Elected Olympia Port Commissioner in 2015, E.J. Zita works for economic sustainability, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. “We can do better, working together.”

Zita is a scientist, farmer, and teacher. She’s lived in rural Thurston County since 1995 years with her partner, an Army veteran of 23 years.

As chair of the Thurston County Agriculture Committee, Zita works to preserve farmland and promote agriculture. As President of the Salmon Creek Basin Neighborhood Association, she held the Port to higher standards in residential areas and near schools.

Appointed to the Port’s New Market Economic Development Advisory Committee, Zita represented concerned neighbors. Zita knows transparency and accountability can improve Port operations. Our taxes must be used for public good, not short term profits for a few. The Port must truly listen to the people, and plan with local agencies. Zita will lead the Port toward positive new opportunities, such as a Thurston Farm to Market Center and renewable energy. With her skills and vision, she will insist on wise economic investment that serves the whole community and enhances our local environment.

With a PhD in physics, Zita worked in industry and national laboratories, and currently teaches at Evergreen. On her ranch in south Thurston County, she raises beef and poultry with her family.

Zita keeps working to strengthen our neighborhoods, farms, environment, and economy.

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Most of us share decent values. Many of us have better-than-decent ideas.

But only one candidate in this race brings combined vision, values, ideas, and working relationships with constituents from literally all walks of life. This is what it takes to do the people’s work in Olympia.

For years, Renata has served as a bridge between the marginalized and unheard, local businesses, and City Hall.

As a candidate she is unparalleled in her knowledge of solutions to the most pressing issue we face—the housing and homelessness emergency—and the need for more safe and affordable housing, local mental health services and holistic evidence-based substance abuse treatment.

As a housing and homelessness advocate, community organizer, system navigator, journalist, and one of the first Downtown Ambassadors in Olympia, Renata naturally channels the best ideas, to create a city built by and for us all.

In our national political climate of rising unrest and inequity, and our local reality of rising sea level and cost of living, Renata is the candidate with the experience, credibility and accountability to diverse communities, which will allow Olympia to grow together instead of growing apart.

Olympia is Washington’s fastest-growing city. What kind of city we become depends on who has a place at the table: we can choose to grow together, or risk growing apart. In this tense political climate and rising inequity, we need leaders with connections, credibility and accountability to diverse communities. Leaders willing to meet people where they are, with the humility to learn how to solve problems from the people facing them.

As an advocate, activist, journalist and Downtown Ambassador, I have dedicated my time in Olympia to hearing and learning from people with diverse experiences and needs, honoring them as valid and real, even if they differed from my own. I work to reconcile underrepresented communities in Olympia with the businesses and civic institutions that should serve us all.

As a council member I will facilitate conscious growth that balances the needs of all Olympians with the land we live on and the water we depend on. I want to continue to be a bridge between city hall and folks who haven’t been called in.

We all need stability and opportunity in order to be our best selves, to fully contribute to community life. As journalist and city planning activist Jane Jacobs said, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

I’m ready to take the next step in my life mission of service to what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called, “the Beloved Community.”

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