2006 Candidate Questionnaire
SECTION I
BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION
1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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First Name |
Middle Initial or Nick Name |
Last Name |
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Fred |
Jarrett |
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2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
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State Representative, 41st District, Position 1 |
3. Are you the incumbent? Yes No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
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Nearly 50 years |
5. How long have you resided in King County?
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Nearly 50 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
7. If partisan, please indicate party: GOP
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Committee to Re-Elect Fred Jarrett |
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Address: |
8441 SE 68th Street, PMB 212 |
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City/State/Zip: |
Mercer Island, WA 98040 |
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Campaign Phone: |
206.232.8304 |
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Campaign Fax: |
n/a |
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Campaign E-mail: |
fred@vote4fred.com |
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Campaign Website: |
www.vote4fred.com |
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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) |
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State Representative
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Elective
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2001 to present
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See attached resume |
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Mercer Island School Board
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Elective
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1999-2001
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See attached resume |
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Mercer Island City Council
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Elective
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1979-1996
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See attached resume
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Mayor of Mercer Island |
Elective |
1983-1987 |
See attached resume
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See attached resume for complete list of appointive and leadership positions |
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2. If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:
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Office Title |
Year of Run |
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State Senate
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1996
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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.)
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I believe government is important. It is a tool for making communities better places to live and can be an advantage or detriment as we choose to make it. I have a passion to make government an advantage.
My focus in the state legislature has been improving education, transportation and the ability of our government to deliver results. I believe I have contributed to progress in each.
In education, I have been a leader in improving access and quality in higher education. Representative Skip Priest and I have lead the effort to create performance contracts between the legislature and universities and plan, building on those contracts, to expand funding and access to universities (and especially the high demand degrees sought after by the job market) for the increasing number of graduates of our high schools.
In K-12, I have been a leader in the work of financing education reform and focusing on improving the performance of our schools. I have authored bills for basing the definition of basic education on performance rather than spending. I have proposed serious, comprehensive and well received proposals for improving the performance of both our state’s higher education and K-12 systems.
In transportation, I have lead efforts to resume investment in our transportation infrastructure. I authored the sections of the Regional Transportation Improvement District legislation which allowed funding to be balanced, rather than just roads oriented, and collaborated as a member of the five corners team that negotiated the recent regional transportation governance reform legislation (an effort concomitant with the MuniLeague/Discovery Institute activates on the same topic). I was a leader in the passage of the five cent, and nine and one-half cent gas tax increases over the last three years
And I have worked to create a bi-partisan group focused on expanding the use of Governor Locke's POG process into the way the legislature does its own budgeting. That effort has resulted in a Joint Legislative Audit Committee audit of budgeting for.
Each of these examples intend to demonstrate the focus on making government work to make our communities better. I hope to continue to peruse this goal as long as I retain the passion to do so. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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I have the ability to see the world as a complex system, and be able to understand it from differing perspectives. And I have an ability to be creative in creating links between those different perspectives.
This is important in legislative bodies as few see issues from the same perspective or bias. Understanding, and being able to explain to others the perspective they see an issue from, is an important first step to coming to agreement.
Creative thinking gives me an ability to find a solution space which integrates the interests of members who are not obviously supportive of similar initiatives.
And, I am patient and persistent. I will continue to work on issues until their time is right. |
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.
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1. When elected Mayor of Mercer Island, our council was split. Each vote of import split 4 to 3 based on the position the first member took, the other six members lining up in lock step either with or against depending on which "team" the were on. This had been going on for some years, and had frozen the city. In fact, during my first six years on the council, including my first two as mayor, we delivered no capital projects of note.
I set as my goal eliminating the split and getting the council to work as a team. An underlying principle was that each member had been legitimately elected and thus represented valid community interests. When I stepped down as Mayor, the leader of the minority faction followed me as Mayor (elected unanimously) and in the second six years I served on the council, including my last two as mayor), we delivered more capital projects than in the first twenty-five years of citihood.
2. In the legislature, I authored a bill during the 2003 session creating the first categorical exemption under the state's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) in twenty-five years. The exemption, in essence, eliminated redundancies and overlaps between SEPA and the Growth Management Act (GMA) passed many years after SEPA.
Why am I proud? Because this is an area of great polarization in government and Olympia has found fixing environmental law next to impossible. This bill, significant in creating a market for independent builders and planned unit developments inside the urban growth lines, passed both house nearly unanimously, proving making the law work is not improssible. |
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.
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Most of my public service activities over the last twenty-five years have been in political affairs (see the attached resume). I've served for nearly twenty years in local government and another six in the legislature while raising a family and perusing a career at The Boeing Company. Involvement in other community organizations has suffered as a result.
I have served on the Board of the Municipal League from 1997 through 2000, including a term as president. And was a member of the PTSA, scouts and sports leagues during my sons' school years. I have been a part of a number of fund raising activities around schools and community events as well.
That said my life with family and work have greatly affected the way I approach politics. One can't deal with the difficulties of people living their lives, either with in a family or in management and leadership positions in work settings, without gaining an appreciation of how interconnected we all are in our communities. How we are both individuals and members of a group simultaneously.
And that dichotomy creates the opportunity for making better lives for us all. I try to bring the tolerance and optimism I've learned to my work in politics.
(I have attached a professional resume as an addendum to this form)
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- Please describe the duties of the office you seek. Which are the most important duties and why?
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Its interesting that the state constitution doesn't explicity state the duties of the legislators. It creates a "Legislative Department" and enumerates the number of members of it, then spends a great deal of time placing limits on what the Legislative Department can do and when. As with many specifications setting limits, limits provide much freedom!
In the most simple sense, a legislator is reponsible for voting on legislation (which becomes the Revised Code of Washington, the rules by which we live in the State of Washington) and resolutions which state the opinion of the Legislative Department. Incorporated in that legislation is the policy and direction for the Executive and the executive agencies of the state. Legislators, in casting those votes, are making choices for our constituents about how we want to be held accountable as citizens and how we want to spend our public funds to walk our values.
Beyond the simple sense, however, I think legislators are obligated to articulate our values as a state and to be educators in our civil discource. This part of the job provides great freedom and, especially with the advent of e-mail, an opportunity to engage citizens in a constructive dialog about government and its limits. I greatly enjoy this “duty.” |
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.
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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.
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01- State Rep, 41st Legislative District 99-01 Director, Mercer Island Schools 79-95 City Councilmember for Mercer Island, Mayor of Mercer Island 86-93 Councilmember, Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle & Chair, Metro Transit Ctte (90-93) 97-01 King Co Boundary Review Board 91-95 King Co Growth Management Policy Council 84-95 Suburban Cities Association Board and president (85-86) 99-00 Chair, Municipal League; Trustee (96-2000) 74- Project Manager, Boeing Commercial Airplane |
Finished!
If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (cec@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 newsletter 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: Jennifer DiGiacomo
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: 425-671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org