Dain Nysoe Is Newest Dayton Council Member

DAYTON - Dayton's new- est city councilman, Dain Nysoe, has been interested in gov- ernment since he was a page for the Senate in Olympia when he was 12 years old.

Nysoe was appointed to the city council at the Monday, Sept. 10 meeting. He said he had been interested in joining the council recently, but he didn't meet the requirement of living inside city limits for a year because Nysoe and his wife, Claudia Nysoe, lived just outside of Dayton.

So, when the council seat opened up after Terry Herrin's resignation earlier this summer, he moved into the city and met the requirements to apply for the position.

Nysoe was born in Spokane, but said he grew up in Dayton. He went to school in Dayton and didn't leave until he went to college at Evergreen State College, where he met his wife. Nysoe took a break from school to spend three years in the army, and when he returned, he headed to Eastern Washington Uni- versity to finish his bachelor's degree in political science.

Nysoe and his wife moved back to Dayton to start a fam- ily and after their first son was born, they moved to Pendleton, Ore., where Nysoe was the director of the chamber of commerce. Two years later, Nysoe and Claudia moved to Bremer- ton where he was the director of the Bremerton Chamber of Commerce for two more years. After working as the director, Nysoe worked as the janitor for South Kitsap High School while working on his master's degree in public administration at City University.

"Once I got my master's degree, I was the most highly educated janitor in the school district," Nysoe said jokingly.

After Nysoe received his master's degree, he went on to teach at Olympic College, City University and Chapman Uni- versity as an adjunct professor. After teaching, Nysoe worked for Kitsap County for 14 years as marketing director for the parks department and as an administrative services manager. During his time there, he orga- nized the Lollapalooza concert in Kitsap County, bringing in artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam.

Nysoe said organizing that concert helped him learn how to listen to what local residents want and how to address con- cerns. The first year of Lolla- palooza, the people who lived in neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds complained about the concert-goers and byproducts of the concert.

"I've had to deal with not only angry citizens, but angry county commissioners," Nysoe said. "So the problems we had in the first instance (of the con- cert), we were able to identify, find solutions, and every year (for ten more years) we had the concert and it became more and more acceptable hellip; because we listened to their concerns."

Listening to concerns is an important part of Nysoe's agenda on the council, he said.

Nysoe said he wants to encourage everyone in Dayton to be more open to opposing points of view. He admitted everyone doesn't have to agree, he only wants people to listen to one another.

"Often you get more accomplished by listening than by talking," Nysoe said. "I detest the attitude of someone who says 'we've always done it that way.'"

Nysoe said he hopes Dayton residents can accept ideas from one another, even if the ideas are coming from someone reasonably new to town. Mayor Craig George said he was happy to have Nysoe on the council.

"He's got the background and I'm glad to see he's inter- ested in being active in the city," George said. "We look forward to having him on the council."