The Municipal League of King County

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224

Seattle, WA 98104

 

2005 Board of Trustees

 

Rita Brogan, Chair

Mark Troxel, Vice Chair

Beth M. Arman, Secretary

Harold Taniguchi, Treasurer

 

Putnam Barber, Executive Alliance

Vaughnetta J. Barton, community volunteer

Jill D. Bowman, Stoel Rives

Patricia Bowman, human resources manager (ret.)

Bruce Carter, judge pro tem, Seattle Municipal Court

Kevin Carter, Safeco

Stephanie Cirkovich, Pike Place Market PDA

Peter Coates, Building and Construction Trades Council

Chris Cooper, CHHIP

Paul Demitriades, Medina City Council (ret.)

Sandra Driscoll, City Attorney (ret)

Deborah Eddy, Consultant

Keven Franklin, King County

Mary Gates, Consultant

Norma Jean Hanson, Norma Jean Hanson Paralegal Services

Robert Klein, McNaul, Ebel, Nawrot, and Helgren

Eric Laschever, Stoel Rives

Steve Marshall, Snohomish PUD

Rob Neate, Puget Sound Energy

Jennifer Piccolo, citizen activist

Charles Redell, Reporter

Tami Ritoch, Fireside Homes Real Estate Associate

R. Todd Slind, CH2MHill

Lucy Steers, public participation consultant

Harold Taniguchi, King County Department of Transportation

Rashelle Tanner, CRISTA Ministries

David Tarshes, Davis Wright Tremaine

Kate Tate, Weyerhauser

Philip Thompson, Perkins Coie

Mark Troxel, City of Seattle

Wes Uhlman, Wes Uhlman & Associates

Rich White, Boeing

2005 CANDIDATE BACKGROUND QUESTIONNAIRE
FOR NON-JUDICIAL CANDIDATES

 

The Municipal League of King County requests every candidate who participates in the candidate evaluation process to submit background information prior to his/her interview with a candidate evaluation committee.  The questionnaire is the basis of the League’s research and interview process.  The League’s ratings are non-partisan; they are based on standards of Involvement, Effectiveness, Character, and Knowledge, all of which have been developed and refined over the past 90 years.

 

A printed version of the questionnaire is available for candidates who prefer to use the traditional format.  To obtain a hard copy, please contact the League office.  A copy of this questionnaire will be provided to Candidate Evaluation Committee members to help them prepare for your interview.  Candidate responses, except the confidential section, will be available to the general public at the League website. 

 

The Municipal League requests the following materials from candidates.  Please check to make certain you have sent in your:

 

      Candidate Questionnaire

          Sent by:         Email             US Mail          Fax            Not Sending

      Resume (education, employment, and professional activities)

          Sent by:         Email             US Mail          Fax            Not Sending

               Check here if you DO NOT want your resume posted on the Municipal

                   League website

      Campaign Materials

          Sent by:         Email             US Mail          Fax            Not Sending

      Constituent Newsletters and other publications

          Sent by:         Email             US Mail          Fax            Not Sending

      Photograph

          Sent by:         Email             US Mail          Fax            Not Sending

 

Note: Electronically submitted questionnaires are strongly preferred. All materials can be emailed to rebecca@munileague.org.  They can be processed and made available on-line far more rapidly than handwritten or typed submissions.

 

For non-electronic submissions, please print clearly and legibly and return the application as soon as possible in order to allow the committee the greatest amount of time to prepare a complete report on your skills and experience.

 

If you have not yet been contacted to schedule an interview, or if you have questions about the candidate evaluation program, please contact the League office at 206-264-1070.

 

If you have a disability and require accommodation to participate in the candidate evaluation process, please contact Rebecca Cooper at the League office.

2005 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

Paige

     

Miller

 

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

 

Seattle City Council Position 2

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

 

 

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

 

27 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

27 years

 

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

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

 

Campaign Name:

 

People for Paige

 

Address:

 

711 W. Kinnear Pl.

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Seattle, WA 98119

 

Campaign Phone:

 

206-281-8674

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

None

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

peopleforpaige@aol.com

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

www.paigemiller.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)

Port of Seattle Commissioner

 

Elected

 

1988-pesent

 

President 1992, 1997, 2004

 

Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board

 

Appointed

 

1995-1998

 

     

 

Washington State Air Transportation Commission

 

Appointed

 

1990-1994

 

     

 

 

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 am running for the Seattle City Council because our transportation problems are putting our city’s future at risk.  I believe that I have the experience, problem-solving skills, and the tenacity to move the city council forward on its key transportation issues—replacing the 520 bridge and the Alaska Way Viaduct, completing our mass transit lines, and fixing Mercer Street

 

I believe that we need to do more to keep good jobs in the city and to attract new ones—and that we must work to connect disadvantaged people to those jobs. 

 

I also believe that we have a crisis in housing affordability in the city—especially for people in the workforce—teachers, nurses, office personnel and hourly wage employees.  We need to adopt policies to encourage mixed-use, transit oriented development, including housing along the new transit lines that we are investing so much money to build.

 

I have worked for 18 years to solve some of the region’s most difficult transportation and economic development issues—expanding and modernizing Sea-Tac Airport, making sure that light rail makes it all the way to the airport, improving freight mobility, expanding container facilities and bringing cruise ships to our harbor, and setting policy for an organization that creates 200,000 jobs in our community.  The expertise that I have gained and the relationships that I have built around the region and the state would be an immediate asset to this city council in tackling the tough tasks in front of it.     

 


 

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

 

Those who have worked with me almost always remark on my strong ability to synthesize information, to grasp complex issues quickly and to come up with good strategies for resolving problems.  Almost always I have done this quietly working behind the scenes, but the public saw some of my approach this last spring when I offered the plan to save the waterfront streetcar, extend the line northward and increase its ridership by serving new neighborhoods—a plan that I pulled together with the help of our staff in only two weeks time. 

People who have worked with me on issues that I have stayed with over many years, like the Third Runway or the Chinese Garden project or Port Jobs are struck by my ability to focus and my energy, tenacity and hard work in getting things done.

 

When I inquired of the chairman of the board of a local company who had known me for many years why he wanted me to serve on his board, he cited my judgment. 

Those who know me best know of the hardships that I faced as a kid and my compassion for others who have faced real hardship or who are disadvantaged—and of my work as a young adult with juvenile delinquents and drug abusers and my work later as an elected official in founding Port Jobs to help those with limited economic opportunity to find good paying 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. 

 

A .In my first term as a Port Commissioner, I founded Port Jobs, a non-profit organization, to help match disadvantaged workers (primarily women and people of color) with jobs in businesses connected to the Port.  As with many start-ups, the early years were very difficult and the organization nearly died in its infancy.  But, I personally stepped in to help run it and to build a strong board and to recruit an exceptional staff.  I have remained as the Board President and “founding mother” for an organization that has now helped about 1100 people find jobs in the building trades through construction apprenticeships and another 5500 people find jobs in businesses connected to the airport.

 

B. While I have been known as a leader in the decision and effort to build the Third Runway, I have also personally taken the lead to heal the relationships between the Port and our airport neighbors. When I was President of the Commission in 1997, I lead in negotiating a settlement agreement with the City of SeaTac, a 10 year inter-local agreement that successfully resolved their issues related to the impacts of the airport’s expansion; this agreement has worked so well that we are negotiating its early extension this year. A few years later, I devised the plan for financially assisting Highline Schools to insulate its schools against noise. Finally, again as President last year, I put to use my training at Yale Law School and skills acquired in private law practice and in working through many public conflicts to spend many months of last summer and fall personally negotiating with the leaders of the airport area communities to convince them to agree to drop the last of the 23 lawsuits against the Runway, to disband the organization that they had founded to sue the Port and to put in its place a new organization that included the Port.  Now we are working together collaboratively on environmental, transportation, and economic development issues and leaving the bitter disputes behind us.

 

C. I am proud of my role as a pioneer—juggling the responsibility of raising three children while also being a pro-active elected official.  Most women in elected life are childless or have children who are older or grown, but when I was first elected, I had two small children, the oldest of whom was just entering kindergarten.  And then, in my second year in office, I became the first woman Port Commissioner in the U.S. to have a baby while in office.  It has been an extraordinary challenge to be there for my children, picking them up form school most days, helping with homework and hurts, cheerleading their Little League and Ultimate Frisbee games and school plays, and raising them to be thoughtful and engaged young adults.  I have done my best to just be there for them when they needed me.  At the same time, I have needed to be out and about all over King County, meeting citizens and customers and hearing their concerns, and also doing my fundamental public job of setting policy for the airport and seaport, overseeing their financial and business operations and making decisions on capital construction projects worth billions of dollars.  That first “Port baby” is about to enter his junior year of high school, his brother is a pre-med college student, and their sister has found her passion working for a local performing arts organization, so this pioneering journey of struggling and juggling competing demands, priorities and values is nearly completed.     


 

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.

 

Queen Anne Community Council (1980-1985) (President 1981-83)—advocated for citywide greenbelt preservation, personally negotiated an agreement on behalf of Queen Anne with Port of Seattle in 1983 on the future development of Terminal 91 (the NAC Agreement) which led to more than 20 years of cordial relations between the two sides.

 

Harbor Development Advisory Committee (1985-86)—our committee studied existing and future trends in seaport business and made recommendations mapping out future business activity, and land acquisition and development for the Seaport.  The Port Commission adopted the recommendations and followed their blueprint over the ensuing 20 years.

 

City Council Staff analyst (1984-87)—worked for Councilmember Jim Street and then the Council Central Staff as a policy analyst on land use, zoning, transportation, and economic development issues—including neighborhood commercial zoning, greenbelts and South Lake Union transportation and land use.

 

Port Jobs (1993-present) founding President—See description in answer to question #3.

 

The Housing Partnership—(1996-present)—Vice Chair, serve on a non-profit organization seeking policy solutions for the shortage of housing affordable for middle-income workers in Seattle and King County.

 

Seattle Chinese Garden Project—Board member (1991-present)—personally made the requests to raise $4 million (1998-2001) as leader of the capital campaign to build a classical Chinese Garden and cultural center at South Seattle Community College in collaboration with Seattle’s sister city of Chongqing, China.

 

Joint Advisory Committee of the City of SeaTac and the Port of Seattle (1997-present) a working group of two commissioners and two SeaTac Council members meeting every two months to implement the inter-local agreement between the city and port and to strengthen the working relationship between the Port and our airport’s host city.

 

Highline Schools—created the proposal that resulted in the Port and the FAA each contributing $50 million to build or retrofit Highline Schools to protect against airplane noise.

 

Transportation Policy Committees—I have been a leader on many committees that have shaped regional transportation decisions, including the regional committee that studied air capacity and recommended building the Third Runway (1991-93), the state committee that recommended the high speed tilt-train technology implemented in the Talgo train (1991-92), the joint committee of the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle that led on the freight mobility issue, and the Viaduct replacement leadership group (2003-04) that  scoped out the options for replacing the Viaduct.     

 

 

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

 

The fundamental job of the Seattle City Council is to set the policy direction for the city government and to adopt the budget for the city that reflects these goals and priorities.  And, it establishes the taxes required to fund that budget.

 

The council is responsible foremost for providing basic public services so that citizens can carry out their everyday lives.  The first of these is public safety—providing the necessary resources for police and fire protection and the municipal court system.

 

The city council should be working to get us out of transportation gridlock—and moving forward on the major projects to replace the 520 Bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct, to complete our transit systems and to fix the Mercer Mess.

 

 

The council is responsible for setting a favorable economic climate for business retention and expansion to increase income levels in the city and to increase the city’s tax base for the services it provides our citizens.

 

The council serves as the public’s board of directors for our two large public utilities—Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities (which provides water, sewer and garbage disposal services).  Its duty is to provide utilities that are fair to ratepayers, financially well-managed and environmentally responsible.

 

The council sets land use and zoning policies—and should be working in collaboration with our neighborhoods to increase housing affordability by creating sites for mixed use transit-oriented development along our new transportation lines.

 

 

The city council provides funding for human and social services to help those in need of emergency assistance or longer-term help with finding food, shelter or employment opportunity.

 

The Council enhances the quality of life for citizens through provision of public parks and open space (including Seattle Center), libraries and through funding for arts, festivals and other cultural amenities—all of which will be even more important as we accept increased population density in the city as the region’s preferred strategy for growth.

 

Council members are responsible for chairing at least one council committee and for providing citizens the opportunity to discuss and comment on possible city policy and council actions.

 

Finally, council members serve on the boards of regional inter-local organizations like the Puget Sound Regional Council, Sound Transit, and the Prosperity Partnership to move forward a regional agenda on major transportation and economic development issues—like light rail, freight mobility, and a regional economic strategy.     


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.

 

B.A., political science, Brown University; J.D., Yale Law School.

 

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.

 

Port Jobs, Board President, 1994-present, a non-profit that helps disadvantaged workers to gain employment in port-related jobs.

The Housing Partnership, Vice-Chair, 1999-present, a non-profit group seeking policy solutions for the shortage of affordable housing for workers in Puget Sound.

The Seattle Chinese Garden Society, Board member, 1991-present, building a classical Chinese Garden at South Seattle Community College.

Queen Anne Community Council, President 1981-83, Board member, 1980-85     

 

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: 206-264-1070                Email: rebecca@munileague.org

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