Three political newcomers hope to replace Spokane Valley City Council member Brandi Peetz, who isn't seeking re-election, but only two will make it through the Aug. 1 primary election.
The candidates include Adam Smith, a business owner with three mixed martial arts studios in the county; Rachel Briscoe, co-owner of Briscoe Construction and the Ladies Business Community; and Jessica Yaeger, who works as a placement specialist for Angel Senior Care.
ADAM SMITH
After growing up in Spokane Valley, Smith worked various jobs, from plumbing to hotel desks, bootstrapping his way to opening his SMASH Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studios in Spokane Valley, Deer Park and Airway Heights.
Attending a Spokane Valley City Council meeting a few years ago encouraged him to run for office the first time. Black Lives Matter was starting to make ripples around the nation, and Smith says he realized he was one of the only diverse people in the room. (His dad is Black.)
"I dealt with a lot of different problems growing up as a mixed-race person in Spokane Valley," Smith says. "As I got older I started to realize one of the things you needed to do as an adult is be a part of your community."
The biggest issue he says got him interested in running for council is a lack of connection for various groups.
"They have poor representation that doesn't allow us to get a more diverse group of voices heard," says Smith, who also worked as a volunteer firefighter. "For 12 years as a fireman I saw people die, saw a lot of people on their worst day. I saw what grandma needs for services, what mentally unstable people need."
He feels not many people on Spokane Valley City Council have that experience, which would inform his choices about homelessness and emergency services.
Above all, he hopes to build relationships.
"I know from starting a business when I was 23 years old, you never get a 'Welcome,'" Smith says. "Some of that stuff I think I can break through with."
He thinks that being a single adult, which enables his work running three gyms, will come in handy as he focuses on community leadership.
"I'm excited for that piece," he says.
RACHEL BRISCOE
The construction company that Briscoe started with her husband focuses on remodeling. She helps with operations, training and logistics.
"We joke that I'm also the CEO of morale," Briscoe says.
Previously, she ran residence halls on university campuses for about a decade. In 2018, she helped start the Ladies Business Community for women in Spokane and Kootenai counties to network.
Running for office is something she's considered for years. After moving to the Spokane area about 12 years ago, leadership training at Whitworth University helped guide her.
"A mentor posed a challenge to our cohort: What's a leadership opportunity you've been saying no to that you need to say yes to?" Briscoe says. "I knew I wanted to get involved."
So she started attending council meetings in fall 2022, and she quickly learned how much planning goes into things like traffic patterns.
"There are a lot of lights where, if you want to turn left, it's a red arrow. But if no one's coming it feels silly to sit there," she says. "At a council meeting someone was talking about what goes into changing a red arrow to a blinking yellow arrow to yield to oncoming traffic. In my mind, it was, 'Just change the light bulb.' That is not how that works. It's so much more complicated."
She'd like to focus on improving "public safety and decency."
"If you feel like you belong to a community and look out for your neighbor, you're likely not to violate your neighbor," she says.
Similar to Smith, Briscoe thinks City Council meetings can be intimidating, as the public is allowed to comment, but council members don't respond.
"There is a way to promote communication and decency in a meeting and still help people feel heard, or at least give people next steps," Briscoe says.
She also hopes to help make businesses feel more welcome.
Between the three candidates, two are business owners and two are moms. She feels that being both sets her apart.
"I feel like with my life experience and where God's brought me to this point, I can connect with a lot of different people, even if we have nothing in common," Briscoe says.
JESSICA YAEGER
For more than two decades, Yaeger has worked in elder care, from ophthalmology (which largely focuses on eye issues that affect older people) to serving as the executive director of multiple memory care and assisted living facilities.
With experience running communities of more than 125 residents and 100 staff members, Yaeger says she feels she has already run a small city. She understands budgeting, staying updated on new laws, disciplining staff and understanding how to be a better leader.
Her family has deep roots in the Valley — Schafer Road was named after a relative — and while she recognizes that everything changes, she doesn't feel it's the same place she grew up in.
"Safety has been an issue in the front of my mind," Yaeger says.
With her education and experience, Yaeger feels she can help address mental health and addiction, particularly as they relate to homelessness.
"Homelessness is a human issue, and we need to help them because they're struggling," Yaeger says. "We also need to make sure that their struggles don't become our crime statistics."
She doesn't feel low barrier shelters are the answer, nor is housing people in hotels temporarily.
She wants to explore the pros and cons of forming a city police department, but emphasizes that she's not advocating one way or the other.
"Is it going to cost us money or save us money?"
Yaeger says she's a servant leader willing to do the same work as staff, which could set her apart in city leadership.
She's also the Spokane chapter chair of parental rights group Moms for Liberty, and emphasizes that the group is nonviolent. She fought against mask mandates in schools during the pandemic and actively encourages people to hold conversations with those they disagree with. She believes it is parents' God-given responsibility to raise children who will do good in the world.
"It is not the government's responsibility to do that, and it is not their right to do that," she says. ♦
