30th District candidates participate in multilingual forum | Election 2024

The Federal Way Mirror and nonprofit organization Mujer Al Volante hosted a multilingual candidate forum on Oct. 8 for 30th Legislative District State Representative Positions 1 and 2 — with questions asked in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Ukrainian and Dari/Pashto.

Candidates running in the upcoming general election are Jamila Taylor (D) and Melissa Hamilton (R) for Position 1, and Kristine Reeves (D) and Quentin Morris (R) for Position 2. Taylor and Reeves are incumbents.

Mujer Al Volante worked with members of individual immigrant, refugee and asylee communities throughout Federal Way to generate questions that represented their biggest concerns. The Mirror staff utilized the past year of reporting and community feedback to add their questions to the forum, which was held at the Federal Way Community Center.

Highlights

The Ukrainian community’s question highlighted the challenge of integrating into a new place and asked the candidates what they could do to help with the challenge of finding work that matches their skills. One challenge they face is that many certifications are not transferable, or language and job market barriers keep them from accessing that employment.

“What I hear in that question is the basic human indignity, to be able to feed our kids, to be able to keep a roof over our head, to be able to show up every day and contribute to our community,” Reeves said, and shared specifics of the actions she’s been taking to directly address the issue through policy changes for easier transfer of various qualifications from other countries, both for employment and through education.

Hamilton focused on the importance of increasing language access.

“I can’t imagine coming to a new country and having that language barrier and having other barriers there. You’ve come, you know, the right way, and you’re here, and you are looking for that American dream, that opportunity that we all are looking for,” Hamilton said. “I think we can partner with our community colleges, perhaps to do something like that so that we have more access to language training.”

Morris emphasized that “we can’t waste the human capital, and we need to better integrate it into our diverse community. It’s a talent waste not to do so.” Taylor highlighted the importance of finding ways to fill in the gaps between the requirements that may be different between countries or certification and education systems.

Candidate responses to another question about funding for childcare and early education sparked strong reactions from the audience. They were asked for their stance on Initiative 2109, which calls for repealing the capital gains tax. That tax has raised $1.2 billion for childcare and early childhood education in the first two years, as reported by the Washington State Standard. The tax impacts those who make over $250,000 on stock sales alone in a calendar year.

Reeves noted that the tax only impacted 4,000 of the wealthiest Washington citizens (approximately 3,000 individual taxpayers each fiscal year, according to the Washington State Standard). Reeves said that that money is “helping working moms get to and from their job because now they have safe, accessible, affordable places with their kids. It’s helping school districts like ours, under the regionalization factor model, generate revenue to ensure that in the fifth most diverse school districts in the country we can afford our educators and our STEM education programs to keep our kids motivated to get back to that next work opportunity, and it ultimately ensures that the wealthiest 1% in this state are paying their fair share.”

Morris referred to a campaign funded by Washington millionaire Brian Heywood when he said “I say ‘vote yes, pay less’ because it is to the benefit of the middle class and working class.” Morris added that people should really be looking into billionaires and said that “the folks that are really grifting are those that are in the private equity area.”

In their question at the forum, the Arabic speaking community representative emphasized the impact of the expense of childcare, and specifically shared the need for culturally relevant services.

Other questions focused on the challenges of the immigrant, refugee and asylee communities who were present. Many of their concerns were shared by the broader community in Federal Way, such as access to affordable housing, navigating the change that comes with development, and the need for an economy and community where everyone is safe to thrive.

Jamila Taylor, left, and Melissa Hamilton are vying for 30th Legislative District State Representative Position 1.

Housing

Excerpts from statements that highlighted candidates’ views on housing.

• Hamilton: “Our housing crisis is a supply and demand issue. That’s what it is, we have a shortage of homes. And so when you have a shortage of homes, the prices are going to go up. And so we need to pass policies that are going to encourage and incentivize, incentivize the building of homes. And we need a variety of homes. We don’t need all low income housing. We don’t need all apartments, and we don’t need all single family homes, but we do need to have a variety of homes, because what affordability means to one person, it means something different to somebody else.”

• Taylor: “In terms of housing affordability, I’ve done a significant amount of work in the Legislature around one, first and foremost, increasing access to homeownership. Homeownership of all types, single family homes, condos, other types of housing options for folks who are looking to live their very best life. Thinking about our seniors, who are aging in place, not necessarily because they want to stay in their single family home, but because they cannot afford to move into senior housing or other options that they need and are appropriate in their life. And so thinking about how our whole ecosystem is impacted by the policies, we can update, create and change the dynamics of the community.”

• Morris: “This is where the long hand of government interferes. We do not have the capacity or the investment to actually grow our building, and so that needs to be addressed, and it can be addressed in a number of ways. It’s through taxation or the reduction thereof. It is through building incentives. It’s through a reduction of regulatory oversight. You cannot imagine how many regulators are involved in the permitting and building process that is all cost. So I would address it as a statewide problem, not just the 30th, if I were to be voted into the Legislature.”

• Reeves: “We proposed several [solutions] in the Legislature, including a temporary housing stabilization proposal, whereby it would address the immediate concern of rent increases. And then the work we need to do is to get folks into production of housing, as my colleague said, all kinds of housing — condos, single family buildings, ADUs, grandma units. We need all of it to build and to build it over the next decade, but it is going to take at least a decade, so we’ve got to have that short-term rent stabilization fix to address the immediate crisis while we do the work to build up the supply in our community.”

Representatives from the Arabic speaking table. Photo by Joshua Solorzano/The Mirror

Public safety

Excerpts from an exchange about public safety in the 30th District.

• Hamilton: “They banned police pursuits because they said they were dangerous. I think criminals are dangerous. That’s who’s dangerous. What has pro-crime and pro-criminal legislation cost you and your family your business? It’s cost my family $7,000 in the last 21 months. My opponent also supported decriminalizing all drugs for two years after the Blake decision, that was a failed experiment, and drug overdoses are skyrocketing.”

• Taylor: “I hear the passion, the anger, the frustration over police accountability from the community over the lack of resources in community for folks to live a healthy and thriving life. I get that. I also want to make sure that it’s very clear that the Legislature did not decriminalize drugs. It was decriminalized through the court process. The Legislature recriminalized drugs — I know this because I led on that effort.”

• Morris: “The 30th District has been the nexus, if you will, for a radical social experiment for the last five years, during the pandemic and after and frankly, you’ve seen the fruits of the legislation that my colleagues here have sponsored and supported in defunding the police, the restrictions on pursuits. Fortunately, those were turned around … So what do I support? … That pursuit law needs to stay in place. We need to have more interventions by police officers for those homeless and drug dependent folks to get interventions. They obviously need care, and to do anything less is inhuman.”

• Reeves: “I voted to reinstate the police pursuits bill when I got back to the Legislature because our law enforcement community said this was the number one tool that they needed. But it’s also why I have led on ensuring that we are incorporating data analytics into the measurement of the policy that we are doing to ensure that we’re holding our police community accountable … it is not only our right but our obligation to ensure that we transform that system so that it best works for everyone … It’s why we’ve made strong and strategic investments in the law enforcement retirement account, while at the same time updating and mandating training requirements for new law enforcement officers.”

Kristine Reeves, left, and Quentin Morris are vying for 30th Legislative District State Representative Position 2. Photo by Joshua Solorzano/The Mirror

Closing statements

Excerpts from closing statements highlighted the candidates’ viewpoints.

• Reeves: “To all of you, we know that there are 100 other things that you could be doing tonight, but you are engaged in your community and your citizenry, and we appreciate you…I’m a working mom who fights for working families and for an economy that works best for us all. I’m fighting for a future that includes us all, and I would be honored to continue serving as your state representative for the next two years.”

• Hamilton: ”I’m concerned about public safety. I want to make sure that our police have the tools they need to enforce the law. I support all four initiatives. I support ‘say yes pay less’ because this is going to make our life more affordable. Lastly, I support a return to focusing on academics in our public school, because I want our children set up for success when they graduate.”

• Morris: “The pandemic response was the most intrusive and destructive mechanism of wealth transfer and violation of civil rights ever taken. Now they’re trying to actually leverage the damage they’ve caused to create more social safety net programs to tax increasingly and to declare more emergencies. Public policy is being driven at a rate that is totally out of control, and everything is being done at an emergency pace. Someone needs to take the time to look at this and actually look downstream to see what it is we’re doing with ourselves. It’s in gender, it’s in medical, it’s in climate, it’s in transportation, it’s in our housing.”

• Taylor: “I think at the end of the day, we need to be committed to finding solutions and taking action. We can talk to each other, talk at each other, yell at each other, but that’s not going to get us where we need to go … I know that we can sit in nuance. I know that we can sit in difference in the perspectives of the strategy. I do believe in our community, being able to grow, diversify and be a thriving community that allows all of us, with all of our differences and all the things that actually bring us together, to move forward together. What I’m empowered by is you. What I’m encouraged by is you.”

Federal Way Mirror Editor Andy Hobbs at the podium while the candidates answered questions Oct. 8 at the Federal Way Community Center. Photo by Joshua Solorzano/The Mirror

Audience feedback

Combining the two forums brought communities together that might not otherwise be in the same space.

“This is truly what it looks like to be representative,” former Federal Way City Councilmember Martin Moore said after the event. Moore also highlighted the importance of the opportunity for people to “ask the questions they don’t often get to ask.” Moore said that he “absolutely loved it” and that it was “one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time.”

As an adoptee from Bulgaria who moved to the U.S. at age nine, Moore said that he knows firsthand the challenge of a language barrier that so many of the various language communities highlighted in their questions.

Simeon Rhoden is a precinct committee officer (PCO) in Auburn and called the multilingual aspect “wonderful,” saying that “if we’re talking inclusion, providing access to language” is very important. He has firsthand experience, and as someone who works for the city of Kent, he does a lot with “ensuring language access in everything we do.”

For him one thing that will stand out from the event were the responses of several candidates about the capital gains tax that is on the ballot to be potentially repealed. “As a homeowner of over 5 years in Auburn with a son who lives in this district, that impacts him more so than it does me,” Rhoden said. “We’ve got to have taxation somewhere.”

While the moderator instructed the audience to remain silent for the duration of the forum, toward the end of the program some statements from the candidates got reactions from the crowd, on both sides of the political aisle.

Allison Fine said that “it’s understandable when the community feels so strongly they would externally express appreciation,” but that of course for the sake of time, it makes sense that the expectation would be to refrain.

Nasteran Zaman was a Pashto interpreter for the Afghan community and said the forum was helpful and gave her community access to some “good information” about the candidates’ stances. “The Afghan community all has the same questions all the time,” Zaman said, so it was helpful to get those questions answered.

Juan L. Juarez Ramos said that although he is very active in politics and was already familiar with the candidates’ stances for the most part, he appreciated the opportunity to hear more of their thoughts about the citizen’s initiatives on the ballot this year. He also said he loved the idea of the multilingual forum, but that at times the simultaneous interpretation was distracting, so there may be a few more kinks to work out.

Watch the forum

The Oct. 8 forum can be viewed in its entirety on the Federal Way Mirror’s Facebook page.