A third candidate has thrown her hat in the ring in a campaign to replace Sants Contreras, who is retiring from the Kirkland City Council this year. Jessica Greenway's candidacy will force a primary vote in September, when she will square off against Michelle Goerdale and Jeff Clark, who were profiled in the Courier last month.
In addition, a fourth candidate, Paula Gaines, has announced her intention to run against City Council member Dave Asher.
Here's a look at the new and incumbent candidates and why they think city residents should vote for them in the coming election.
Jessica Greenway
Like her two opponents for Contreras' seat, Greenway has a solid record of civic engagement in the 14 years she has lived in Kirkland. A financial planner who lives in South Rose Hill, she is the founder and a past president of the South Rose Hill and Bridle Trails Neighborhood Association.
Greenway, 56, has served on the Park Board, the Planning Commission and the Northeast 85th Street Corridor Task Force. She was also active in the Madrona Community Council in Seattle before moving in 1989 to Kirkland, where she also took part in the Kirkland Community Summit.
"It's kind of a natural extension of everything I've been doing in Kirkland," she said of her run for a council seat.
Greenway believes one of the biggest issues facing the city is the flagging economy, and she is confident that her business background can provide a valuable perspective to city government. "I bring financial and budget-management expertise (to the race)," she said.
Conceding that the council faces tough choices because of the depressed economy, Greenway said her approach would be one of balance: decreasing spending, while increasing revenue.
"I'm an advocate of fair taxation," she said, adding that she approves of what the City Council has done so far to balance the budget. Still, Greenway believes there is a lesson to be learned from the economic downturn on the Eastside. "In good times, we need to manage for bad times," she said.
Greenway would also like to see the small-town, pedestrian-friendly atmosphere of Kirkland preserved. "I think the key is strong neighborhoods and good planning," she said.
That's not to say Greenway thinks planning has been neglected in the past. "We are experts at planning in Kirkland," she said, "but we need to implement our plans."
A big issue on everyone's mind in the city, Greenway said, is transportation - not only from Kirkland to Seattle or Bellevue, for example, but also within Kirkland itself.
"I'm a big supporter of public transportation," she said, adding that making the routes more efficient can help. "I think the council is and needs to be involved with Sound Transit and transportation issues." Like practically everyone else in town, Greenway thinks Totem Lake needs a shot in the arm. "I'm very excited about its future potential," she said of not only commercial activity, but also residential development. "But it's going to take a few years."
Greenway also said the other business districts in Kirkland, such as Juanita Village and downtown, need the same kind of attention. "I think what we want to do to is promote the unique character of each of these business districts," she said.
Paula Gaines
A native, Gaines was born and raised in Kirkland, where she lives just north of downtown. A board member of the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce for the last few years, Gaines, 51, is the president and general manager of TechCity Bowl and Fun Center on Northeast 70th Place.
It's a family business she took over when her father died in 1996. "I'm in the position now where I can dedicate more of my time to the community," Gaines said of the reason for joining the council race.
Her first foray in politics, she felt compelled to run for office, Gaines explained. "I've been waiting for someone to step up to the plate and take a stand on things," she said. "No one has."
Gaines believes that maintaining the economic vitality of the city is a key to the future, but she maintains a fiscally conservative attitude. "I think this was a bad time to raise taxes, period," said Gaines, who added that spending cuts were a better alternative.
She is also critical of a new city ordinance governing how big trees can become. "I love trees, but I also believe in property rights," Gaines said.
When she was growing up in Kirkland, the city had a population of around 5,000. "So you knew everybody by their first names," Gaines said. Those days are long gone, of course, but Gaines said the changes have been so dramatic, she hardly recognizes the town anymore.
Politics were responsible for part of that dramatic change, she believes. "I think we could have done a better job of preparing for growth," Gaines said, pointing to the city's congested streets as an example.
She also believes that the business and residential communities need to work more closely together. "There's been a real polarity (between the two), and I don't think that's right," Gaines said.
She criticized one of Kirkland's trouble spots. "I'm sad about Totem Lake," Gaines said. "It has great potential, and it's been really underutilized as an asset to our community."
In a broader context, the same problems facing Kirkland are also facing the Eastside and the entire state, she said. "I think we need to get our act together," she stressed. "I don't think we have any time to waste."
Dave Asher
Finishing up his fourth year on the City Council, Asher also works in the University of Washington's office of planning and budgeting.
He is co-chairman of the Kirkland Alliance of Neighborhoods, was former chair of the North Rose Hill Neighborhood Association, and has been a member of the Chamber of Commerce, where he has served on the public policy committee. Asher, 55, has also been involved in several transportation studies, and he is very active in his church.
One of the major issues facing Kirkland is growth, Asher said. "How do we grow appropriately with all the pressures we have on us, both economically and physically?" he won ders. The key is preserving the city's precious resources and assets for the next generation, Asher said.
The city has already conducted strategy studies for Totem Lake, the downtown business core and the 85th Street corridor, he said. "They produced a broad consensus on the direction we want to go," Asher said. The problem, he added, is the city has few resources to devote to the strategies.
Asher concedes that the economy has seen better days in Kirkland, but he doesn't believe the downturn will last. "If we can get out of the doldrums, Kirkland is a jewel and has a strong economic base that will really grow. It's just a matter of time," he said on an upbeat note.
The recent 1 percent property-tax increase was the first one in seven years, and the increase in the business license fee probably reached its limit, according to Asher.
Still, he believes the city council should have used more of the rainy-day reserve fund to balance the budget. But maintaining a rainy-day reserve isn't enough, he said. "In addition to that, we need to have a recession reserve," added Asher, who had been pushing for the creation of one.
Asher does have one pet issue. "One of the things I've been working on since I've been on the council is getting more safe-school walk routes," he said. "We have kids walking to school in the street," he said, adding that the council earmarked more than $1 million last year to improve those routes.
Campaign strategies
Asher said he'll be out knocking on doors during his campaign. But he got a jump start on that approach last year when he talked to 75 to 85 percent of the residents in the north half of Kirkland to see what people wanted in the city. "I got some wonderfully interesting ideas," he said of the results. "This year, I'll be concentrating on the south end."
Gaines said in June that she was still fine-tuning her political approach with the help of her campaign staff, but Gaines intends to talk to everybody in the city she can. "I'm sure it's going to involve quite a bit of doorbelling," she said, adding that she wants to hear what Kirkland residents think the important issues are.
Greenway said she has an enthusiastic group of volunteers who will be helping out on her campaign, but she plans to wear out a bit of shoe leather herself. "My goal is to talk to every voting household in Kirkland," she said of finding out what's important to local residents. "I'm going to spend the whole summer doing that." In a high-tech approach, Greenway said she has also launched a campaign Web site at www.jessicafor council.org.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com[[In-content Ad]]
