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

Tae

Chang

 

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

 

City Council Member, City of Shoreline, position# 1

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

 

 

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

 

over 20 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

Over 20 years

 

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

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

 

Campaign Name:

 

Friends of John Chang

 

Address:

 

16229 -6th NW

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Shoreline, WA 98177

 

Campaign Phone:

 

206-779-6493

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

206-368-8839

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

JohnChang1@comcast.net

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

None

 

 

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)

City Council Member

 

Elected

 

1-01-2002 to

12-31-2005

 

National League of Cities -

Asian Pacific Elected Municipal

Official (APELMO) Bd. Member

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

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

 

Office Title

Year of Run

None

 

    

 

     

 

     

 

    

 

     

 


 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.)

 

My position is to enhance our Aurora (Highway 99) area, that is our primary business area,

in a way that retains and expands our existing businesses, so we can continue to provide

enhanced servics to our citizens.  I want to continue the high road maintenance and surface water services, the community policing that is approchable and accountable to the public,

provide Park maintenance, recreational & sports activities & turf fields that increases usage

and cultural services of performing and graphic arts -museum-and symphony that increase our citizens quality of life. I will continue to increase our traffic safety by appropriating the fundng for sidewalks around our schools.

 

I am running to see that all groups within Shoreline are represented and have an opportunity to be heard in a fair and efficient public process. I also, want to see creative and succesful economic development that focuses on the retention and expansion of existing businesses.

 


 

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

 

My persistenance in the face of adversity, I am legally blind with no central vision and 20/800

uncorrectible periferal vision. I immigrated to this country as a elementary school graduate and yet I completed high school in the USA and received two BA degrees in Finance and Internation Trade from the University of Washington. I worked for 04 years with the US Internal Revenue Service, and then for 23+ years I have owned and operated my own Econo Lodge that has grown from 13 units to its current 44 units.

 

I worked with the State "Services for the Blind" to get special computer software that reads

Microsoft windows documents to me, and have other services to magnify the documents to a size I can read.

 

I am kind and generous to others to the point of being a weakness (at times) because I am some times taken advantage of. I always try to listen to others point of view and weigh the

general good for the community. I am positive and optomistic with a strong personal faith. I want my children, as well as others, to have have a quality of life that is better than what I had. I want to see improvement in my life time.

 

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. 

 

1) Standing up for the concerns of the public against a council majority that knows what is best for the public. One city project on 15th NE had 1,500 letters against to 150 letters for reducing street lanes from 04 lanes to 03 lanes, and 140 personal phone calls against to 30 personal calls for the project but the council majority did it any way.

 

I fought for and got a series of public hearings on what the public wanted in terms of access and input to the council. Those hearings resulted in allowing the public to speak on the actual action item befor the council deliberted on it, and not just at the beginning of the council meeting under public comments thus increasing the publics opportunity to speak and increased the time allotments for speaking on issues.

 

 

2) Working to preserve more open site land areas for Parks and sports/play fields through purchasing the open areas now through City reserves, grants, low interest loans and voter passed bonds. We are now spending several million for additional park open space, and have been working with a citizens "blue rippon" committee  over three years to present a $15 million dollar bond to the voters next May 2006 for 28 aditional acres plus substantial park improvements.

 

3) Working for the City's economic development to assist in the retension and expansion of existing businesses, so the City will have the ability to continue to provide high level of services to our public. We now have a Economic Development Manager who has a MBA degree and a M.Urban Planning degree and experience in the field of economic development.

We have also established a citizens Economic Development Task Force committee of local leaders.


 

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.

 

 1) Board Member, (North Seattle) Catholic Church

 2) President , Catholic Church Youth Group 1977

 3) Presedent , Catholic Young Adults Group 1990 & 1993 

 4) Advisory Board Member, Seattle Korean Assoc. 1995 to Present

 5) Board Member, Shorewood Hills Home owners Association 1997 to 2000

 6) Member, Shoreline Chamber of Commerce 1997 to Present

 7) Board Member, Shoreline Merchants Association 1999 to 2002

 8) Member, St Francis (faith/social club) organization  2003 to Present

 9) Member, Advisory Committee (ACDPU) to Republic of South Korea President-2003 to pres.

10) Member, Advisory Committee to US President (Bush) about Republic of South Korea 2004

11) Board Member, Washington State Korean Chamber Commerce 1998 to Present

12) Owner of the Econo Lodge (44 units) in Shoreline for the past 20 years 1985 to present

 

 

 

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

 

The duties can be divided into two parts Legislative representative and administrative as Board of Directors.

 

The legislative is representing and meeting with the public for 30% of the time, and serving on multiple County/suburban cities, State - Assoc of Washington Cities, and National League of Cities committees on legislative matters accounts for another 30 % of my time.

 

The administrative matters of reviewing council packets, budget priorities, and comprehensive plans and zoning issues occupies another 40 %.

 

The most important is to balance all the different interest groups, and to be fiscally responcible to the public on the budget. In ten years, we have put $30 million away into reserves on a $25 million dollar general fund. We have absorbed the 25 county parks and increased services by two to four times for park maintenance, recreation and sports activities, and cultural services in the performing arts and museum of history.  We have completed over 100 surface water projects and now have NO flooding problems in Shoreline. We have upgraded and maintained all roads. We are now working on Economic Development so we can continue to provide high level services.

 


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.

 

BA degrees (1982) in Finance and International Trade from the University Of Washington

 

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