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
Brent		McMillan

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

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Board position 9

3. Are you the incumbent? No

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

11 years

5. How long have you resided in King County?

11 years

6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Nonpartisan

7. If partisan, please indicate party:

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

Campaign Name:

Friends of Brent McMillan

Address:

2226 NW 60th St. Lower

City/State/Zip:

Seattle WA 98127

Campaign Phone:

206.784.7267

Campaign Fax:

206.784.7267

Campaign E-mail:

brentmcmillan111@hotmail.com

Campaign Website:

www.brentmcmillan.org

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)

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

Office Title

Year of Run

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.)

I've been active in grassroots organizing in Seatlle for many years. When I found out about the new Monorail Board last fall, I began advocating for neighborhood representation on the board. Our neighborhood plans were developed before we envisioned the Monorail. I'm working to ensure that the Monorail becomes integrated into those plans and doesn't end up running roughshod over them.

I saw the opportunity to draw on my own specific background in mass transit to be of help. I did my thesis work on Mass Transit in Chicago and in particular in the challenges of integrating an elevated rail system into an existing urban fabric. I also did grant work on how to empower communities to resist gentrification, how to make sure a project like this ends up serving the people living there and not displacing them in the process.

I was unable to convince the Seattle City Council of the value of appointing a neighborhood representative on the board. When all of the appointees (including from the Mayor's office and the old Elevated Transit Company) were of an "insider" nature, I made the decision to run for elected office and take it to the voters.

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

I am a very detail oriented person. I am good at figuring out the implications and impacts of projects. I listen to peolple and they know it. I'm good at one on one with people. I am good at dealing with ambiguity. I have a good B.S. detector. I have little tolerance for B.S.

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.

I initiated the conversations that led to establishing campaign limits for the Seattle Monorail Project Board charged with overseeing massive amounts of public funds.

I advocated for inclusion of station area planning which was not originally considered. For example the Seattle Department of Transportation is now completing a background planning report for the high impact zone (quarter mile radius) around the stations that will be provided to the designers as a resource.

I worked to insure that the Seattle Monorail Project revenue development meetings would be open to the public.

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.

Previous to my residence in Seattle:

At 14 I became an Eagle Scout. For my Eagle Scout project I organized the cleanup of an abandoned corner lot at a busy intersection in my neighborhood.

At 18 I enrolled in the architecture program at Ball State University, the fifth ranked architecture undergraduate program in the country after MIT, Columbia, Yale and Harvard. I earned a B. S. in Environmental Design in 1981. While there I led a student design team for a project at the newly forming Muncie Children’s Museum and received a grant to build the project.

After college I worked as a drafter for the Engineering Department of the Muncie Sanitary District, for SunBuilders doing passive solar design and other alternative technologies, and for James Architects and later MSKTD as a job captain. In 1987 I was a founding officer of the Fort Wayne Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute. In 1988 I served on the Gateways committee of Fort Wayne, Indiana, as part of a project known as “Fort Wayne is Growing Places”. At 28 I was the youngest member on the 7-member national team known as the Symbols Subcommittee of the Construction Specifications Institute under the leadership of David Lorenzini. We were to establish a standardized system for Reference Symbols in Construction Documents and to pave the way for expert systems. In 1990 we published TD-2-6, Standardized Reference Symbols for Construction Documents which has become the industry standard.

I went back to the university in 1988 to complete my professional degree in architecture. While there I created an Information Storage System for Facilities Management at the Campus Design Center and served on the committee that established the computer system for facilities management. During this time I was associated with the John David Mooney Studio in Chicago and was project manager for a section of a light show for American Airlines known as the American Sky Sculpture. This sculpture won a design award from the Illuminating Engineers Society of Chicago. In 1990 I received a grant to train on the IBM AES system at SOM in Chicago, at the time the largest architecture and engineering office in the world. They were under contract to develop the Architecture Engineering Series (AES) for IBM. I was the manager of a BETA station at the Mooney Studio for AES to research effective use of the software as a design tool. I worked on the design team for one of nine entries for the restoration of Navy Pier in Chicago. In 1990 I also received a grant to develop an early attempt at an expanded Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Development of a Methodology for an Architectural Urban Impact Statement to empower communities to resist gentrification. I graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1991. My Thesis project was, A Personal Rapid Transit System for the City of Chicago: Development of an Holistic Design. My thesis models were part of an exhibit by the John David Mooney Studio at the Columbian Symposium. It was considered by many to be the best exhibit there and remains in Chicago.

I went to work for JSK Architects of Anderson, Indiana as a Project Manager. While there I was project manager on a 75 unit elderly housing facility for the Salvation Army in Indianapolis, Indiana that won a federal competition under the HUD 202 program out of 22 entries. I also served on the Low Income Housing Committee for the city of Anderson, Indiana.

In 1992 I moved to Seattle.

I was coorganizer of "To Heal the Land" at Fort Flagler State Park, a workshop and sanctuary to create an alliance between native Americam activists and Green activists in the State of Washington to work together towards a long term sustainable society for the Pacific Northwest. In 1993 I coorganized a follow-up called, "To Heal the Land, The Sequel".

In 1994 I coorganized a project to develop marketing materials for Red Cloud Quillworks in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Later I worked to develop an appropriate type of adobe brick for that climate and established an adobe brickyard at Pine Ridge. I cofounded Green Guatemala. I coorganized the Human Shield Project at Lyle Point, WA. In 1996 my "Lyle Point: A Case Study of Sacred Site and Traditional Fishing Site Protection" in The Role of Restoration in Ecosystem Management was published.

In 1996 I cofounded the Green Party of Seattle and was elected to the first Coordinating Council. The first feather in our cap legislatively was to defeat the restoration plan for the Cedar River Watershed, Seattles primary source of potable water, which would have used clear cutting of the watershed to fund the restoration. In 1998 I cofounded the Green Party of the 36th District and have served as its Treasurer since it's inception. In 2000 I cofounded the Green Party of Washington State and was elected as the first Facilitator (Chair). In 2002 I was elected as one of two delegates to represent the state of Washington on the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States.

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

The purpose of the Board is to set policy for and oversee the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Monorail. The degree to which the board manages the staff is still being developed. Although the staff can make recommendations, it is the Board that is the final word.The Board will probably decide final alignment sometime in February of 2004.

The Board will also decide the final nature of the DBOM Contract. For example: should the operate/maintain aspect of the contract be for the 5 year warranty period or for a 15 year period? What will be the extent to which the City will be able to negotiate grievances with the DBOM Contractor?

The Board also needs to work with other governmental units through the intergovernmental agreement

The proposed Green Line is a prototype line. The lessons learned in its development need to be incorporated into future proposals. What if the bids come in substantially above budget? Do we shorten the line for now and proceed? Or is there an amount at which we shouldn't proceed. What about capital for development beyond the Green Line?

The current strategy is to seek federal funding and if that fails to seek federal funding. Is that realistic given the current political and economic climate nationally? Should we be working towards a regional revenue solution?

The Board needs to provide leadership on these many issues and work to explore possibilities. What is the Boards relationship to the Puget Sound Regional Council in regards to developing a comprehensive transportation plan?

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.

Bachelor of Architecture, Ball State University

B.S. Environmental Design, Ball State University

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.

I now serve on the City Neighborhood Council Transportation Committee, the Ballard District Council Transportation Committee and as an Independent Advisor to the Puget Sound Regional Monorail.

I initiated the conversations that led to establishing campaign limits for the Seattle Monorail Project Board elections.

I advocated for inclusion of station area planning which was not originally considered.

I worked to insure that the SMP revenue development meetings would be open to the public.

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