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

John

     

Albertson

 

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

 

City Council, Bellevue, Postion 4

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

 

 

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

 

36 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

36 years

 

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

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

 

Campaign Name:

 

John Albertson for Bellevue

 

Address:

 

2001 102 PL Se

 

City/State/Zip:

 

98004

 

Campaign Phone:

 

425-732-3399

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

     

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

john4council@qwest.net

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

www.john4council.net

 

 

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

Bellevue City Council

 

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 received continuing encouragement from the over 6,500 people who voted for me in the 2003 election.  

 

I am well-informed about my community and the region, I have a clear vision about how I can impact the state of the community we will leave to future generations.

 

I continue to believe strongly that many of our elected officials are unreasonably influenced by their various contributors and end-benficiaries of municipal capital construction and professional services contracts.

 

I have substantial construction divisions project estimating, auditing and course-of-construction audit experience.  I see scarce public funding being squandered with minimal oversight or outright obviation.

 

I know I can have a substantial postive impact and change people's perception and reality of how city government can improve their lives.

 

I have very humble origins and experiences that I draw from as a well of strength and as a source of seeing the glass half-full, I have proper empathy for the hardships and challenges people face in their lives.

 

I am plainly not a resume-builder in the traditional sense, but I will place the depth and value of my 29 years of adult work and life experience up against any other candidate or incumbent.

 

  

 


 

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

 

High itegrity, truthful, seeking to understand the truth in approaches other than mine.

 

Perseverant and courageous.

 

Flexible and open to new concepts, fostering ideas into valid actions.

 

Diligent, rarely found to be unprepared for the work at hand.

 

Ability to examine multiple information points, then weigh and consider multiple outcomes of a decision, then follow through to inspect the end result.

 

Accountable for myself and my actions. 

 

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 am recently proud to have found the courage to question why our current local political and government climate is producing such declining results in so may critical and constitutionally-derived areas.  I have pride in the form of citizenship through examination, as it most closely mirrors how the foundation of our governing laws came to be.

 

I am proud to have partnered with Mary, my wife of 22 years, to have raised our children and to have been a factor in their ability to focus on becoming well-rounded and reasoning people in their own right, and to have helped to steer some part of their approaches to public school education, to examine the way they learn as much as what they are learning.

 

I am proud to have helped my fellow human beings when they were lost or injured many miles from civilization.  For my entire15 years in Search and Rescue, it was an honro to be integral part of the strong teams, we assembled in mere minutes, but did not just react to events and conditions, we spent subtantial effort preparing ourselves so as to provide extraordinary results.

 

It was very gratifying to have earned a living working in a technology trade in my 20's, and to have had the eventual opportunity to employ and collaborate with hundreds of skilled tradecraftsmen, and technology-information workers on construction and technology development projects and programs in my career at Microsoft.


 

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.

 

As a resident of Bellevue for 36 years, and a citizen and worker in the Puget Sound Region for nearly 3 decades, I sincerely offer a unique amount of practical and logical hard-earned insight and wisdom that I will bring to serve for the benefit of my community.

 

My most visible community activities included coaching youth sports while raising young children, and responding as a Search and Rescue Volunteer from 1986 to 2003.

 

As a technology planner working for Microsoft from 1991 to present, I have supported scores of businesses and have worked in numerous areas of high shareholder valued responsibility, including areas involving personal privacy infromation protection. 

 

From 2000 to present, I have been engaged in the self-initiated citizen activity of oversighting the way Bellevue City government runs, how it manages large scale project and operating finances, it's ratio of staffing to population and budget, it's expanding debt load and financial accounting practices, and it's growing regional leadership responsibility.  I have had to summon the political courage to question the government when and where appropriate. 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Direct idialouge and representation for the combined interests of citizens, community leaders, business owners and representatives.

 

Correlation role with regional city county, state, as well as federal goverment employyes and elected officials.

 

Reponsible for steering economic diversity and development activity.

 

Determination of Quasi-Judicial matters.

 

Providing policy guidance to department directors and city manager, drafters and to provide ultimate resolution approval of city ordinances and regulations.

 

Direct reciprocal involvement with all city commisions.

 

Examination and resolution of claims and litigation and personnel matters.

 

Improving the quality of life and work in Bellevue as it transitions it's core employment center to a purely livable-urban model.

 

 


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.

 

     

 

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

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