2004 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

Judy

R

Clibborn

 

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

 

State Representative 41st District Pos #2

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

 

 

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

 

34 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

54 years

 

6.   Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan?         Partisan      Nonpartisan         

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:  Democrat

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

 

Campaign Name:

 

Judy Clibborn for State Representative

 

Address:

 

PO Box 808

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Mercer Island WA 98040

 

Campaign Phone:

 

206-275-3673

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

206-236-3057

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

judy@judyclibborn.com

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

www.judyclibborn.com

 

 

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)

State Representative

 

elected

 

2002-2004

 

Vice Chair of Local Government Committee

 

City Council, City of Mercer Island

 

elected

 

1990 - 2001

 

Mayor 1994 - 1998

Chair of Suburban Cities 1997

 

Park Board and Arts Council, Mercer Island, Mercer Island

 

appointed

 

1980 - 1989

 

Chair of both during terms

 

 

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

 

Office Title

Year of Run

City Council, City of Mercer Island

 

1985

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 


 


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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.)

 

Name: Judy Clibborn

Position Sought: _House of Representatives, 41st District # 2

Please see photo and Bio on my website: www.judyclibborn.com.

As a nurse, mother, Mayor, and city Councilmember, I brought a diverse background to the job of legislator.  My training as a nurse was based on looking at problems and solving them.  As a mother, I helped raise my own three children and 5 teenaged foster children.  This experience helped weave me into the community in many different ways.  As Councilmember and Mayor I became involved with decisions affecting every segment of our cities and region: transportation, health care, public safety, roads, trails, parks and

land use regulations. Currently, as Chamber of Commerce executive director, I work closely with small business and the issues they face every day. I have now added two years of legislative experience.  These vastly different experiences came from being in leadership roles for over 12 years of my life.  I represent the citizens well because I understand their issues on a personal basis.  These are the issues that are important to my district.

Transportation – As a candidate, I pledged to move the State out of gridlock that had frozen funding for transportation for over 13 years.  As a member of the Transportation Committee, I pushed for support of a bi-partisan 5-cent gas tax that started attacking safety and chokepoint issues on our roads.  I also supported negotiations that brought us transportation alternatives to move people and goods without relying on single occupancy vehicles. These transportation jobs also provide strength to our economy at a time when good jobs are in decline.

Environment – I am proud of my record in preserving parks and open space, working to uphold the Growth Management Act and protecting endangered salmon.  The 41st District is very supportive of its environment and all decisions made in Olympia must respect this. I will actively work to maintain the funding and support for those efforts that have begun at the watershed and local level.  I strongly believe we can save the salmon by working together.  I will further work to make land use regulations clear and consistent in an effort to allow good development to happen in such a way that it has the least possible impact on the environment.

Education – Good public Schools are the backbone of our neighborhoods.  We need good teachers and safe schools to give our kids the best future they can have. We must continue to find ways to fund our education system. I will work to pass a bill that allows voters to change the Constitution to allow school levies to pass at 50% instead of 60%.  This is a no cost measure that helps school districts pass their funding and spend more time providing the educational services we expect from them. I also will support a study that defines basic education so the state can adequately fund what is needed to help our schools meet the demands of “No Child Left Behind”.

Healthcare – Skyrocketing healthcare costs have made it hard for business to provide healthcare insurance to their employees.  Hospitals find an ever-increasing crush of patients coming to the emergency rooms for care.  Poor families find it hard to get help from the state safety net that has been torn by high cost and low reimbursements to providers. We must take a comprehensive look at the healthcare system and find a way to work with the private sector to provide more coverage for our tax dollars.

 


 

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

 

2 The three most important characteristics of the office I seek are honesty, understanding complex issues, and communicating.

 

 I am very interested in getting solutions to our problems.  I work with whomever it takes to get the job done.  I handle issues honestly, telling people what I think, not what I think they want to hear.  I do not make promises I can’t keep.

 

I have a lot of experience with a lot of issues, but there is a big jump in both the depth of understanding and the complexity of the issues in the legislature.  I have been able to read and absorb a lot of material.  I have experience in problem solving from my local government duties and I have been able to use this to make the transition to problem solving in Olympia.

 

Working with a lot of people and having broad based life experiences means that I can relate to people on a personal basis.  Some part of communicating is understanding the other person or organization.  When I reach a place where a decision is required, I can usually explain this decision to everyone involved.  Because I feel that communicating goes both ways, I work hard to listen as well as talk.  It has made me successful in all my other jobs.

 

 

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. 

 

When the Mercer land fire station was in need of a complete overhaul.  There were seismic problems, space that was unusable, and it was a station built for volunteers before the introduction of EMTs.   Because the sales tax revenue is very low on Mercer Island, it became obvious that a voted bond was the way to build this new station.  However, this was not popular because property taxes are very high in this affluent area and not everyone could support a new tax.  With this in mind, we set out to build the new station by setting aside a small amount of sales tax, budget surplus, and property tax savings for three years and built the station without impacting the citizen’s property tax.  This required discipline to not increase city services or staff.  The citizens appreciated the fact that they did not have to vote to pay with property tax, and no city services or wages were impacted by the frugal years of saving.   The firefighters are very happy with their new station and citizens consider it a focal point of our Towncenter. 

 

 

In 1990, I became a member of the Human Services Roundtable, a group of cities, the County and United Way.  I became the chair of the Legislative Committee, and later the Chair of the Roundtable, at the time that we were working on a response to domestic violence issues.  We gathered all the service providers in the DV arena to meet and identify where the gaps were and who should be responsible for them.  We identified education opportunities for hospital workers and churches.  We added shelter beds and transitional housing for victims and their families.  We added advocates for both the legal and public safety systems to help victims get the services they needed.  We improved communication between providers of services to make them more efficient.  It took three years to get all the necessary legislation passed to get batterer’s treatment, legal protections, and services through the legislature.  It was during these three years that I saw how the legislature works.  Today these services are still available and are funded with partnerships of local, regional and State dollars.  My experience with these service providers was the impetus to prime sponsor a bill that allows non-profit organizations to self insure that passed as a Senate bill last session.

 

When the City had to form its comprhensive plan

 to meet housing targets under the Growth Management Act.  In a long public process we set about “visioning” for what we wanted our community to be in the future.  It was a long and contentious process but we finally came up with a new vision for the Towncenter.  As Mayor, I was in charge of implementing this vision.  We put together new sidewalks, streetlights and trees, benches and art into a completed streetscape that could support the increased densities required of the city under GMA.  This was the largest project ever undertaken by the city and took 3 years to complete.  It required a strong stand to get it started, an ability to work with people with many different opinions, and the ability to see it through after started.  The Towncenter is now very popular and has won many awards.  The project was done with dollars from the Federal Government, the State and local street funds saved over a few years.  This year there are 8 new redevelopment projects planned for the Towncenter.  They include housing, office space, and retail space.  The city infrastructure is in place to handle this new development. 

 


 

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.

 

Graduated in 1965 from University of Washington School of Nursing and BS Degree.

Head Nurse at Harborview Medical Center from 1967 to 1969

 

Raised three children, five foster children and one foreign exchange student before running for City Council in 1989.  Worked with School systems, human service providers, counselors, foster care programs, and community services.

 

1980 Member of the Parks Board.  Opened up street-end parks for the public.  Ran bond Issues for Open Space: Gallagher Hill on Mercer Island.

 

1984 Founding member of the Mercer Island Arts Council.  Worked to start the summer concert series “Mostly Music in the Park”.  Helped start the public art program and later as the Council member, voted for the 1% for the Arts proposal for the city.

 

1989 Ran for City Council.  Won on issues of saving parks slated for development and sale and unseated and incumbent.  Set up first Municipal Open Space Trust in State for Pioneer Park on Mercer Island

 

1990 Member of “Fifth Quarter,” a youth orientated activities group a the Mercer Island High School; started three major youth-oriented activities working with youth community groups to design safe, fun activities.

 

1990 – 1993 During term as Mayor, completely rebuilt the downtown infrastructure of the town center on Mercer Island to be more pedestrian-friendly, focused the retail and made available room for mixed-use infill.  Using a mix of Federal, State, and Local dollars, built to the standard required under the growth management to sustain targeted growth.  Also started working with Sound Transit to site parking services for the Island.  Currently have eight new redevelopment sites under review on Mercer Island to meet these new standards.  This will bring a mix of housing, retail and office space downtown. 

 

1992 – 1994 Built and designed the first open skateboard park in the state and later helped to change the law to make skateboard parks equal in insurability to other recreational facilities.  Worked with the youth to include their ideas and designs and taught them how to work with the government to get something they wanted. 

 

1990 – 2000 Served as Chair for two years of the King County Human Services Roundtable.  Passed and omnibus bill on Domestic Violence and identified gaps in services for DV victims to be met by the county and cities working together.  Identified local and regional funding sources and channeled them to services region-wide.

 

1995 – 2000 Served on the King County Law, Safety, Justice Committee.  Made subcommittee report on court services.  Co-chaired the committee on Regional Specialized Police Services.  Became well versed on issues of youth and adult detention, disporportionality, regional information sharing, impacts on misdemeanant, and felony populations, and sentencing impacts on costs of jails. 

 

1994 – 2001 Member of Suburban Cities Association (Coalition of all cities in King County, except Seattle and Bellevue).

 

1998 – 2000 President of Suburban Cities Reformed governance for this body to be more pro-active in dealing with County/City issues.

 

Co-Chaired a committee at the watershed level to bring cities and the County into a partnership to plan for protection of Salmon under ESA (Endangered Species Act)

 

Served on Growth Management Planning Council as chair for the Suburban Cities to work on protection of urban growth on rural non-growth issues.  Networked information to all cities and their staff to come up with a regional approach to solving issues around transportation, growth, water quality, and public safety.  Much time was spent trying to sort out budget issues that arose out of regional services.

 

1998 – 2002 Member of the Oversight Committee on Police Corps at Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center.  Became knowledgeable about training issues for the State public safety system and impacts on local departments.

 

1998 – 2002 Assessor for the Western Regional Institute for Community Oriented Public Safety. Made one assessment in Laramie, Wyoming to assess their Community Policing.  Very interested in how effectively interface the community with their public safety departments through community policing.

 

2001 – Current Executive Director Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce.  Help the Business community work with the city to better communicate around issues including signage, parking, building permits, and regulations.

 

February 2002 Received an award from the Mid-East King County Network for work over the past years with youth.  Gratified to be recognized as an advocate for youth and as a supporter of their issues.

 

2003 – Current House of Representatives Member.  Elected to State of Washington House of Representatives.  Currently sit on Local Government as vice chair, Health Care and Transportation Committees. 

 

2004 – Current member of Rotary International, Mercer Island.  Working on both community and international service projects.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

5 The duties of this office include communicating with many different people on many different issues.  Citizens with very different backgrounds, lifestyles and needs will be asking for help and demanding to be heard.  Lobbyists will want my ear and special interests will want my time.  Listening is very important to these people.  Of equal importance is the ability to work with these people to get to common ground.  Flexibility is important.  The next element is the ability to learn about new and varied subjects.  After the input, the learning, and the common ground, there needs to be tough stands and votes that get to solutions.  Not all of these votes have been popular.  In fact, most votes will make someone unhappy.  The most common complaint I have heard as I doorbell is the lack of ability to get any decisions out of the legislature.

The easiest part is working with people.  I like working with many points of view and find that people usually appreciate my ability to work with them towards solutions.  I share the recognition and credit with others.


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.

 

RN/BS from UofW 1965

 

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.

 

As a nurse, mother, Mayor, and city Councilmember, I brought a diverse background to the job of legislator. These vastly different experiences came from being in leadership roles for over 20 years of my life.  I represent the citizens well because I understand their issues on a personal basis.  I look forward to serving the citizens of the 41st District  finding solutions to improve transportation gridlock, healthcare costs, and education funding.

 

 

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