2003 Candidate Questionnaire

 

SECTION I               

 

BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION

 

1.      Name as it will appear on the ballot

 

First Name

Middle Initial or Nick Name

Last Name

Claudia

M.

Balducci

 

2.   Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):

 

Bellevue City Council, Position # 5

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                              No

 

 

4.   How long have you resided in this district/city?

 

Ten years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

Ten years

 

6.   Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan?         Nonpartisan         

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

Campaign Name:

Friends of Claudia Balducci

 

Address:

 

1050 - 149th Place SE

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Bellevue WA 98007

 

Campaign Phone:

 

425-864-1408

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

     

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

claudia_balducci@comcast.net

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

     

 

 

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

 

1.   Beginning with the most recent position, please list public offices which you have held.  Include positions on appointive Boards or Commissions.

 

Public Office

Elective or Appointive?

Dates Held

Leadership Role (if any)

Lake Hills Shopping Center Stakeholders Committee

 

Appointive

 

2003

 

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

2.   If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:

 

Office Title

Year of Run

Freeholder - Charter Commission (Elected but did not serve because Charter Commission was not authorized by voters).

 

2003

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 


 


SECTION III

 

In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge.  These are defined as follows:

 

  • Involvement: What has the candidate done previously in family, neighborhood, community, volunteer work, employment or public life to suggest readiness to accomplish challenging objectives? How do these activities demonstrate readiness for the challenges unique to the office sought?

 

  • Effectiveness: Has the candidate demonstrated promise of being productive in the office sought?  Has the candidate shown the ability to work with other people?

 

  • Character: Do the candidate's personal traits show the ability to take on the responsibilities of campaigning for and holding the public office she or he is seeking? Is the candidate a leader, participant or observer?  Is the candidate trustworthy, reliable and candid?

 

  • Knowledge: Has the candidate demonstrated the willingness and ability to learn and adapt?  Does the candidate understand the duties and challenges of the office sought?  Does the candidate have a firm grasp of the issues important to his or her constituency and their potential effects?

 

 

1.      In a page or less, why are you running for this office?  (Note: the interview committee will be given a copy of this statement before your interview; at the beginning of your interview you will have the opportunity to expand on this statement in any way you wish.)

 

For the last several years, I have worked to try to protect and improve my own neighborhood of Lake Hills.  More recently, I extended my effort to the city as a whole, including a successful run for freeholder in the city's recent charter election.  I ran for freeholder because I wanted to be one of the people on the charter commission who would be careful to review any proposed changes to Bellevue's form of government to avoid putting the City off course.

 

Now, I am seeking to serve on the City Council in order to make sure our neighborhoods stay strong and our quality of life is preserved and enhanced.  Bellevue is maturing (like a lot of us) into a really vibrant and interesting city.  I want to continue to work to support this evolution.  My priorities as a Councilmember would include building strong neighborhoods with beautiful parks and strong businesses and shopping centers for residents.  I would continue the city's record of fiscal responsibility - maintaining low taxes and the high quality of services we have come to expect, including excellent law enforcement and fire protection.  I would continue to work on our traffic problems - trying to keep commuters on the freeways and off of neighborhood streets.  I would support economic vitality, to ensure we have the jobs we need.  I am optimistic that together we can achieve these goals for our growing community.  

 


 

2.      Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.

 

In my professional and my personal life, I strive to listen and learn from people.  I am continually reminded that no one person can have all the answers, and often solutions are found in unexpected places.  As an attorney and a labor negotiator, I have learned how to maintain positive relationships with people despite our conflicting interests.  I have training and experience analyzing complex factual and legal issues, asking hard questions to ensure that all alternatives are considered and effective solutions are adopted.  Through the Advance Bellevue leadership program, I've had the opportunity to learn and practice leadership skills as well as learning about how the various parts of the city work together.  I would apply my learning, experience and characteristics to balance various interests and meet the needs of our complex and growing community.  

 

3.      Please describe in sufficient detail, one to three accomplishments or contributions of which you are most proud.  These examples should illustrate effective skills and capabilities you think apply to the office you are seeking.  These accomplishments may have occurred at any time in your personal, professional, or public life. 

 

Lake Hills Shopping Center -  Along with my neighbors, I have supported revitalization of our local shopping center in a variety of ways over the last several years.  Most recently, I served on a committee of local residents to create a new design concept that would satisfy our neighbors, the City Council and the East Bellevue Community Council.  Although there were widely differing views of what a shopping center should contain, we were able to come together and reach consensus on what we believe is an innovative design.  The design has since been well received by the larger community and is in the planning stages.

 

Eastsideteens.com - As part of an Advance Bellevue project team, I helped to fund, plan, design and create an online calendar and resource site for local teens.   Eastsideteens.com connects young people with services and positive things to do, sponsored by some of our finest Eastside social and teen service organizations.

 

Pro bono legal assistance and representation - throughout my career, I have volunteered time as an attorney.  I have been proud to help deaf women to obtain equal access to important government services and to provide self-help assistance to refugees and immigrant victims of domestic violence to take care of their own family law matters and get on their feet.  


 

4.      Please list or describe your current and past activities in the community in which you have acquired skills that relate to the office you seek.  Include your role in the activity and the year(s) in which you were involved.  Involvement consists of many areas such as family, neighborhood, community, employment, or public life.

 

Employment:

Attorney, Riddell, Williams (1993, 1994-1996), Stokes, Lawrence (1996-1999)

Labor Rep and Human Resources Mgr - King County - 1999 - present

 

Community:

Active in neighborhood improvement in Lake Hills - 1999 to present

Lake Hills Shopping Center neighborhood committee - 2003

Advance Bellevue Leadership Class of 2003

Successful freeholder candidate - 2003

Member of project team which created Eastsideteeens.com website - 2002 - 03

Co-chair, One-City campaign - 2001

 

Volunteer/Member - Northwest Women's Law Center, 92 - 99

Board Member King Co Washington Women Lawyers, 94- 98

Volunteer - Cross-Cultural Famly Law Clinic -  99 - present

 

Member - Samena Club - 1993 to present

 

 

 

  1. Please describe the duties of the office you seek.  Which are the most important duties and why?

 

The stated goal of the City Council is to provide high-quality services and facilities to meet the needs of the Bellevue community.  The Council provides policy direction for the city, and is responsible for enacting ordinances, approving city planning documents and contracts, and ruling on selected quasi-judicial matters.  Areas of service provided by city government under the guidance of Council include public safety, parks, water and sewer services, roads and traffic management, garbage and recycling.

 

Bellevue has a strong tradition of encouraging citizen involvement.  One of the most critical function of the Council is to not only listen to residents, but to draw them out and ensure opportunities for citizen input.  This leads to better decisions on the issues that affect city life and improved service to the community.   


EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

 

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report is distributed to voters in print and/or on our website.  It includes a summary of the candidate’s education.  Please summarize your education in 120 characters (letters, punctuation, and space all combined).  The League will delete material that exceeds the space limit by beginning with the last entry.  Suggested order is (degree)  (subject)  (school)  (year, if desired). 

 

Note: If this question is left blank the League will not include education information in your candidate profile.

 

JD, Columbia U School of Law, 1994

BA, English Lit, Providence College, 1989

 

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

 

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report also includes a summary of each candidate’s civic involvement.  Please summarize your civic involvement in the space below.  We will make every attempt to include the information in the Candidate Evaluation Report as submitted.  Due to space restrictions in the Report, your response is limited to 500 characters (letters, punctuation, and spaces all combined).  It is important that you list your involvement beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.  If you exceed the length of response permitted, or if the League should find it necessary to shorten responses for publication purposes,  deletions will be made beginning with the last item listed. 

 

Note: This information will appear verbatim on the League’s Candidate Evaluation Report.  If this question is left blank, the Municipal League will not include information on your civic involvement in the Report.

 

  Check here if you would like the Municipal League to copy the first 500 characters from Question 4 to paste into this section.

 

     

 

Finished!

If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (rebecca@munileague.org).  Mail and fax numbers are listed below.  If the League has not contacted you to schedule an interview, please call the League office at your earliest convenience.

 

Don’t forget to send the following to the Municipal League:  a resume, a photo, campaign literature, and, if you are an incumbent, constituent newsletters and other materials.  Please use the check-off list on the cover sheet of this packet to indicate which items you have sent.

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CAMPAIGN!

 

THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF KING COUNTY

 

Candidate Evaluation Coordinator:  Rebecca Cooper

 

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224                  Phone: 206-622-8333                Email: rebecca@munileague.org

Seattle, WA 98104-1614                        Fax: 425-671-0506                        Website: www.munileague.org