Issues that keep Kitsap

Tisdel: 1. Housing Kitsap workers next to Kitsap jobs.

I will work with other elected officials, the Navy and employers on deed-restricted workforce housing and covenants with a direct transportation link to the shipyard and Bangor. Washington already accepts a live-where-you-work rule for farm labor under RCW 70.114A. We should apply that principle to the people who keep Naval Base Kitsap running, instead of building units that get absorbed by outbound commuters.

2. Restore local land-use authority — the Growth Management Act has become overreach.

I will press legislators to repeal or sharply rewrite the GMA and the 2025 follow-on bills, including the builder's remedy. A county commissioner cannot repeal state law alone. I can stop Kitsap from volunteering for more of it, and I can be the county's voice in Olympia.

The last five years, and notably in 2021, the county housing formula was changed from 'encourage' housing to 'plan and accommodate' state-assigned units at every increase level. Most states will treat land use as a local power. Stacking onto a 395-square-mile peninsula that is already the third-densest county in the state is not necessary and intensifies pollution.

Kitsap cannot indefinitely house an outbound workforce and pay for the Multifamily Tax Exemption and transportation that serve it. The Puget Sound Regional Council four-county plan, Vision 2050 forecasts, are stale next to high Seattle office vacancy and continued job cuts across the water. We have high-dollar Navy contract work here. I want staff focused on those revenues, not on tax-funded regional housing targets. I oppose expanding fast-ferry service paired with direct-link buses and paid countywide to serve a narrow commute shed. Kitsap Transit still has unused 0.1% sales-tax authority. Returning Kitsap self-sufficiency is how you restore affordability.

3. Plan hospital capacity and keep Silverdale from becoming an unworkable mix.

St. Michael has already moved to Silverdale and opened a new tower. Looking forward, we still need enough beds and a second-campus strategy as the county ages. Loading more mixed-use housing onto the Silverdale Regional Center is not a plan; it is a future bill. Traffic, freight, trash and fast ferries will harm Dyes Inlet.

4. Protect working land

Kitsap is the only county in Washington with no dedicated agriculture zone. We have an agriculture code and an overlay. That is not the same thing as a zone that keeps farmland in production. I will push for real ag zoning.

Grade-separated crossings and tunnels at the worst choke points belong in the long-range conversation because they free surface land. They are not a first-year ordinance.

Tisdel: My 20-plus years in business experience (owner and manager) and 14 years in municipal civil service taught me what diminished returns on investment and rising marginal costs are. That is what we are experiencing. I will work to unwind revenue loss from MFTE financing incentives. My opponent will stay the course (Vision 2050); I will make Kitsap-first decisions.

Added October 10, 2026: It's time to gather UW medical resources for a Silverdale campus and hospital. Currently UW students and staff live in Kitsap due to affordability, and commute to King County. To help bring the $9.4 million general fund deficit whole, I will propose a 32-hour work week for staff paid from the general fund, with the same pay. San Juan County has run that schedule since 2023. Its two-year report says the county avoided nearly $2 million in cost-of-living raises, job applications rose 216%, and people quit or retired 28% less. The sheriff's office stayed on a 40-hour week. Applied the same way here, same pay, Kitsap could save in the neighborhood of $2 million a year. I would propose it as a pilot, and an audit is appropriate.