In politics, stability rarely gets credit.
Change is exciting. Disruption draws attention. New faces and bold promises dominate headlines. Stability, by contrast, is quiet. It doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t campaign well. And when it’s working, most people don’t notice it at all.
But after years in public service, as a councilmember, mayor and now county commissioner, I’ve come to believe that stability is one of the most powerful and misunderstood forces in effective governance.
Just over two years ago, Thurston County voters made a dramatic and deliberate choice. The community rejected a proposed county re-charter initiative and instead approved reform in the form of an expanded Board of County Commissioners, coordinated with a mirrored expansion of the Port of Olympia Commission. We moved from three commissioners to five and redrew district lines to better reflect the county’s geography, population and lived reality.
That decision wasn’t cosmetic. For decades, the structure of county government all but guaranteed that leadership would be selected from the urban core of Olympia and Lacey. While those cities are vital to our county’s identity and economy, the imbalance left many rural communities, places like Rochester, Tenino, Rainier, Littlerock and Grand Mound, feeling unseen and unheard. That sense of disenfranchisement was real, and it mattered.
The new system disrupted a long-standing status quo. It brought more voices to the table, more regional balance and more diverse perspectives. That kind of shift is never easy. Paradigm changes rarely are. But representation matters, and the result has been a governing body that looks and sounds more like the county it serves.
What often gets lost in conversations about reform, though, is what comes next.
Structural change creates opportunity. What determines success is whether leaders can provide enough stability afterward for institutions to function, for trust to rebuild and for progress to actually happen.
That’s where stability becomes a superpower.
In 2025, Thurston County benefited from an unusual and valuable condition: continuity. There were no changes to the Board of County Commissioners. Leadership roles remained consistent. Relationships had time to mature. Institutional knowledge deepened instead of resetting. And because of that, we were able to move forward on issues that had been stalled for years, some for decades.
Major capital investments moved from discussion to action. Core public safety and justice infrastructure advanced. Long-term water security was strengthened. Emergency response systems were modernized. Environmental restoration projects reopened salmon habitat. Elections became more accessible and transparent. Veterans’ services expanded. None of this work was flashy. Much of it was deeply technical. All of it required patience, coordination, and the kind of follow-through that only happens when leadership is steady enough to stay focused beyond the next news cycle.
Stability doesn’t mean everyone agrees. It doesn’t mean debate disappears. It means disagreement happens within a framework of mutual respect and shared responsibility. It means conflict is worked through instead of weaponized. It means leaders understand that institutions move at the speed of trust, not outrage.
I’ve come to believe that leaders and elected officials shouldn’t be trying to be the brightest light in the room. Our job is to make sure the room itself is lit well enough for everyone to see and to share in that light. I’m not interested in performative politics or virtue signaling. I want to work alongside quiet, collaborative professionals who take their responsibilities seriously, who are courageous without needing to be loud, and who can work through conflict honestly to find solutions we may not all love but can commit to.
That approach matters most during periods of transition.
Campaign seasons reward certainty and critique. Governing demands humility and compromise. The shift from candidate to decision-maker can be jarring, especially in a system that has recently undergone structural reform. The temptation to perform rather than stabilize is strong. Resisting that temptation is part of leadership.
Here in Thurston County, we are still early in this transition. The dust from reform hasn’t fully settled — and that’s OK. What matters now is consistency: letting the system work, delivering results and resisting the urge to constantly reinvent before institutions have had time to mature.
The year ahead will test that resolve. Two commission seats are approaching election, and campaigns will soon begin. There have also been rumblings (outside of county government) about undoing recent reforms and starting over. That is part of democracy. But governance cannot pause every time politics heats up, and you cannot make progress while constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Stability doesn’t mean avoiding accountability; it means maintaining focus even when the environment gets noisy.
One of the traditions I brought to the Board of County Commissioners reflects that belief: an annual, all-day strategic retreat. These are not symbolic exercises. They are working sessions designed to step out of the weekly churn, confront hard realities and align around shared priorities.
At our first retreat, we set three clear goals: address long-neglected facility needs, take budget stabilization seriously, and develop a countywide economic strategy that reflects Thurston County’s values and leverages its strengths. The first two are well underway. The third remains unfinished, and it will be a central policy focus for me in the year ahead, so expect some columns on it.
Economic development done right isn’t about chasing every opportunity. It’s about choosing the right ones. It’s about supporting local enterprise, respecting our landscape, and building an economy that works for the entire county, urban and rural alike.
That work requires stability. It requires leaders willing to stay at the table, do the unglamorous work, and measure success not by applause, but by outcomes.
Stability is rarely celebrated. But it is what allows systems to mature, communities to heal, and progress to compound over time.
In an era that rewards disruption, stability may be the most underrated superpower we have.
And if we use it well, the results will speak for themselves, as you can see in the link: https://tinyurl.com/3w36d7u5.
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Wayne Fournier is a Thurston County commissioner, former Tenino mayor, firefighter and lifelong community advocate. His column appears in The Chronicle every two weeks.
