Deputy Mayor Wales hits the ground running

Published 1:48 pm Wednesday, January 13, 2016

While Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus is ill and resting at home this week, she and newly-minted Deputy Mayor Largo Wales have been in regular contact by email.

In her first days at the post, the energetic Wales has split her time working career fairs for the middle schools in the mornings and afternoons and attending her regularly-assigned City meetings in the evenings.

In between, she has represented Backus by welcoming Australian exchange students to the city, talked Pierce County issues with that county’s small cities and towns and discussed grant possibilities with the lead judge for King County District Court in Auburn.

But the project that has engaged most of her considerable energy and attention is the Auburn Junior City Council.

Wales said her hope is to see the nine-student panel expand, so that all middle schools, high schools or home schools are represented no longer by one student but by two students.

“If there are two representatives for each school, they can partner up, and that will make it easier to come up with activities and things to do when they have a colleague,” Wales said.

As a City employee put it: “Largo’s been at the schools recruiting like crazy.”

The City of Auburn assembled its junior city council in 2013 to get advice from youth, he or she, on topics such as parks, recreation, entertainment, traffic, police, festivals, trails and environmental stewardship.

“We established the junior city council to provide local kids, whether they are home-schooled, in middle school or in high school, with an opportunity to do City-type government and learn about the process. Students learn leadership skills, improve their chances for scholarships, learn how City government operates and see how they can influence government activities to make a positive difference in the world,” Wales said.

“The junior city council was designed for nine kids, and I am hoping to expand that group. I’ve been recruiting at Cascade and Rainier and Mt. Baker middle schools, and at Auburn High School for junior council. I’ve gone out this last week and met with principals and ASB advisers at a number of our schools,” Wales said. “We’re going to send our kids to to Washington D.C. for workshops with The National League of Cities. We’ve also started a scholarship fund for these students, and they can apply if they like for a $1,000 college scholarship.

“It’s mostly to provide them with volunteer leadership experience in government to get them interested in political science and other fields. More important, it’s about volunteering and giving back to their community,” Wales said of the junior council.

Wales’ fellow councilmembers chose her to be Auburn’s deputy mayor on Jan. 4, making her the council person who acts in the mayor’s stead when she is out of town or unable to perform her duties. She succeeds Councilman John Holman, who took his name out of the running for another year at the job.

“I’ve not really been acting in place of Nancy because we have in contact by email,” Wales said.