Letters to the editor
Published 1:30 am Friday, May 8, 2026
Nelson just doing his job
To the editor:
Caitlin Lombardi’s recent op-ed tries to fuse legitimate City Council oversight with national anger toward Donald Trump—a cheap and distracting tactic that avoids the real issue: accountability.
As co-chair of the Race Equity Advisory Committee (REAC), Lombardi holds a position that should promote dialogue, fairness, and respect. Instead, her op-ed leans on personal attacks against Councilmember Mike Nelson, a duly elected official with a legal responsibility to oversee taxpayer-funded programs—including REAC. Questioning spending and priorities is not extremism; it is the job of the City Council.
Lombardi’s rhetoric exposes a troubling contradiction. While presenting herself as a voice for tolerance, she employs the very intolerance she claims to oppose. Invoking anger and division against those who ask legitimate questions undermines both her credibility and the mission of REAC.
REAC was created by the City Council to advise—not to attack—the very officials it serves. When its leadership resorts to inflammatory language instead of reasoned argument, it raises a fair question: why is scrutiny of REAC being avoided?
Bainbridge Island deserves better. Constructive change cannot be built on hostility and deflection. If REAC seeks to foster equity, trust, and inclusiveness, it must first demonstrate respect for oversight and a willingness to engage in honest, civil discourse—not personal attacks.
Peter Tarvin
Bainbridge Island
REAC off course
To the editor:
I was once a strong supporter of creating the Racial Equity Advisory Committee (REAC). At its inception, I understood it to be a body that would foster understanding, tolerance, and equal opportunity within our community. Today, it appears to have drifted away from that purpose.
A recent opinion piece in this paper by REAC’s co-chair suggests a troubling shift in tone and approach. Rather than encouraging dialogue, the article relies on a sharp attack on a city councilmember and others who raise legitimate questions about the committee’s direction and use of public funds.
This is not an isolated instance, but part of a broader pattern of related public writings that risk undermining the committee’s credibility and publicly perceived objectives.
Constructive questioning of REAC is not hostility; it is an essential component of responsible governance. When disagreement is framed as opposition or ill intent, it discourages the very engagement and inclusion that REAC was created to promote.
REAC’s mission is too important to be diminished by rhetoric that divides rather than informs. If the committee is to fulfill its intended role, it must recommit to open dialogue, mutual respect, and a willingness to engage thoughtfully with differing perspectives.
Bainbridge Island deserves a process grounded in toleration and inclusion, not only in principle, but in practice.
Mary Matthews
Bainbridge Island
Lombardi should resign
To the editor:
Caitlin Lombardi’s recent opinion piece, written as co-chair of the City Council–appointed Racial Equity Advisory Committee (REAC), falls short of the standards expected of a committee chairperson. Lombardi is entitled to her views. However, using this newspaper to deliver a lengthy personal attack on a sitting city councilmember—the group REAC is tasked to advise—is inappropriate.
Committee leaders have a responsibility to elevate public discourse, not inflame it. When that line is crossed, it undermines both the committee’s credibility and its mission.
If Lombardi’s intent was to defend REAC’s legitimacy, the result is the opposite. Public trust in advisory bodies depends on professionalism and objectivity. Public disputes with elected officials erode that trust.
REAC’s goals are enviable, but its leadership should reflect discipline, restraint, and respect—even in disagreement.
When leaders of appointed committees become publicly at odds with those they serve, the group’s effectiveness is severely damaged.
In such cases, the appropriate course is for the co-chair to resign for the good of their committee and the ultimate attainment of its goals.
David Schutz
Bainbridge Island
Thankful for new councilmembers
To the editor:
Caitlin Lombardi doesn’t seem to understand “deep blue Bainbridge.”
To clarify, we support sensible growth based on water and infrastructure availability. Not the planning without facts, lack of skilled expertise, staff overreach and backroom dealing that characterized the massive 625 building project.
Once we understand infrastructure limits, we are eager to prioritize growth that favors diverse low-income housing options over market-rate housing.
Most of us have chosen Bainbridge for its special character and small-town feel because we like the pace, friendly neighbors, and proximity to the natural world. Not because we are looking for a segregated community. To assume otherwise is a huge stretch.
We are grateful to our new councilmembers Nelson and Lant for asking hard questions about how we can create a Bainbridge that makes smart decisions about water, growth and affordability.
Let’s get this done together.
Ellen Lockert
Bainbridge Island
Lombardi’s op-ed courageous
To the editor:
Mike Nelson’s response to Caitlin Lombardi’s op-ed opened by invoking civil discourse, yet an op-ed is precisely the kind of contribution civil discourse depends on. Characterizing it as a violation while positioning himself as the aggrieved party undermines the very principle he’s citing. “I will not be silenced” is a remarkable thing to write as a sitting elected official responding publicly on his own platform.
He used words like “innuendo” and “insinuation” without citing a single specific example. If his criticism is that she was vague, his response should model the opposite.
On the “moved here in 2022” point: that wasn’t her argument. She used it to illustrate a broader irony about the public, not to question his right to hold office. Seizing on it as a personal attack, then invoking “All Are Welcome” against her, suggests he engaged with the most convenient sentence rather than her actual argument.
He frames the op-ed as retaliation for asking questions. But her piece was about what those questions reveal about his priorities and their alignment with broader national political trends.
His claim that people are afraid to speak is unfalsifiable: it conjures a silent majority without evidence, and implicitly frames Lombardi’s willingness to publish as proof she isn’t afraid. Courage and fear are not mutually exclusive.
Criticism directed at a public official in good faith deserves a substantive response, not a reframing of the critic as the problem. Do better.
Sarah Ward
Bainbridge Island
Nelson’s efforts appreciated
To the editor:
I see from the headline of Caitlin Lombardi’s May 1 op-ed in the Bainbridge Review that City Councilmember Mike Nelson is “a Trojan Horse” for reactionary racists here on the Island. Apparently, that disparaging tag is what he gets for having the temerity to question REAC about its activities and work plan, including its so-called “Race Equity Lens” for institutionalizing race-based criteria for city hiring and decision-making.
I won’t bother listing the many ways in which Lombardi’s op-ed distorted the facts to try to support what is, at base, an unseemly ad hominem attack (though I’m happy to provide specifics for anyone who wishes to pursue it). Quite a spectacle coming from the co-chair of a city advisory committee.
My purpose here is simply to say to Councilmember Nelson: “Keep up the good work.” You have a great deal of support here in the community, and your efforts are much appreciated, especially in light of the unfair attacks you have to endure for having the courage to ask probing questions and bring relevant facts into the discussion of public matters.
Joseph McMillan
Bainbridge Island
Effects of Iran war
To the editor:
I write from Malawi, where our war with Iran hits hard.
In a country where per capita income is about $510 a year, the sudden loss of petroleum is life-threatening. Five pregnant mothers died last week because the central hospital had no power to run its C-section operating room. Basic governmental functions are stopped for days due to a lack of power due to a lack of petroleum. Malawians cope courageously. Since few cars and buses can drive, workers now walk by my flat beginning at 4 a.m and return as late as 8 pm. Thousands of enthusiastic students now miss school. These are harvest and corn farmers who have labored all year for a single paycheck, and cannot afford to bring their crop to market because the cost of trucking is prohibitive.
Farmer suicide has soared. Store shelves are emptying due to a lack of transit here and in the Strait of Hormuz. Businesses close to cope as the hard-won progress from decades of work crumbles under our war. A war we can end in weeks will continue here for years. Despite this, Malawians continue to be gracious. Instead of complaining about our president, one noted, “We understand, we had a President like that once.”
John Kydd
Bainbridge Island
Let builders build
To the editor:
We are constantly told that Washington State is facing a housing crisis, yet our local and state governments continue to feed the very machine that created it. The skyrocketing cost of housing in Kitsap County isn’t just an accident of the market; it is the direct result of overbearing zoning laws and endless bureaucratic red tape.
Every time a developer or a private property owner tries to build, they are met with a wall of exclusionary zoning restrictions, permitting delays, and fee structures that artificially choke the housing supply. By making it nearly impossible to build diverse and affordable housing, the state has effectively priced working families, young professionals, and retirees right out of their own neighborhoods.
We don’t need more government intervention or subsidized band-aids to fix housing in Kitsap County. We need the regulatory machine to get out of the way. If we want to bring down the cost of living in Washington, we must demand that our local councils and state representatives tear down outdated zoning laws and let builders actually build.
Nehemiah Västinsalo
Port Orchard
