I am running for Sheriff because the citizens of Grays Harbor and the deputies who serve them deserve strong leadership, real engagement, and consistent representation. This role isn’t just about enforcement; it’s about accountability, presence, and building trust with the community while supporting the men and women doing the work every day.

What is your political experience?

I am currently the Mayor of Westport and have gained a lot of insight through this position. I have attended the Association of Washington Cities Elected Officials Essentials Workshop and the Municipal Budgeting and Fiscal Management Workshop which has provided a working knowledge of the State’s budget system and the challenges each Grays Harbor community faces within the local government.

Throughout Grays Harbor County I have worked with individuals, business owners, local elected officials across all county offices, partisan groups, unions, and state departments, and I have spent time in Olympia meeting with senators and representatives of our state legislature. Because of these relationships and through active community engagement the following have been accomplished as Mayor.

• As Mayor I met with department heads to get direction on their needs and then acted on that direction to meet those needs

• Successfully navigated department staffing changes without gap in coverage

• Fought to retain FEMA grant funding for a $14 million tsunami tower

• Worked with state senators and representatives to receive $250K of direct spending for city infrastructure

• Worked to bring offshore fiber optic cable landing

• Negotiated $1.4 million land lease

• Negotiated $300,000 land lease

• Brought in $35,000 donation for softball field

• Actively engaged with Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife for water access

I began my law enforcement career as a Washington Fish & Wildlife Officer in Grays Harbor County, where I also served on the local Critical Response Unit (Grays Harbor’s SWAT team). I lateralled over to the Sheriff’s Office and served South Beach as the Resident Deputy for several years and was a Narcotics K9 Handler, Fire Investigator, and Defensive Tactics/OC Instructor.

I am still with the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office as a Detective which has furthered my trainings and experience. I have received certifications in Child Forensic Interviewing, Basic Homicide Investigations, Advanced Fire Investigation, and Internet Crimes Against Children.

In conjunction with the Grays Harbor Prosecutors Office I have successfully achieved convictions involving burglary, vehicle theft, child sexual assault, violent assaults against persons, possessions of child sexual abuse material, and homicide by delivery of fentanyl.

I bring a new perspective to the position of Sheriff that will take us into the future. I have served as the mayor of a municipality, and this has given me the opportunity to attend and run public meetings allowing me to listen and receive public comment to better understand what is most important to those I serve.

I have experience in the public and private sector; I have developed business plans and managed budgets. I have worked with state legislators to obtain funding for my constituents. These skills and perspective will help drive the Sheriff’s Office where it needs to advance next.

I am currently the Mayor of Westport. My term runs from 2024 – 2027. In an effort to ensure that this campaign would not be violating any laws, rules, or provisions, I consulted with Washington Municipal Research & Services Center and the law firm of Ingram, Zelasko & Goodwin. Both concluded that this campaign is fully within the law.

Because I will strive to represent you across the county and to the state. And because I will actively work with the entire Sheriff’s Office to ensure that its members have a voice in creating its future.

There is a very destructive cycle that is caused by drug use. It leads to criminal activities in which a user commits crimes to afford drugs to purchase from a drug dealer. As people go further into addiction and narcotics dealing, they congregate; either in homeless camps or properties that belong to or once belonged to a relative. Once a group is established in residence or property, they begin the too well-known spiral of junk vehicles, loss of power, loss of water, and the general degradation of the property. This creates a place where illegal drugs are used and sold freely, and stolen property is stored and trafficked. It also creates many health risks to the drug users living there and the residents in the surrounding area in the form of rodents, loose drug paraphernalia, and often unmaintained raw water discharges. Additionally, these areas create an often-undiscussed economic impact of reducing property values of the area and straining emergency services. 

I believe that tackling these problems requires a coordinated approach. We need to have proactive enforcement to target individuals who engage in habitual drug use, drug dealing and the trafficking of stolen property. We then need to work closely with the prosecutors to ensure that people engaging in these activities are held accountable for their actions. Accountability does not always mean prison; I have seen several success stories through therapeutic courts. However, an individual is only incentivized to work through the therapeutic court process towards recovery if a successful criminal investigation is held against them carrying enough consequences. 

Finally, we need to work closely with code enforcement and county commissioners to ensure that ordinances are written in an enforceable manner; ordinances that dictate the number of junk vehicles permitted on a property and requirements for permitted septic systems. We then need to work proactively with code enforcement and other departments to ensure these ordinances are being enforced and tracked throughout the county.

The capturing of license plate information is not a Fourth Amendment violation; while it is sometimes frustrating, we do not have a great deal of privacy when transiting public spaces. The state owns the physical license plates, and the state, county, and cities own the roads. If you could afford to pay an officer to stand on the street corner and take a photo of every license plate it would be completely legal. I believe the issue arises when the information is made available for anything other than criminal justice purposes. 

I think SB6002 (which was passed in March 2026) was effective at fixing a number of concerns with ALPRs. Specifically making ALPR data exempt from public records disclosures (except for bona fide research that does not contain individually identifiable information). It also created rules around retention, use, required audits, the requirement for agencies to adopt a model policy, and the promotion of public awareness. 

Regarding storage, as long as the data is stored using criminal justice standards then it is no different than accessing other criminal justice data. Additionally, SB6002 makes the state and local agencies operating the ALPR systems the legal owners of the associated ALPR data. This shift in ownership addresses the sale of the data. 

What needs to be done now is to continue public comment and education regarding their use and determine locations that comply with state law.

When I think of the role of the elected sheriff and how it relates to the constitution, I think of the concept of the social contract. It is the duty of the elected Sheriff to protect the constitutional rights of the people. As people we have chosen to organize in societies in the form of cities, counties, states, and countries. Within each of these societies we have come together and agreed on how we will conduct ourselves. We codify this conduct through an open public process that creates laws and ordinances. While these aren’t always perfect, I view them as the general framework we all agree to work within. 

Along with the public process of creating the laws, there is a set of rights protected by the constitution that dictates the government’s role in enforcing the laws and the citizens’ rights to be free from government intrusion. Citizens have a right to have the laws they voted for enforced. It is the constitutional obligation of the sheriff to act on behalf of the citizens to enforce the law. When a citizen has their rights violated by another citizen, they call the police to act on their behalf to enforce the laws that are intended to prevent these violations. 

To me, being a constitutional sheriff means acting on the citizens’ behalf to enforce laws. It also means a commitment to ensure citizens are protected from unlawful government intrusion as well as from the intrusion of criminals.

Because we elect officials to represent us in the creation of laws we live by, I firmly believe that the people should also elect the individual who represents them in the enforcement of those laws and is entrusted with public safety.