Yakima 4th District Council Candidate Janice Deccio

Yakima's 4th City Council district encompasses the East/Central portion of the City.  According to the Yakima County Auditor's Office, 5,692 ballots have been mailed out to the district, and as of Friday 7/23, residents had returned 492 so far.

The incumbent is first-time councilwoman Dr. Kay Funk who replaced veteran uber-conservative Bill Lover who stepped down four years ago.  After what I would call a bit of a "bumpy" first term, Dr. Funk has decided not to seek re-election.  That opened the door for four individuals to file for the position including 60-year-old Yakima native Janice Deccio.

Deccio's race has received some additional attention on social media for what is an alleged text/messaging conversation between Deccio's husband Xander and current councilwoman Soneya Lund.

The exchange included comments about the need for scrubbing social media in order for Deccio to be electable. It also included some offensive comments about other leaders in the community being under some influence by Lund.  Deccio says she was asleep when her husband did communicate with someone -- but Lund says it wasn't her.  Lund says her city phone was stolen and hacked and that the communication was not with her.  Deccio says she wasn't involved in any way and both she and Lund say they don't know each other at all.  Deccio says she doesn't know who was on the other end of the message exchange but that she does know who was passing around flyers in the community that alluded to the messages.

Deccio was the first of our District 4 interviews today 7/28/21.

4th District candidate Eduardo Luis Gutierrez Jr. did not respond to our efforts to set up an interview.