Meet and Greets Scheduled

Location:

THE LOST BARN VENUE
70712 N.46TH AVE.
WEST RICHLAND, WA @ 6:30pm

Go down the dirt road and around the corner

• Mondays, September 8th & 22nd
• Tuesday, October 14th Ballot Drop
• Mondays, October 6th & 20th
• Tuesday, NOVEMBER 4TH Election Celebration!

Events will be updated monthly. If you have any questions, fill out the contact form on the Get Involved page of this website, and we will reply.

Update as of September 15^th, 2025

One of my main goals as mayor is to increase government transparency.  As a member of City Council, I have discovered that there are many issues going on in West Richland that the mayor and his club have not disclosed, even to the council.  Some of these issues, when finally disclosed, have not been fully disclosed and attempts have been made to minimize, or sugar coat the issues. 

What got me looking into issues is when I found out that our Police Department is being sued by Amber Rodriguez family for negligence in the Wiley shooting.  Soon more rumors of lawsuits began to surface. Several months later a group of citizens concerned about the rumor of lawsuits, filed records requests for all lawsuits and tort claims against the city.  What they received was shocking.  As residents, I feel that you should know what the city is currently facing.

1-Rodriguez Family-$150 million (not including attorney fees)

They are suing the police department for negligence.  In 2024, Huizar was arrested on second degree rape and WRPD executed a search warrant on his home.  In the search they found a gun and ammo that had been issued by Yakima Police Department.  The family feels that WRPD should have done more to reach out to YPD and investigate.  This same gun was used to kill Amber at Wiley Elementary.

2-Averett Family-$55 million (not including attorney fees)

This family had a bathroom remodel done and inspected by West Richland inspectors.  However, the sewage pipe from the toilet was not hooked up properly and this was not caught in the inspection.  This led to sewage leaking throughout their home, causing illness and massive damage to their home and forcing the family to be displaced.

3-Francis McGowan-$3.5 million (not including attorney fees)

                Mr. McGowan is claiming that his property line was not adjusted properly after selling a portion of his land to Mr. Juan Zaragoza.  This led to a defamed title, slander, neighborhood hostility, and delays on other projects.

4-Ms. Erlich-$2,000 (no mention of attorney fees, documents appear to be self-filed)

                Search warrant was issued for her place of residence in the search for a person of interest.  When SWAT and WRPD responded flash bangs were deployed and windows were broken.  She is seeking the repair of her windows.

5-Ryan Boyce-$103,500 (no mention of attorney fees)

                Mr. Boyce is seeking remediation and damages for the defamation of his character brought on by the WRPD Climate Survey performed by Ms. Corbin and the City.  Former Chief Grego mispresented the facts of the situation and neither Ms. Corbin nor the city did their due diligence to get the appropriate documentation to bolster Grego’s claims.  He is seeking the above amount and the city and Ms. Corbin to publicly correct their mistakes.

6-Athena Clark (Unverified)

                While there is only a rumor of a lawsuit, the citizens did get in their request from the city a letter from an attorney representing Athena Clark to preserve all the private emails between two of Thomas Grego’s personal emails and the personal email of Salena Smathers, who is the HR director for the city.  While personal emails are not public records, the attorneys would need to have solid proof that work related messages were sent from a city work email address to private email address to be able to claim rights to that as public record. 

As a member of city council, I was unaware of all of these lawsuits, minus the one by Ms. Clark.  We have been told repeatedly that the insurance will cover it.  Insurance is a risk pool, the more insurance claims you file and prove that your risk profile is too great, they will drop you.  The total of these lawsuits/tort claims is over 208 million dollars; Ms. Clark’s could bump up that total by a significant amount.  These lawsuits could truly bankrupt our city and leave us without insurance.  Who will pay for that? YOU the taxpayer. 

My goal is to get the truth out to the citizens of West Richland on what is really happening with our city government. 

Economic Growth

West Richland has long prided itself as a “bedroom community”, a small quiet town that is primarily residential.  While I do want to keep that small community feeling, I also recognize that our community is growing and changing.  Growth is good, but it brings with it increased demand for resources.  We have largely been balancing the budget with the revenue collected from the permit fees associated with all the new development.  However, this revenue stream is not sustainable.

This past administration has had many opportunities to promote commercial growth, but they have not. Looking to the future, we need commercial growth.  During my time with the Chamber of Commerce I have developed many connections with leaders in business and have learned about the business needs in our area.  As mayor, I will use these connections to develop an economic growth plan that will secure the city’s financial future without increasing the tax burden on our citizens.

Honesty and Transparency

This past weekend I was visiting with a friend and on my way home one of my tires blew out.  While I was pulled off to the side of the road, an officer stopped behind me to assist.  The officer noticed that I had been drinking, and I was cited with a DUI.  I am posting this in the interest of transparency.  I know I made a poor decision, and I take full responsibility for it.  I am working through the legal process with the courts and am personally taking steps to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.