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

Jan

     

Drago

 

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

 

Seattle City Council, Position 4

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

 

 

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

 

23 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

25 years

 

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

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

 

Campaign Name:

 

Team Drago

 

Address:

 

PO Box 94317

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Seattle, WA 98124

 

Campaign Phone:

 

206-261-0418

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

206-443-2603

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

teamdrago@hotmail.com

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

www.jandrago.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)

Seattle City Council Member

 

Elected

 

1994-2005

 

President, 2 terms of 4 years

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

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

 

Office Title

Year of Run

Seattle City Council

 

1991

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 


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 re-election to continue to provide experienced, effective leadership in the City and in the region to meet the challenges of building an integrated multimodal transit/transportation system in the City and in the region, to provide more affordable housing, to improve our public education system and to create more family wage jobs through economic development.

 


 

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

 

I believe that the prerequisites for public service are to genuinely like people and desire to help them, to be healthy and energetic and to bring a full range of life experiences to the job.  I believe I meet that standard.

 

Public servants must have integrity and be honest.  My constituents and supporters tell me they like my plain spoken honesty and my inability to spin.  They know where I stand on the issues.

 

Elected officials must be able to earn and maintain the trust of their colleagues.  I have demonstrated that trait by twice being elected President of the Council, for two, two year terms – one in 1995-96 in my first term and again in 2004-05 – by two different Councils.

 

Elected officials must also be inclusive, patient, tolerant and tenacious to be successful.  I think those traits are demonstrated in my answers to question 3 in this section.

 

I think effective leaders have a passion for an issue or a project and the strength of their conviction that sustains them in this difficult job.  It’s also important to not be too thin skinned since you can’t satisfy all of the people all of the time and you must make difficult decisions.  I think those traits are also demonstrated in my answers to question 3 in this section.

 

And finally, in order to be a true leader, not a dictator, a leader must have a balanced ego and self confidence.  My preferred leadership style, The Tao of Leadership, suggests that when a project is completed, the participants will believe that they did it themselves – the leader will give credit, not take credit.  It is an effective style working with a team that has developed a level of trust.  When necessary I can also play hard ball and let’s make a deal but it is not the way that I believe government should work but sometimes we must play the hand we are dealt.

 

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. As a new Councilmember, with liaison responsibility for Animal Control, many constituents came to me complaining of being harassed in the parks by Animal Control Enforcement Officers and Seattle Police Officers jumping out from behind bushes and driving their vehicles all over the Parks.  I recognized this as a problem that needed a solution.  We found that more households in Seattle owned dogs than had children.  It seemed that the solution was to separate people and their dogs from people that didn’t want to be around dogs.  Thus began a three year effort to create off leash areas (OLA) for dogs in parks.  Initially the effort did not have the support of Animal Control or the Parks Department.  Historical records revealed that they had resisted any attempts by elected officials, including former Mayor Norm Rice, for decades.  We engaged 15,000 people in the process through public workshops, public hearings, letters and limited emails during those years.  Eventually we gained the support of Animal Control, the Parks Department and the Council.  We built into the enabling ordinances a process for pilot OLA which could be made permanent, a process for citizens to initiate new OLA,  and a partnership with Citizens for Off Lease Areas for stewardship of the areas thereby institutionalizing the process.  We changed 127 years of Seattle history and established the seven original OLA.  As they say, the rest is history and today the citizens of Seattle have taken the initiative to establish four more OLA all without controversy!

 

2. As a Co-chair with Councilmember Nick Licata for the Council’s Monorail Committee, I found that this issue sparked more interest and comments, and consumed more Councilmember and staff time than any other issue in my 12 years on the City Council.  We had responsibility for conducting the Council and the public review.  Between March 31 and June 28, 2004, the Council held 18 Committee of the Whole (COW) meetings, three Full Council meetings, three public hearings and one brown bag lunch discussion  dedicated to monorail issues and/or the review of the alignment ordinance and the Transit Way Agreement and Financial Review.  We heard from hundreds of citizens during the public comment period at every meeting and received many letters and thousands of emails.  Historically, major transit and transportation projects are controversial.  We had the responsibility to hear all points of view.  I believe that we fulfilled that responsibility.

 

3. As Finance and Budget Chair for the 2001-2002 budget, I initiated the most open, public, inclusive budget process in the history of the City with the first joint Council-Mayor budget retreat at Town Hall where we developed mutually agreed upon budget goals and objectives and initiated the first budget public hearings where citizens could call in and email concerns live during the hearing.   We also tried to educate and help the public engage in the process by putting the entire budget online.


 

 

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.

 

Mountains-to-Sound Greenway Trust           Board                               1997-2005

Trade Development Alliance                          Board                               1994-2005

Seattle King County Convention & Visitors  Board                               2001-2005

Seattle Art Museum                                         Board                               2004-2005

Port Jobs                                                          Board                               2002-2005

Sister Cities Coordinating Council                Member                            2000-2005

Sports and Events Council                            Board                                1997-2001

Institute for Motivating Reading                    Board                                1994-2001

Seattle Mayor's Homeless Task Force, Chair

Governor's Task Force on Homeless, Co-Chair

Denny Regrade Crime Prevention Council, President

Downtown Seattle Association Neighborhood Securtiy Task Force, Chair

Drugs:  Draw the Line, Interim and Permanent Steering Committee

West Precinct Citizens' Advisory Council

Downtown Neighborhood District Council, Business Representative to City Neighborhood Council

First Avenue Association - member

Seattle Mayor's Small Business Task Force - member

Denny Regrade Business Association - Board

36th District Democrats - PCO, Executive Board

Denny Regrade Community Council - member

National Alliance to End Homelessness - member

Women in Unity - member

Washington Council on Crime  Delinquency - Board

King County Women's Political Caucus - member

Organized girls' soccer league, coached team in Manalapan Township, New Jersey; chaired local parks and recreation commission

 

 

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

 

As Council Member: The City Council is a policy-making body, which as its paramount duty approves and adopts the City's biennial budget. It provides for public safety and health, authorizes capital (building) improvements, levies taxes, oversees the finances and assets of the City, and promotes policy for the good of the citizens of Seattle.

 

As Council President: I have been elected by my Council colleagues to serve as Council President for 2004-2005. In this capacity, I am the official head of the Legislative Department. The Council President coordinates the work of the Council, including establishment of committees and appointment of committee chairs and members. As Council President I also preside over meetings of the Full Council. When the Mayor is absent from the City or incapacitated, I assume the duties and responsibilities of the Mayor. When Legislation is referred to the Council it is assigned by me to a committee for review and recommendation prior to action by the Full Council.


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., Psychology, Douglass College/Rutgers University, 1973.

 

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