My name is Steve Verhey, and I feel called to run to serve on the Ellensburg City Council. I ask you to write in my name for Ellensburg City Council, Position 4 in the general election. Ballots will be mailed on October 20, and due by Election Day on November 7.
I have lived in Ellensburg for 24 years and, except for time away for college, I am a life-long resident of Eastern Washington. I grew up in Royal City, and Ellensburg was where my family went when we “went to town.” I remember getting my feet measured at Mundy’s Shoe Store. I was happy to have the opportunity to move here to teach at CWU.
For as long as I have lived here, I have served the community. I co-founded and co-organized the Renewable Energy Roundup and Art Show in downtown Ellensburg, then organized a TEDx event called Hello Climate Change.
I served on the Team for a Common Vision and helped finally pass the bond to remodel Morgan Middle School. In Mattawa, where I now teach, I co-founded Wahluke Ilumina Nuestros Sueños, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to early childhood literacy and affiliated with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. (By the way, the Imagination Library is available in Kittitas county, sponsored by United Way of Yakima, click here to register your child.) Most recently my students and I helped the City of Mattawa write and adopt a tree ordinance similar to the one Ellensburg has had for decades.
I know how to lead and cooperate and get things done. I have also been active in party politics: some may remember when I ran against Alex Ybarra for the state legislature seat vacated by Matt Manweller’s resignation. I understand how government works.
The other candidate is Joshua Thompson. I think it is reasonable to expect that someone who wants to serve on a city council would have some record of volunteer work, news items about projects — but there is none. We are left to speculate about what kind of person he is.
Having lost the election in 2021, in 2022 he applied to be appointed to a vacant seat on the council. An Ellensburg resident wrote to the council to express concern about his attacks on the council’s integrity and about his overtly religious remarks on Facebook. The letter writer happened to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and her concern seemed appropriate, given attitudes among some evangelical Christians.
Now, it would have been easy enough for him to put the concerns to rest in a sentence or two — anyone could have done that — but he chose not to. Instead he called the letter a “hit job,” his scheduled interview with the council “an ambush,” and accused the council of “corruption.” He more than doubled down on his attacks on the council’s integrity and withdrew his application for appointment. Now he is running again; as he threatened on his Facebook page in a January 2022 post, “2023 we are coming for seats. I believe the City Council has awoken [sic] a sleeping giant.”
So the other reason I’m running is that otherwise he will run unopposed. If he runs unopposed, we may not learn until it is too late what his real attitudes are toward all of different kinds of people who live in Ellensburg, attend college here, or visit for events like the Ellensburg Rodeo and other local events. That matters.
Thank you,
Steve
Steve Verhey
verheys@hotmail.com, 509-899-4956 (if no answer, please text or leave a message)
Write In Steve Verhey For Ellensburg City Council Position 4 