The first thing one realizes in even the briefest of conversations with LaShund Lambert is his keen passion for social justice.
Much of that, he explains, has to do with the four sons he and his wife, Kadesha, are raising — Jackson, 22; Philip, 20; Dorian, 18; and Micah, 15 — and the world they will inherit.
And that he is, as he says, a guy who likes to fix things.
That is why Lambert, pastor of Resurrection Church Auburn, is running for Position 2 on the Auburn City Council.
“If there’s a problem, let’s fix it as a community,” Lambert said.
Here are a few “fixes” Lambert said he will push for if elected:
• More and better communication with Auburn residents about where city revenue comes from and where it goes. He said the city spends too much money in areas that don’t solve its pressing problems.
• While he supports Outreach Program Administrator Kent Hay’s work with the city’s homeless population and works alongside him as part of Auburn’s faith community, Lambert said he believes that to solve the homelessness problem, the entire community must be engaged.
• Legitimate access to mental health care for residents who need it.
• More positive interaction between law enforcement and city residents. Lambert is chairman of Auburn’s recently formed Police Advisory Committee.
• To spend more time holding King County responsible for how it prosecutes crimes in Auburn.
The filings or the recommendations or the sentencing adjudications “are just ridiculous,” he said, adding that if someone steals a car, residents need to know the car thief is not going to be right back out on the street.
“With the council, I would love to see and hear more transparency, you know, where council members are and where they feel the people are,” Lambert said.
Lambert was born and raised in the small town of Malvern, Arkansas, as the son of a steelworker. When Lambert was 11, the company transferred his father to Washington state, where he went to work at the Reynolds aluminum plant on State Route 167.
The family settled in Kent, where young Lambert attended Kent Elementary and Sequoia Junior High, and graduated from Kentwood High School in 1993 as a member of the Seafair Ambassador Program.
Lambert attended Eastern Washington University in Cheney on an academic scholarship, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in music.
As student body president there, he said, he started getting hate mail, including from the Ku Klux Klan in Texas, labeling him as a “thug arm of the Zionist Regime” that was trying to take over the United States.
He has since served churches across Eastern Washington and in Texas.
“I met my wife, Kadesha, when we both were 11 years old at New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ in Tacoma. The first time I saw her, I said, ‘I’m gonna marry her,’” he said. The couple married in 1996. She earned a double major in biology and chemistry and works for a NASA affiliate.
So, why would he make a good fit for the city council?
“I am wonderful in confrontation and it doesn’t bother me. My feelings are not hurt when we disagree. I am not a good bully target,” he said.
As a former debate captain, Lambert said, he is also fast on his feet and excels in framing logical arguments.
“My stance is there is just one Auburn: there isn’t Lea Hill, Lakeland Hills, there’s Auburn. Every issue that we have, whether homelessness, poverty, housing prices, crime, drug abuse, is the community’s problem. I go to any neighborhood, and as a pastor, I see the richest of the rich and the most challenged of the challenged, and they all have the same kind of problems,” Lambert said.
