Candidates for Pullman City Council position Ward 2 said that if elected, they both plan to increase community engagement and invest in infrastructure.

Garren Shannon, who works as an information systems director at the Pullman School District, said his highest priority is continuing the Pullman 2040 initiative — a Chamber of Commerce plan to provide a vision for the Pullman community, as well as policies for land use, transportation, housing, capital facilities and utilities, and parks and open spaces.

He said he also hopes to invest in youth-based activities, to provide a warm place for children to play in the winter.

“We provide many spring, summer and fall activities for kids,” Shannon said, “but winter is lacking, and a Youth Center would provide for kids to recreate during the winter.”

Shannon said that to implement the Pullman 2040 plan, he hopes to finance areas that needs improvement, like creating and improving bypasses for large vehicles.

“Traffic congestion is one of many issues in the city that needs to be taken care of,” Shannon said.

His opponent, Daniel Records, is an affirmative action coordinator and senior investigator in the WSU Office for Equal Opportunity. He hopes to address the increased level of anxiety people in Pullman feel about communicating with one another, due to what he sees as a lack of free speech and discrimination.

“People are disengaged from having civil discourse because of personal anxieties of what having different perspectives from others entails,” Records said. “I want to help them to have constructive conversations with each other.”

He said he would also like to improve the relationship between landlords and tenants, and added that the affordability of housing and safety of the tenants are critical for taking on this issue.

He said people have had bad experiences as tenants and landlords because of financial issues and the quality of old properties.

With record numbers of undergraduate students at WSU, he said he wants future development decisions to incorporate the fact that the city needs not just more housing, but more affordable housing.

“Despite the fact that the city of Pullman is growing each year,” Records said, “the actual influx of people living in the city are not likely to reflect the change because they often don’t find the housing affordable.”

He also wants to bring in federal and state grants for any projects that could positively impact the community, such as disease prevention and technology.

Records said he plans to improve Pullman’s downtown, by trying to attract more businesses. He added that he would like to see better infrastructure and improved traffic.

Shannon said one of the city’s biggest successes is its relationship with WSU, though he said this needs more work. The university currently covers portions of resources for the city’s transportation departments.

“The city of Pullman does an excellent job in transportation, considering the ridership noted from the Transportation Department,” he said. “The agreements with WSU have been beneficial for both students and long-term residence.”

Records earned a bachelor’s in computer science at Saint Martin’s University in 1992 and a master’s in information systems management in Colorado Technical University in 2005.

Shannon moved to Pullman in 2004 to earn his bachelor’s degree in political science from WSU and completed his degree in 2007. He stayed in the area to earn his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Idaho College of Law in 2010.

Editors note: Part one of a three part profile series on local elections.