Wilkeson mayor recognized with 2025 Falconer Award for records research

Jayme Peloli’s extensive research revealed Fairfax Bridge problems were predictable.

By Colette Weeks, WashCOG executive director

The WashCOG Falconer Shine the Light Award winner for 2025 is Wilkeson Mayor Jayme Peloli, who requested 20 years’ worth of public records to find out how the Fairfax Bridge could have fallen into such disrepair that the state suddenly closed it in April.

Jayme Peloli

The town was shocked when the closure came. It was an important link to Mount Rainier National Park, with many visitors passing through the small town as they drove Highway 165. The loss of the bridge equates to a significant loss for a small and fairly remote town with limited economic options.

Peloli, who was then a town council member, found in the records from the state Department of Transportation that this was not a sudden failure. They revealed unresolved issues with the bridge that were put off for so long that it deteriorated to the point of failure. Or to put it succinctly: Neglect.

Now, nearly a year later, the bridge is still closed. The town has elected Peloli as mayor, and she has worked with other organizations and made connections with state officials to get the connection restored. That work is ongoing.

Meanwhile, Peloli’s actions illustrate the value of keeping decades’ worth of records available for future use. They show how records can create a timeline of events that document not only what happened, but also consequences that might be avoided by following a different path.

Peloli’s work was limited to one bridge, but there are many across Washington that could easily be in the same shape.  And that’s what the Jim and Birte Falconer Shine the Light Award is about – shining the light on understanding why transparency and access are so important.

We appreciate that Mayor Peloli took it upon herself to use what the Public Records Act gives us – access to information. We also appreciate that she is using that to fight for her town and get that bridge back. WashCOG recognized her with a Key Award for her initial work.

We hope that the impact of her work will be not only a restored bridge, but a change in allowing deferred maintenance of infrastructure statewide and a better public understanding of why the public needs access to records — to see what happened before, to keep an eye on what’s happening going forward and to hold our agencies and officials accountable.

The coalition will present this award and others during its Sunshine Breakfast on March 13 in Bellevue. The Falconer Shine the Light Award recognizes how the doors that can be opened using Washington’s access laws can have a lasting, genuine benefit for the people who are affected by this information. It highlights work that makes an outstanding, sustained contribution to public understanding and support of the Public Records Act. The award is named for WashCOG supporters Jim and Birte Falconer.

Fairfax Bridge — Photo from the Washington State Department of Transportation