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The governing body of the Authority is its Board of Commissioners, which is comprised of six members, five of whom are appointed by the Pierce County Executive and ratified by County Council and one which is appointed by the Authority Board of Commissioners.
The Board appoints an Executive Director to administer the affairs of the Authority. The Authority is not considered a component unit of Pierce County, as the Board of Commissioners independently oversees the Authority's operations and Pierce County is not financially accountable for the Authority. Commissioners serve a five-year term.
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CHARLES LEECH (Chairman) - Born in Columbus, MS, moved to Portland, OR at the age of nine. He was raised in a strict, black, upper middle class family, living in a 98% white neighborhood. His father owned and operated the second largest construction company in OR. He was a good, solid B student in elementary and high school. His athletic ability earned State/All American honors in baseball and football. He received more than 100 scholarship offers to play college football and/or baseball. He attended a small university in Forest Grove, OR, graduating with a degree in Business Administration. After several years of professional football, he spent 2 years as assistant personnel manager (minority recruitment) for Crown Zellerbach Corp. in San Francisco, then 8 years as the co-director for a cluster of alternative education schools in Portland, OR and two years as the executive director for State of Oregon Community Development Program. The remainder of his life and work career has been in the field of Civil Rights/Housing Discrimination, where he serves on many community boards, committees, etc., making him a well-rounded civil rights/community worker. His life is complete when you recognize his family: wife and four children, two girls and two boys.
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MARK P. MARTINEZ (Vice-Chariman) Mark P. Martinez was born in Seattle on February 27, 1958. He moved with his family to San Jose, CA at age two and remained there until returning to Tacoma in 1969. He went to school at Sherman Elementary, Mason Jr. High School and Bellarmine Prep., graduating in 1976. He obtained his Journeyman Roofer certification from the Pierce County Roofers Joint Apprenticeship Training Council in April of 1985. He has held various positions within the Roofer's Union Local #153 including President, Vice-President and Apprenticeship Instructor. His experience culminated with his election to the full time position of Business Manager in 1994. In 2005, Mr. Martinez was elected by his peers to the position of Executive Secretary of the Pierce County Building & Construction Trades Council, representing the interests of the 22 construction craft unions and over 10,000 union construction workers living & working in Pierce County. Mr. Martinez has served as a trustee on the Roofer's Health and Welfare Trust and the Roofer's Local #153 Supplemental Pension Fund. He served as a member of the Pierce County Roofer's Joint Apprenticeship Training Council for sixteen years. He is active in the trade union movement and is a member of the Executive Board of the Pierce County Central Labor Council. Community activities include serving on the Pierce County Trauma Care Task Force, the Pierce County Housing Authority Board of Commissioner, Tacoma Public Library Board of Trustees, and on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Pierce County. He is a Senior Fellow of the Americian Leadership Forum of Pierce County (Class X). He lives with his wife Faye and son Darius, 14 years old, in Tacoma's South End.
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DAVID N. BOYD (Commissioner) - David Boyd was born in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Pierce County in 1968 after returning from Vietnam. As an Army officer, he served in many capacities prior to retiring in 1975, and beginning his many years of community volunteer service. David has Masters Degrees in both Business Administration and Public Administration. He has held government administrative/executive positions with the Washington State Department of Personnel, Washington State Department of Licensing, and the Washington State Patrol. For nine years, he was the Executive Director of a community based non-profit agency that provided services to the homeless. He is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum and a member of several non-profit agency’s board of directors and is an appointee to the Governor’s Homeless Advisory Council. David has five adult children and resides with his wife in the city of Lakewood, Washington.
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MELANIE MORGAN (Commissioner) - Homelessness can be a few steps away for many families, an illness, loss of employment, catastrophic event or domestic violence can dramatically affect a family's ability to maintain stable housing. As a community member, I have made a commitment to advocate for affordable housing and victims of domestic violence. During the Section 8 program crisis of 2004, I advocated with success to the Pierce County Housing Authority and the Tacoma Housing Authority to refrain from porting back relocated domestic violence victims. I also spoke in Seattle at the Tenants Union rally to save the Section 8 program. While employed with the Pierce County Commission Against Domestic Violence, I developed a program that housed victims of domestic violence in their own apartments, at no cost to the client. I also have given many trainings in the Landlord/Tenant Act, Domestic Violence training for Crime Free Housing and educational classes for victims of domestic violence. I consider it a great honor to serve as a Commissioner for the Pierce County Housing Authority. It allows me to continue serving the community, which I believe, is my civic responsibility.
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EDWARD W. TROUGHTON (Commissioner) - Edward W. Troughton - Appointed to the Board in January of 2002. Ed was born in Connecticut. His father's Army career moved them often, including Germany as one of the first families stationed there post WWII. Combining his family travels with his own military and merchant marine career, he has been to every U.S capital and most countries in the free world. He has resided in Washington since the 1960's. After his term in the Merchant Marine, he pursued several careers including journeyman welder, maintenance mechanic and entrepreneurial ventures owning and operating a bar and a service station. Following a work injury, he retained and became a CAD drafter (computer assisted drafting), a career he continues to date. His outside interests include trout and ice fishing in Idaho, gardening, physical fitness, and of course computers. Ed's childhood experience in Germany included a visit to the Dachau concentration camp, which influenced him to work in his lifetime to ensure that such atrocities would not be forgotten or repeated. To that end, he has been an active volunteer. Since 2002 he has volunteered as commissioner with us and the Pierce County Human Rights Commission, also at the Tacoma YMCA since 1994. His snow white hair and beard make him the perfect, volunteer "Santa" which he personifies at community functions annually throughout Puget Sound.
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