like the hospital and school district, the council is looking for private companies who can provide internet to consumers.

“We’re looking for those kinds of partnerships where we can build the main trunks of fiber optics,” Lillquist said, “and then partner with the other private carriers to provide this service to people’s homes or businesses.”

More information about Nancy Lillquist can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Lillquist4Council 

Kip Storey was born in Ellensburg and joined the Navy after graduating from Ellensburg High School in 1984. 

Storey said he decided to run due to, “things going on in this town, [a] future that I can see, just a lot of things.” He said that he was born and raised here and “would like to make [Ellensburg] more local.”

Storey said he believes that the town has declined since he was a kid. He feels he had more to do as a child, and wants to bring more experiences for kids in the community because when he was a kid, he said everything seemed like it was better.

This experience created Storey’s slogan of “Make Ellensburg Great Again.” Storey said that he did not intend any association with Donald Trump, and that he “just thought [the slogan] was funny.”

Another concern of Storey is the influx of new residents raising taxes and housing prices, saying that his house has almost tripled in value over the past 20 years. One policy that Storey has proposed in response to this is a regressive tax structure where newer residents have to pay more than older residents for a certain time.

“Part of the reason we’re going to have more taxes is because we need more infrastructure. We need more sewage, we need more lighting, we need more city employees,” Storey said. “To cover part of that, I think for a while that the other new people coming in should kick a little more than the people that have been here forever.”

Storey also mentioned that he is in support of the police, believing that the police are underfunded and thanks police daily for doing the job.

Position 2

Position 2 candidates are current council member Nancy Goodloe and Joshua Thompson.

Nancy Goodloe has served on the Ellensburg City Council since 2017, and originally ran for office because she was asked to, which sparked her interest.

“I was approached by a woman who represented a group of people who were interested in seeing me running for City Council, so it was at their urging,” Goodloe said. “I had always kind of thought I might like to run for an elected office, but I just never had acted on that. And when I was encouraged to do that, I decided I would.”

One of Goodloe’s achievements during her time on city council so far was creating a process for the Affordable Housing Commission to request grant money.

“I worked closely with city staff on that, and city staff did most of the work on it, but we set up a process to solicit grant proposals from developers, and from organizations like Habitat and Hope Source, to build affordable housing in the community,” Goodloe said. “And we got that done, in almost a year, to the day.”

If re-elected, one thing Goodloe said she hopes to do is continue her work on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission. The commission, which was formed after the killing of George Floyd, creates opportunities for community members to get together and share their cultures in order to create a more welcoming environment in the town.

“So we are going to work with the community and try to put in place events that would provide people an opportunity to sit across the table from each other and share a meal, food that they’ve never [eaten] before and learn about it and why [it is] important in this culture,” Goodloe said. “And hear music and listen to stories about tradition.”

More information can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/NancyatEllensburgCityCouncil 

The second candidate, Joshua Thompson, moved to Ellensburg five years ago. In 2006, he graduated from Eastern Oregon University with a Bachelors of Science in business economics.

Thompson said he is running on a platform of getting Ellensburg’s economy back on its feet after the pandemic.

“Between April 2020 and October 2020, Kittitas County has lost over 2,700 jobs. Average wages sit at 62% of the state average,” states Joshua’s entry in the Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet. “Housing prices continue to surge, doubling over the last 5 years, pricing citizens out of their own community. These statistics are the pain points we must address if we are going to lift Ellensburg out of this recession.”

Some of Thompson’s goals if elected are, “setting the conditions for small businesses to flourish, increasing access to attainable housing to keep citizens of Ellensburg from being priced out of their own city,” and “Increas[ing] traffic safety for pedestrians starting with a focus on street crossings, especially near parks and facilities used by children,” according to his website.

More information can be found on his website https://www.joshuaforellensburg.com/ 

Position 3

Position 3 candidates are Bárbara del Mar Robles and Adam Winn, current member Mary Morgan is retiring. 

Bárbara del Mar Robles was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Health Law & Policy from Hofstra University, a Juris Doctor from the Valparaiso University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Puerto Rico.

Robles is running “to help our beautiful city move forward as one more united, diverse, and equitable,” according to her entry in the Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet.

Robles has extensive experience in public service, stating she has nearly a decade of working for individuals and communities in need. Robles’ entry states she will “take her extensive knowledge of the law, public health and education to create policy that tackles Ellensburg’s toughest challenges.”

One of the main issues that Robles intends to tackle if elected is making Ellensburg more welcoming to marginalized groups.

“Ellensburg is diverse, and as a diverse city, we should equitably and inclusively be able to participate in local government,” Robles’ website states. “Let’s lean into this amazing opportunity and look at policy that embraces everyone equally.”

More information can be found on her website at https://www.barbararobles.com/ 

Candidate Adam Winn was born in Ellensburg and moved to California when he was two. According to his website, in 2002, he enlisted in the Marines and served in a Humanitarian Mission, helping rebuild two schools and a medical clinic. He moved back to Ellensburg in 2009. 

Winn decided to run to contribute to local politics. He said the city council is a “great starting point” to see what he can and can’t do to make a positive improvement.

Winn’s three priorities for Ellensburg are city image, local economy and infrastructure. One achievement he hopes to have if elected is expanded parking downtown for large events.

“I want to talk about having some sort of a building downtown designated to just parking,” Winn said. “One for the business owners that are already down there, but as well as for when we bring in [people for] these events like the farmers market or Jasmine Valley. [It] essentially shuts down the downtown area and there’s nowhere for anybody to park other than existing businesses like Safeway.”

Winn also believes that Ellensburg needs to expand its local economy in order to provide jobs for its newer residents.

“We’re putting up these structures and we’re bringing people in to live in these places and cutting them a deal on their rent, [but] there’s no sustainable long term employment for them,” Winn said. “Most of the people from the college that get degrees are going somewhere else because they can get twice or three times the amount [of money] that they can get if they stay right here in Ellensburg.”

More information can be found on his website at https://www.awinn4ellensburg.com/