Position 5 on the Elma City Council will see a fresh face in 2024 as Josh Collette, who currently holds the position, filed to run for mayor earlier this year. Jacob Borden and Ron Woodman are now hoping to fill the spot and will face off on the Nov. 7 General Election ballot.
Both would be newcomers to the city council, but Borden has experience serving on two local boards: as a commissioner for East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue and as a member of the Elma Parks and Recreation Citizen Advisory Board. As a fire commissioner, Borden helped “increase our staffing numbers, hire a new chief and purchase a new fire apparatus,” he wrote in an email.
Borden is also a soccer coach and board member for the Grays Harbor Gulls, a soccer academy club in Grays Harbor.
The lifelong Elma resident said he feels service on local government boards prepared him for the city council.
“I see serving on Elma’s City Council as one of the best ways I can make a difference in where I live and help improve the community I live in,” Borden wrote in an email.
He said addressing the city’s “lack of infrastructure,” aging parks and ensuring effective use of the budget are three of his top priorities, citing specific goals of improving visibility on Main Street at night and providing “quality space for recreation” for both kids and adults.
“Our community is not in a position to be able to handle an increased tax burden. We need to find ways through state and federal grants/funding to provide better infrastructure and parks. This is doable but it needs to be a priority. Elma is a community worth investing in, we just need to ensure we are proactively finding grants and funding for our community.”
Woodman said he does not have prior experience in city government, and emphasized the fact he is “not a politician.” Woodman, who works as a bridge technician for the Washington State Department of Transportation, said he ran for city council after hearing and seeing a trend in larger cities to “defund the police,” which Woodman said he is “strongly against.”
“In Elma we have a great chief of police who chooses her officers very well,” Woodman wrote in an email. “I believe we need a stronger police force and more officers.”
In addition to support for law enforcement, Woodman also said he wanted to address aging infrastructure, including stormwater systems, streets and sidewalks with funding mechanisms other than increased property taxes.
Woodman, who grew up in Elma and has lived there off and on, founded the Old Hippys motorcycle club in Elma, which has organized charity efforts for the Cub Scouts, veterans services and a women’s shelter in Hoquiam, among others.
“Hopefully, as a new member of council, I will quickly learn the ins and outs of the job and be able to serve the citizens of Elma well,” Woodman wrote in an email.
Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.
