1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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Middle Initial or Nick Name |
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2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
3. Are you the incumbent? No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
5. How long have you
resided in
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47 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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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) |
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Member, City of Seattle Human Rights Commission
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Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs
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2. If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:
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In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge. These are defined as follows:
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.)
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I am running for Seattle City Council because as a native Seattlelite, I am concerned about our sluggish economy, our rising electric rates and our city council’s on-going neglect in dealing with these core issues.
I am running against Councilmember Heidi Wills because she has fundamentally failed in her primary responsibility as Energy Chair and chief overseer of City Light. Instead, she has focused on many of the distraction issues (such as resolutions on banning circus animals or Trident submarines in our city or breaching Eastern Washington dams) that have plagued our council.
Skyrocketing electric rates are hammering businesses, homeowners, seniors, renters and Seattle’s economy. Under Heidi Will’s oversight, City Light rates have increased 58% over the last three years and its debt has grown to $1.7 billion. That’s $3,019 for every man, woman and child in Seattle. This agency needs new oversight and I’m willing to do what it takes to bring this utility back under fiscal control.
We need Council members with real world experience and who understand how the Council’s decisions impact the families and businesses of our city. I bring a 30-year record of advocating for communities, creating jobs, running agencies and managing budgets during tough times.
For example, when I worked under Norm Rice as one of his deputy chiefs of staff responsible for economic development and labor liaison, we saved 2,000 jobs in the maritime industry. We brought business and labor together to re-energize the economy to fight the last recession, and we went strike-free for Mayor Rice’s first term.
If elected to the City Council, I will focus on the following issues:
• Ensure that City Council exerts a stronger oversight on City Light and puts ratepayers first. • Support the creation of family-wage jobs in the city and the region by fostering stronger partnerships between city and regional governments and businesses that will encourage employers to move to or stay in Seattle. • Push for economic development and affordable housing in our neighborhoods.
To bring Seattle City Light under fiscal control, I propose to do the following:
1. Strengthen City Council’s oversight of Seattle City Light 2. Provide better communication between City Council and Seattle City Light management. 3. Limit its exposure in the energy spot market 4. Renegotiate power contracts 5. Hire a superintendent who will change the culture within Seattle City Light 6. Cut costs and review all existing consulting contracts 7. Cut public relations budget 8. Set clear financial benchmarks for Seattle City Light management 9. Seattle must be a regional player and work with other public utilities in the region
To support economic development, I will focus on the following:
1. Ensure that energy prices remain competitive since utility rates are part of our city's business infrastructure that can attract companies that can provide family-wage jobs 2. Foster a stronger partnership between city government and the private sector with the city pursuing policies that will allow more efficient permitting processes, review of land use/zoning regulations to allow for managed growth and development, and review of tax structure to encourage businesses of all sizes to do business in the city 3. Support establishment and maintenance of small businesses in neighborhoods 4. Emphasize a regional approach to the city’s economic development plans 5. Ensure the availability of affordable housing in our neighborhoods |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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1. Decisive and experienced leadership - In these tough and challenging economic times, we need city council members who have extensive experience, who will remain engaged in dealing with complex issues, and who will be willing to make tough decisions when faced with competing interests.
When I worked for Mayor Rice, I led efforts to create good relationships between city management (including various executive agencies and city council) and its 30 labor unions by changing the city's labor policies that fostered open communications and set the basis for settling all the city contracts early on in Mayor Rice's first term of office.
2. Effectiveness - I want to use my experience of 30 years working in communities, running agencies and managing budgets in tough economic times to make the city council more efffective by: (a) focusing the council on priorities that relate to the core issues facing our city, i.e. protecting ratepayers and managing our electric rates, attracting family-wage jobs; (b) focusing on buidling a consensus majority on the council (at least five votes) to get things done and, in the process, work effectively with the mayor and citizen groups. I can do this because I have extensive experience in bringing people with disparate interests together based on common and identificable goals; (c) creating partnerships with regional players, as well as with the private sector and neighborhoods to fix our transportation system, address our sluggish economy and ensure the availability of affordable housing in our neighborhoods.
An example of how I effectively brought groups of people based on a common goal relates to my most recent job as director of community affairs for United Way of King County (UWKC). In that capacity, I was able to work with the UWKC board of directors and convinced them to engage in public policy and legislative work (after close to 20 years of not doing so). Once the board of director had consensus to engage in public policy work, UWKC, through my leadership, introduced and passed legislation to set up a state-wide 211 information referral system for human services. We were able to accomplish this goal with support from many human services groups, business organizations, as well as legislators on both sides of the aisle. |
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.
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.
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I have extensive experience in community advocacy where I fought for critical social services in underserved neighborhoods. I have exercised decisive leadership that got things done in my past roles as commission chair, labor union official, mayor's staff, executive director of a state agency or as a community volunteer for the city libraries campaign.
1. Community advocate. Through my 20+ years as a community advocate, I fought hard to provide critical human and social services to underserved communities. I made sure that local government responded to these types of needs. a. I was a founding member of the International District Drop In Center, which to this date provides services for many elderly Filipinos. b. In the 1970s, I was a community organizer with the Central Area Motivation Program responsible for the SE Food Bank and organized within Rainier Vista and Holly Park for social services, street improvements and public safety c. I fought for low income housing and social services in the International District in the 1970s. d. In 1998, I chaired the Economic Development Subcommitteee of the International District Neighborhood Planning effort in 1998. This led to the successful inclusion of expanding the number of affordable housing units that will be built through the recently-passed Housing Levy as well as key street and façade improvements in the International District.
2. Seattle Human Rights Commission, Chair - 1985-1989. In this capacity, I dealt with issues involving public safety, police-community relations and promoting diversity in public contracting. As chair of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, I led the efforts to improve police/community relations in the city's minority communities. Under my leadership, we also took on the issue of blatant discrimination against black workers on the Washington State Ferry System where we forced the state (through the governor) to change the Ferry's recruitment, hiring and promotion policies, strengthen their anti-discrimination policies, and, in the process, averted a major lawsuit against the Ferry System.
3. Labor organizer and union official (from 1981 to 1987) -- As mentioned in my answer to Question 3 above, I became Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Local 37, after we cleaned up the union of corrupt and criminal elements. As a result of my work, we were able to establish an effective dispatch system, nullified the "sweetheart" deals negotiated by the previous corrupt union officials and negotiated fair labor contracts for 2000 cannery workers. After my stint with the ILWU, I joined the Inland Boatmen's Union of thePacific as their national organizer where I organized the workers in the tour boat industry in the West Coast.
4. As a deputy chief of staff for Mayor Norm Rice, I learned how to work within City Hall, including the City Council. We were able to gain an effective coalition with the City Council on issues that mattered most for the city, i.e. economic development and jobs since the city faced an economic recession at that time, police-community relations (after the LA riots in the early 1990s), public safety and neighborhood planning efforts. In addition, I was part of the Mayor's team that had to deal with budget cutbacks when the city faced an economic recession and public revenues declined. To balance the budget, we made tough decisions to ensure that the city government remained efficient but delivered critical public services to the city's residents.
5. As executive director for the Washington Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, I managed a budget and utilized staff to make the agency efficient in serving its various constituencies. Under my leadership, we were able to protect rights and benefits for immigrant and refugee families, built effective community coalitions that mobilized thousands of members of the Asian communities to lobby in Olympia on key issues affecting our communities (such as welfare reform, affirmative action).
6. Libraries for All Campaign - Citizen's Implementation Review Panel (CHIRP) 1999-2001 -- I served as the project steward to seven library projects throughout the city. I also chaired the CHIRP Opportunity Fund Committee where the committee allocated $6 million to 10 neighborhood community projects.
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1. Enact policies/legislation for the city 2. Approve and vote on a city budget 3. Provide strong policy/budget oversight on city agencies.
The City Charter provides that the City Council exerts its influence and relationship to city government and residents by enacting these three important functions name above. |
EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY
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.
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Attended University of Washington; graduated from Bastyr University Leadership Institute of Seattle, 1995, majoring in applied behavioral science. |
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.
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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.
Candidate Evaluation Coordinator: Rebecca Cooper
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: 425-671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org