Sumner Councilmember Matt Richardson is campaigning for Sumner mayor with the goal of maintaining what he believes makes the town a great place to live in and raise children.

“My priorities would be for families,” Richardson said.

Richardson wants to ensure if people move to Sumner the town will continue to have the same look and feel in 20 years, so families will want to stay.

“They bought into a dream. What you want to make sure of is to maintain that dream,” he said.

Continuing Sumner’s tradition and keeping it from becoming a large industrial area are among Richardson’s goals.

“The only way a city like Sumner maintains quality of life is by its hard work and deliberate effort to protect it,” he said.

Richardson believes it’s important to stop the building up of Sumner, and that is why he votes against zoning amendments he thinks pave the way for unwanted density. He said density has “fundamentally changed the nature of our neighborhoods and the quality of new home construction.”

Richardson wants to revitalize the old downtown business core by providing incentives for historic preservation and the restoration of the area. He said improving parking and traffic flow is a need of Sumner.

Also important to him is protecting Sumner and its residents from flood damage. Last winter’s floodwaters almost reached Sumner’s sewage treatment plant. If the sewage treatment plant is flooded residents could be without bathroom use for months, he said. Richardson was part of a flood task force, which examined ways to prevent flood damage. Mayor Dave Enslow pointed out the group became somewhat controversial when the Puyallup Tribe declined to meet with them because the tribe already works with another flood committee and had stated the flood task force was superfluous.

Another of Richardson’s goals is to keep Sumner independent from larger entities. He stated at council meetings he does not agree with the written agreement between Sumner and the Port of Tacoma, which relates to the port’s assistance with Sumner in projects. Richardson believes such written agreements could bind Sumner to unwanted changes and the city could lose some autonomy.

“One of the ways to differentiate myself from the mayor is that the mayor is a retired mortgage banker who was elected to council, who was elected to mayor,” Richardson said.

He said his background, which includes six years on the Sumner Planning Commission and being elected deputy mayor in 2006, along with being elected by 25 cities to be vice chair of the Pierce County Regional Council, provide him with more experience.