Deets reflects on his tenure as BI councilmember

Published 1:30 am Friday, December 19, 2025

Bainbridge Island City Councilmember Joe Deets is winding down his tenure on the governing body after eight years. In January, Lara Lant will represent the North Ward, who won the race against Deets in the Nov. 4 general election.

Prior to serving on the BI council, Deets previously served as the Ethics Board chair. He said serving on that board provided him an opportunity to learn about the functions of city government. Deets graduated from the University of Montana and earned a master’s degree in environment and community from Antioch University in Seattle.

“Actually being on the council, I like to joke that we’re sort of a big fish in a small pond and suddenly you’re up there on the dais, and you have to actually make decisions on behalf of 25,000 people,” he said. “When you campaign, you make statements and platitudes, and it’s another when you’re actually having to make decisions that not everyone’s going to be happy with.”

Over his tenure on the council, Deets has offered office hours at CUPS Expresso. “It’s very important for me to learn what is foremost on people’s minds. I mean, if you have a concern, come and see me. And again, part of it is I don’t know everything that’s happening, and I want it to serve the people. I do strongly view myself as a representative of the people of the island, not just the North Ward, but the entire island…I need to be accessible to hear from them,” he said.

Deets said one of his main priorities is to inform and educate constituents on city topics and issues.

“My job is, of course, to listen, and sometimes I find that they’re missing some information that I have, and that’s one thing a councilmember does have if we’re doing our job right, we are extremely well informed as individuals. And so my job is to kind of fill in the blanks for constituents,” he said.

One of the most frequent complaints Deets said constituents raise is traffic on the island, adding, “people seem to miss the connection that traffic comes from people who come to serve you at the grocery store, the coffee shop, the bookstore who can’t afford to live here,” he said, adding that roughly 75% of city staff live off-island.

Housing is a major hot-button issue on BI. In the spring, Deets said the council was notified by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which the city leases space for liveaboard tenants at the Dave Ullin Open Water Marine in Eagle Harbor, would increase by 80% in lease costs.

In July, following an analysis, the council was able to maintain moorage rates by raising the rates for visitors while continuing to maintain the 13 liveaboards who qualify for low-income rates, Deets said.

“We were able to make sure that these 13 liveaboards, low-income folks, were not priced off the island. And that, to me, was a significant victory,” he said.

In October, Deets was informed about the financial uncertainty of federal funding for food banks amid the federal government shutdown. Council unanimously approved $30,000 Oct. 28 to provide Helpline House with an influx of emergency funding. “We can’t have islanders go hungry,” Deets said as part of the meeting.

“We have a contingency fund, but we have money set aside for emergencies. And I thought, if this is not an emergency, I don’t know what is,” he said. “I hope in the future, the council can continue to do these sorts of proactive things. This wasn’t just my decision. It’s a collective decision. But I made the proposal, let’s take $30,000 out of our contingency fund to give to Helpline House for emergency food aid and it went through very quickly,” he said.

After his tenure ends as a councilmember at the end of the year, Deets said he is planning to go to more Mariners games and spend time with his family. He doesn’t intend to be involved in city politics, adding, “I’ve had my say, and the people of this election had a decision that was made…one thing I will not be doing is getting involved in city politics,” he said.

Deets said he’s proud of his accomplishments and wishes the new councilmembers well, adding, “If someone asked me for advice, I’d be happy to give it, but I’m not going to insert myself into the process,” he said.

Trip to Ukraine

As part of a California-Washington trade mission to Ukraine, in November, Deets took a bus from Warsaw, Poland, to Lviv in western Ukraine, a roughly 12-hour bus ride followed by three days of meetings. The Lviv region has taken in hundreds of thousands of IDPs (Internally Displaced People), including the elderly and those with disabilities, per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“They welcomed them with open arms as fellow citizens. And there are hundreds of thousands of people, and I thought, oh, my god, now there’s a strong community,” Deets said. “And of course, Ukraine is in a very severe situation with a war, but there’s lessons to be gained from that, and lessons that can be applied here in our community.”

Deets said he greatly admired the determination and hospitality of the Ukrainian people he met with.

“Here we’re a bunch of foreigners showing up, and of course, we were there to help them; it was a trade mission. But they literally opened doors for us. They had meetings on Sunday. It was all-day meetings with the city government and business leaders. Ukrainians just literally opened doors for us,” he said.