Editor’s note: Each debate held Wednesday night at Centralia College will be featured in an article in The Chronicle over the next week. See more coverage at chronline.com.
Guests at The Chronicle’s local election debate at Centralia College’s TransAlta Commons Wednesday night took a 10-minute break to grab snacks and refreshments before the final race of the evening.
Little did they know they would need that time to prepare for the most eventful debate of the night.
While the crowd calmed their appetites with a quick snack, their appetites for local government intensified as incumbent Port of Centralia District 2 Commissioner Julie Shaffley and challenger Ally Pickard took to their respective podiums upon the stage.
Both candidates came out swinging to start what turned into a 51-minute finale. But the swings were initially aimed at the port, with Shaffley citing the organization’s success and Pickard questioning its property taxes, before the jabs turned to one another.
Opening remarks
During her opening remarks, Shaffley, with her 10 years as an elected port commissioner and 35 years as the owner of Good Health Nutrition Center, boasted her experience in business, budgeting, investing, employee management and meeting goals.
“In the last 10 years that I’ve been a port commissioner, the port has had tremendous growth,” Shaffley said. “We’ve welcomed Stihl Northwest, UNFI, Beacon Supply, Cascade Mental Health, WinCo, and many more businesses. The port has also built the I-5 off-ramp and Yew Street extension in Centralia, and we’ve been really busy. There are more exciting projects to come.”
Shaffley also cited the recent Revised Economic Contributions and Fiscal Impacts of the Port of Centralia’s Industrial Parks Study, which estimated that, by 2026, businesses operating within the port’s three industrial parks are projected to directly employ approximately 3,145 workers and support more than $1 billion in total economic output in the local economy.
Pickard began her opening statement by asking the community in attendance a question.
“Did you know that we pay more in property taxes to the port than we do our library?” Pickard asked. “The port was founded to be a for-profit arm of the government meant to generate revenue through its own operations. The port recently published a study projecting over $1 billion in economic activity by 2026. Is that not enough growth to give us a tax break?”
Pickard stressed her values in running for port commissioner, including stopping tax increases she deemed unnecessary, increasing transparency and refocusing the port on community involvement and responsible growth. She said she brings over 15 years experience in financial management and public service.
“My story started when I worked for Lewis County. I saw firsthand how decisions made behind closed doors affected our citizens, and when I witnessed misconduct, I left to become a whistleblower and an activist,” Pickard said. “Over time, I realized that being an outside critic would only get me so far, and if I wanted to see real change, I needed to step up and help.”
Pickard’s political cartoons
One of the hottest topics during the audience Q&A portion of the debate was about Pickard’s political cartoons of Lewis County elected officials and citizens on a Facebook page that is now deleted.
Kyle Markstrom, a Port of Centralia commissioner, directed his question at Pickard, referencing her previously expressed desires to collaborate and be transparent.
“As the sole creator of the now-deleted Lewis County political cartoons page where you have ridiculed local elected officials as well as public employees, how do you now expect to work in collaboration with not only other people at the port but at the government agencies that the port has to work so closely with?” he asked.
Pickard, who described the topic as the “elephant in the room,” defended her comics in front of the crowd and port officials she hoped to work alongside. She stated that she began making the artwork in the last election cycle to highlight local politics in a climate where national politics was in the spotlight.
Her comics included depictions of Markstrom and Kyle Heaton, port executive director, as skunks. Pickard said her choice to turn Heaton into a skunk was because “I needed a character that was recognizable from behind because he sits with his back to the community.”
“I am sorry that you felt that I ridiculed you. That was not my intent,” Pickard said to Markstrom. “Political cartoons have been a part of our founding as a country. It’s been around as long as America has, and the intent was simply to bring awareness and attention to local issues. I think it worked.”
She said none of the subjects of her cartoons ever reached out to express their offense to the art and said she welcomes conversations about their concerns.
When Shaffley began her comment on the cartoons, which included her calling the depictions of port staff “very insulting and hurtful,” audience members and the moderators shut the topic down.
However, three minutes later, Alicia Fox, a former Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce executive director and Heaton’s girlfriend, asked Pickard how she could be respected by the community and work alongside Heaton and the port after publishing her cartoons. Fox also mentioned that Pickard put stickers and buttons of her cartoons up for sale, but Pickard said she “never made a dime” and only put them online at the request of “some of the fans.”
“As far as being able to work with people and the potential of future litigation, we’ll cross that bridge when it comes,” Pickard said. “But working together, I am so surprised to hear that this hurt you so much. I would love to meet with you one-on-one to figure out how we can work together.”
Heaton and the guests at his table audibly laughed at Pickard’s response.
Impact of Centralia’s moratorium
The first question from moderators and chairmen of their respective political Lewis County parties Greg Rohr and Zac Eckstein was about the Centralia City Council’s emergency moratorium pausing the development of large warehouses and distribution centers. They asked the candidates where they stood on the decision and how the port should respond.
Pickard pointed out in her response that the moratorium, approved by the council on Sept. 9, is just a six-month pause on what she called a “very specific” type of development.
“This was pretty closely matched by all citizens that this was targeted against port property specifically, but it’s only for distribution centers over a certain size. That’s not eternal,” she said. “The city council could decide to make it a permanent rule, which is a real risk if we do not have people come to the table and work together.”
Shaffley repeated her stance from the Sept. 17 port meeting, saying she was “disappointed and surprised” when the city council passed the moratorium, especially in an emergency manner.
“There is no emergency. There are no projects in the queue right now for permitting for that type of project,” she said. “However, that emergency moratorium does send out a clear message to developers and future developers that Centralia is not necessarily a business-friendly community. That is wrong. We want to have businesses here.”
Port and county leaders publicly stated last month that they were blindsided and frustrated by the council’s emergency action, leading to elected officials calling for improved collaboration between the port, city and county. Pickard defended the city’s move, saying that the city believed its hands were tied.
“It’s very clear to the community that I speak to that the port is the problem child. Your comment saying that there was no emergency slaps the face of our city council,” Pickard said to Shaffley, giving her a lengthy stare before continuing. “That is what they said because it’s not that there was something in the pipeline that was going to be an issue. They made it very clear at council and in all of their press releases that it was based on their need for strategic planning and their requirements from the state. This was not a political theater moment.”
Shaffley offered a rebuttal, claiming that the six-month pause is a timeline that “speaks volumes” to all of the developers that are interested in relocating to the port. She doubled down on her previous claim that she learned of the city’s looming vote on the moratorium until one day before the agenda was released.
“If indeed there’s collaboration, why weren’t we invited to the table? Why weren’t we invited to hear about the comprehensive plan?” Shaffley asked. “Why didn’t the city come to us and ask us about the restrictions they were putting on us? This is collaboration but it goes all different ways, not just us as a scapegoat.”
Creating economic opportunities
The next question from the moderators was how the candidates’ experience and perspectives would best support the port’s mission to create economic opportunity in the community. Pickard noted her previous experience working for the Lewis County Parks and Fair Office and current experience working for a behavioral health agency that is a for-profit arm of the government.
“I understand that my opponent has 10 years experience in this role,” Pickard said. “However, can we live through another six years of year after year raising the property taxes by the maximum allowed amount?”
Shaffley then took a shot that drew ire from the crowd.
“I have run a business, a thriving business for the last 35 years, which I think is about the same time you were born,” Shaffley said to Pickard, followed by audible groans and confusion from the crowd. “I have learned, through trial and error, about budgeting. I know how to be fiscally conservative. I have one credit card. I am fiscally conservative. I don’t know if my opponent can even reply to that.”
Pickard responded by saying she would not take “cheap shots at character” and that she thought it was “odd” to have to speak to her personal finances. Instead, she maintained her value to shift the port’s focus to the citizens and their needs.
“Right now, they need a tax break. We’re weathering and preparing for a recession. That’s a real issue that many of our families are facing,” Pickard said. “I think that it’s clear that I can bring a new style of leadership and a new way of communicating clearly and effectively to our citizens and bringing their voice to the table.”
When Rohr interjected to ask about the moratorium improving economic opportunity, Pickard said the port must diversify the businesses that it brings to Centralia, adding her desire to follow economic studies and what the community wants, including retail and family wage jobs.
Shaffley replied that while retail produces taxes, it does not produce family wage jobs before stating that the port does offer family wage jobs.
“We’re not only distribution centers, and we are very diversified,” she said.
Property taxes
Shaffley also tackled Pickard’s claim that the port has levied the maximum amount in property taxes, providing statistics to prove that Pickard’s comment, in Shaffley’s words, was “very false and misleading.”
According to Shaffley, the port has charged the maximum amount of 45 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value twice over the last 10 years — in 2017 and 2018 — when the construction of Centralia Station was underway.
“Without that investment, the community would not have WinCo or any other future tenants. The levy amount for 2025 is 29.5 cents, not the maximum of 45 cents, and we have not raised it the maximum every year,” Shaffley said. “Also, where does that tax money go? We are one of the only entities that take the levy tax money and reinvest it into the community. We reinvest it by making the different infrastructures that then can allow for other businesses to come here to pay the property taxes that lower the tax burden for everyone else.”
Shaffley added that the port lowered the tax rate in 2022 and again in 2024, but the rate was raised from $0.268 per $1,000 in 2024 to $0.295 in 2025.
The moderators dove deeper into the port’s taxes with their third and final question. Citing a suggestion from community members that the port remove itself from the tax rolls, they asked for the candidates’ takes on this idea and how it would affect taxpayers and economic growth.
Pickard’s point was simple: the port was intended to become self-sufficient within its first 10 years when it was originally founded. She stated that it is her goal to help the port become self-sufficient.
“I know that that has been debated by the port for a long time, but when I speak to our citizens, they know and they remember that. The first time that the port was brought to the citizens, the vote went down. They didn’t make it,” she said. “Nobody wanted a port. They came back to the citizens and they said that they would one day become self-sufficient. It’s not 10 years later. It’s 40 years later and they are still heavily dependent on property taxes. I say heavily because it is a heavy burden for our citizens.”
Through her review of the port’s meeting minutes since the inception of the port, Shaffley claimed that there was never a resolution for the port to become self-sufficient in the future. She said it was the goal of one early commissioner, but never the full commission.
“To be self-sufficient would be non-sustainable for the port,” Shaffley said. “The taxes that we levy are reinvested into the city, in the infrastructure. The average household here in Centralia pays $15 a month to the port. Is that an extreme amount? For some people, yes. For most people, no. That’s, what, three lattes? But what you’re getting as a return on that investment are new industries, new businesses, new jobs that help to lower your tax burden.
“What the port has brought to this community is amazing, and without the port is also going to be amazing, but not in a positive way,” she added after repeating that becoming self-sufficient would not be sustainable.
Rebuilding public trust
Multiple audience members grilled the candidates about what they called a lack of public inclusion in the port’s decision-making, as well as a lack of collaboration with the city and the county. Shaffley said she and the port are open to information the public gives them and reiterated that the port does collaborate with local entities. Pickard suggested the institution of a citizens advisory committee to help citizens feel as if their voice is being heard.
Port executive director’s contract
Lisa Striedinger, candidate for Centralia City Council District 1, asked Shaffley about Heaton’s “golden parachute” contract, in her words, which she said gives the executive director $250,000 a year. She added that “if Mr. Heaton gets fired, it will bankrupt the port,” referencing a section of his contract that says he will be entitled to receive a lump sum severance payment in an amount equal to 24 months of his current base salary, plus all accrued but unused vacation and less applicable withholdings.
Shaffley defended Heaton, who she said is the longest tenured port executive in Washington state.
“He’s not in the top 10 highest paid executive directors, but he’s certainly the top performer,” she said. “When he was hired in 2001, [there was] $8.5 million in assets and $7.5 million in debt. Today, $42 million in assets, less than $1 million in debt. The report card speaks for itself.”
When pressed by Striedinger on who signed the contract in 2017, Shaffley said she, former secretary Matt Evans and former vice president Daniel Keahey signed it and stated that they did so because “he deserves this and he proves that he will do a good job.”
