Grays Harbor County swears in two new Commissioners

Newly elected Grays Harbor County Commissioners Georgia Miller, R-District 1, and Rick Hole, R-District 2, were officially sworn in during a ceremony in the Commissioners meeting room in Montesano Tuesday morning as Grays Harbor County convened the 170th Commission at the first Board of County Commissioners regular meeting of 2025.

Incumbent District 3 Commissioner Vickie Raines administered the oath of office.

After the swearing-in ceremony, the newly minted three-member Board of County Commissioners got right into county business and worked through the meeting’s agenda in under an hour.

Hole narrowly defeated Democrat Brian E. Blake by 436 votes in November 2024’s General Election. Hole said he would focus on public safety, jobs and affordable housing during his tenure.

“I’m really happy to be working with the team that is trying to deliver great service to Grays Harbor County,” Hole said. “I hope to have an impact on public safety, we can improve that for our cities, I’m certainly interested in additional jobs, bringing jobs to Grays Harbor, and one of my pet things to work on will be affordable housing, that’s really important to our communities.”

Miller, who defeated Democrat Chris Thomas by nearly 5,000 votes in November’s election, said she hopes to bring transparency to county business during her tenure.

“I’m very excited to join the Board, I am excited to represent Grays Harbor County and the constituents, and really plan to make things very transparent for the constituents and easy for them to understand what’s being done in Grays Harbor County,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of processes that need to be in place for the county, it’s operated without a lot of procedures in certain areas, I hope to streamline some processes and procedures and then make sure we have infrastructure improvements without raising taxes.”

Miller, a political newbie, is a self-described “moderate conservative Republican who is fiscally conservative and socially responsible,” who has forged a career in radio marketing, first with Jodesha Broadcasting and then with Alpha Media.

“I’m not a career politician, and this isn’t a stepping stone for me,” Miller told The Daily World upon declaring her candidacy in January 2024. “I have no desire to leave my community to go bigger. I think not having served in office, to some degree, is an advantage.”

Hole served four years as Grays Harbor County Assessor after his election in 2010. He lost a reelection bid in 2014 and 2022. Shortly after that, the Republican party elected him as chair in December 2022, where he has served since.

“I’m going to come at things from a different perspective than a lot of your other candidates, because of my training in the private sector,” Hole told The Daily World when he announced his candidacy in May 2024.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Raines presented Miller and Hole with their official Grays Harbor County Commissioner jackets, which were paid for personally by County Administrator Sam Kim.

Information from Clayton Franke’s Jan. 22, 2024, and May 17, 2024 articles was used for this story.