(The Center Square) – The Pasco City Council will interview four candidates on Monday to fill a vacancy ahead of the next election. However, there’s still a chance the former mayor may return for another term.
Pete Serrano, now interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, vacated his seat on the dais last month after the Trump administration tagged him for a gig in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown beat Serrano last November in the race for that office. Unless the U.S. Senate confirms his new DOJ position, the former mayor can only serve 120 days. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has signaled her intent to block his confirmation, so the clock is ticking.
“I move to approve the following candidates: Joe Cotta, Patrick Jones, Abel Campos and Tanya Bowers for Council Position No. 4 to be interviewed by [council],” Mayor Pro Tem Charles Grimm said Monday.
The officials will interview each applicant on Sept. 15, before voting to fill the empty seat for the rest of the year. Serrano filed to run for reelection before taking a spot with the DOJ, and now it’s too late to pull out of the election, so if he wins running unopposed, Pasco will have to fill his seat again.
The only exception would be if the U.S. Senate doesn’t confirm Serrano in his new position. If so, he could rejoin the council next year if he wins the November election. Pulling it off shouldn’t be too hard since he’s running unopposed, but it doesn’t mean that Serrano will necessarily become mayor again.
“He is pretty set to take the win on this election because he’s running unopposed,” a representative of the Franklin County Elections Department told The Center Square. “[Serrano] will have the chance to take his win … because that position is different from the position that he currently resigned from.”
Pasco has a council-manager form of government, meaning residents elect the city council, which then appoints a mayor to act as the head of the dais. These officials are responsible for policymaking, while City Manager Harold Stewart, whom they hired in July, handles the city government’s daily operations.
The dais appointed Councilmember David Milne as mayor of Pasco last month after Serrano left, with Grimm also taking over as mayor pro tem. Both will serve in those positions until Dec. 31, along with whoever the council appoints to fill Serrano’s vacancy, with the process repeating next year.
If the U.S. Senate does confirm Serrano, Pasco will need to appoint another candidate to fill a vacancy until the next election cycle in a few years, though the council still needs to take care of this one first.
Cotta manages Cold Creek Vineyard and previously ran for the spot in the Legislature; Jones works as a human resources manager for Health First Urgent Care; Campos is a local pastor and middle school teacher; and Bowers is a consultant who has focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, in the past.
“He actually would have to resign from that position that he will potentially win again,” the elections department told The Center Square, assuming the U.S. Senate will confirm Serrano, “Then the city of Pasco would have to appoint someone else, so it will have to happen all over again, come Jan. 1.”
The Center Square contacted Serrano for comment, but did not receive a response before publishing.
