I worked out some kinks (literally and figuratively) over the last few days. My original connections to the pump were a bit cobbled together with what I had on hand. I cleaned that up a little and my readings came down to 8psi and I wasn't having the start-up spike anymore.
For many reasons, I ended up putting a waste valve in as well. As QA mentioned, having another outlet helped quite a bit. I'm actually down to about 7.2 which is more where I expected it to be and I think puts me in really good shape air flow wise at 3.2-ish and gives the pump some breathing room.