Metro Parks Selects New Commissioners (25. January 2010, 20:18 by Derek Young) ~ And The Seat Goes To ...

The Metro Parks Board of Commissioners selected their two new commission members this evening.

With all the recent excitement over the Tacoma City Council vacancies, we didn’t really talk much about the Metro Parks vacancies. First we had the seat opened up by new Councilmember Victoria Woodards. Then, when the City Council selected Ryan Mello, it opened up another seat at Metro Parks.

Twelve candidates put their names in the hat back in December and all were interviewed last week in two public meetings. Candidates included former TNT editor David Seago, Tacoma-Pierce County Humane Society Executive Director Kathleen Olson, Tahoma Audobon’s Krystal Kyer, former Exit133 writer and City Club Executive Director Erik Hanberg, and former Exit133 writer and Pierce County Planning Commissioner Whitney Rhodes. Commissioner Dahl began the evening by stating, “We’ve decided to make our attorney’s life easy. We will be doing our discussions in open session.” And they did. Each named names and their current thinking. There was a bit of discussion, but more of an immediate consensus. And the seats go to …

Krystal Kyer and Erik Hanberg

The Commissioners cited Kyer’s connection to the environmental community and the fact that she’s a relatively young woman when compared with the men currently on the board. For Erik, they mentioned his long interest in parks from his filing to run for a Metro Parks seat once-upon-a-time to his visits to every property underneath the Metro Parks umbrella several years ago.

Congratulations!