My name is Sandesh Sadalge (pronounced: “Sunday-Sh” “Suh-Dhul-Gay”) and I was appointed to represent Tacoma City Council District 4 which covers East Tacoma, the Lincoln District and part of the South End in July 2024, after the unfortunate passing of former Council Member Catherine Ushka.
I am honored to be the first person of South Asian descent to serve on the Tacoma City Council. I was born in India and when I was just six, my family moved to America. Like many immigrants and District 4 residents, I grew up in a household without English as a first language. My mother worked hard to provide us a better life. She instilled in me the importance of education and the values of perseverance and taking care of those around you. When I was in college, I chose to become a U.S. Citizen. As a Council Member, my lived experience helps me to build and strengthen relationships with multi-lingual and immigrant neighbors. In this past election, I was proud to support fellow Indian-American Kamala Harris for president.
In 2019, my wife Maya and I came to Tacoma so that I could start a new job at Noble Farms Cannabis as the Vice President of Operations. My wife and I helped relaunch this business and we grew to employ 25 people. I am proud to have helped build a company that not only valued the responsibility we had to the bottom line but also to the responsibility we had to the people we employed and the place where we did business. I want to help small businesses in our community because they share these values. Maya and I now own and operate a home-based craft business in Tacoma, Solid Rock Memorials. We are both members of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.
We fell in love with the city because of all the wonderful and welcoming people we met here. After a short stint of renting downtown we decided to buy a home on the eastside. Since moving to Tacoma, I’ve dedicated myself to this community serving as both a steering committee member on the award-winning McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan and on Tacoma’s Planning Commission as the District 4 Representative.
Maya and I live on McKinley Hill. We love to support local businesses as both customers and advocates and in my free time you can often find me playing handball at the Tacoma Elks Lodge 174. We are proud to call Tacoma home and I am honored and humbled to have the privilege to serve as your representative on the city council.
