The Municipal League of King County

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224

Seattle, WA 98104

(206) 264-1070 cec@munileague.org

2007 Board of Trustees

Bruce Carter, Chair
Judge Pro Tem, Seattle Municipal Court

Robert Klein, Vice-Chair
Short Cressman & Burgess PLLC

Norma Jean Hanson, Secretary
Norma Jean Hanson Paralegal Services

Sandra Driscoll, Treasurer
City Attorney (ret.)

 

Angela Avery, Community Volunteer

Dan Berger, Municipal Attorney

Jill D. Bowman, Stoel Rives LLP

Bill Breitenstein, Financial Executive (ret.)

David Brentlinger, Weyerhaeuser Realty Investors

Steve Call, Cascade Water Alliance

Mary Gates, Consultant

Albert Israel, Mass Mutual Financial Group

Rachel Jackson, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Chris Johnson, Office of the Attorney General, WA State

Mark Koenig, Consultant

Rick Lewis, Intel

Steve Marshall

Eric B. Martin, Davis Wright Tremaine

Bradley Meacham, Microsoft

Dan McDonald, MWH Americas

Kristen Peterson, Washington State Hospital Association

Kathy Putt, Comcast

Ramsey Ramerman, Foster Pepper

R. Todd Slind, CH2MHill

Will Smith, T-Mobile

John Spady, Dick’s Drive-In

Lucy Steers

Gary Strannigan, Safeco

Harold Taniguchi, King County Department of Transportation

Michael Teter, Perkins Coie, LLP

Wes Uhlman, Wes Uhlman & Associates

Jason Van Nort, Puget Sound Energy

Jen Watkins

Rodney G. Wendt, Koegen Edwards LLP

Rich White, Boeing

Nick Williamson, Encrypted Key Technologies

 

2007 CANDIDATE 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:     x                    Email                    US Mail      Fax               Not Sending

   Resume (education, employment, and professional activities)

           Sent by:       Email             US Mail         x                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         x                Fax         Not Sending

   Constituent Newsletters and other publications

           Sent by:       Email             US Mail         x                Fax         Not Sending

   Photograph

           Sent by:     x                    Email                    US Mail      Fax            Not Sending

 

Note: Electronically submitted questionnaires are strongly preferred. All materials can be emailed to cec@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.

We request that you return the Candidate Questionnaire

by June 15, 2007

 

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 the CEC Coordinator at the League office.

 


2007 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

Valentina

 

Kiselev

 

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

 

Bellevue City Council Position #3

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes            X  No

 

 

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

 

Over 5 years     

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

10 years

 

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

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

 

Campaign Name:

 

Valentina Kiselelv for Bellevue City Council

 

Address:

 

P.O. Box 3692

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Bellevue, WA 98009-3692

 

Campaign Phone:

 

425-289-8999

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

425-454-8633

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

Valentina@valentinaforbellevue.com

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

www.valentinaforbellevue.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)

Bellevue Arts commission

 

Appointive

 

June/04 -- present

 

Chair of Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition Committee 2005-2006

(elective)

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.)

 

“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable”

  This Moliere’s quote is the most reflective of my position on why am I running for the city council.

 

I live in Bellevue for over 5 years, I work in Bellevue for more than 8 years. I fell in love with this city the moment I saw it and am fascinated by the way it grows and changes.

I love being the part of this change and growth and believe that I have all the necessary assets, including my past and present leadership experiences, my educational and professional background, as well as years of serving Bellevue community in many different ways to be able to take a lead role in taking Bellevue to a greater future.

 

My professional background is very diverse and includes years of work in medical field both as a physician, and as a  health center Executive Director. Being a business owner and a Director of a center helped me to develop outstanding entrepreneurial, PR and other skills. I have extensive experience in Administrative Law through participation in a rulemaking process for Adult Day Services in Washington State and through representation of the Medicaid recipients at the Administrative Hearings for about 4 years.

 

For years, I have been involved with many aspects of Bellevue life. I initiated the project that has then become a Bellevue Entrepreneur Center and I serve on it’s Board for about 5 years now working on business development issues, that were important enough for me to get involved with the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce Diversity Task Force and to start developing Russian American Network. I have been involved with development of some great community projects with Institute for Community Involvement and Sisters on Eastside that include Grassroots Advocacy Forum, Conversations on Race and Culture, International Leadership Scholarship Program and so on. For over five years I served on Board of Washington Adult Day Services Association and continue to serve older adults as a Board member of Bellevue Network on Aging. In a capacity of a Co-Chair of the Parent Advisory Council for Bellevue School District I worked on issues concerning minority students and education program in general. I am deeply involved with the local and regional transportation issues. As a Bellevue Arts Commissioner I have been a Chair of 2006 Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition Committee and am proud to take a credit for some process improvements. In addition, serving on Bellevue Arts Commission’s allocations committee allowed me to participate in further development of the arts and culture in Bellevue, that I’ve started as a Bellevue Cultural Compass Steering Committee member.

I would like to take a liberty and quote one of the city staff whom I worked with on many different projects for years, who told me: “ I don’t know of anyone who gives it’s community as much time and passion as you do”.

 

I strongly believe that the position of a city council is about a vision and a big picture.

Thus I asked myself:

 

  • Is it important to take a better care of the senior community in the city where average age of it’s residents is high?
  • Is it important to improve a transportation system along with it’s infrastructure and yet preserve the neighborhoods?
  • Are there ways to achieve a balance between growth of the city and the growing demand to improve safety and security while still protecting taxpayers?
  • How can the cultural development of Bellevue benefit it’s residents?
  • Is inclusiveness in nature of our city yet?
  • How can city achieve better outreach to it’s resident’s including almost a third of those foreign-born residents?
  • How can city council make itself and it’s staff more accountable for the dollars being spent on a taxpayers behalf?

 

Considering my educational, professional and community background, I believe that I have an APPROPRIATE answers to these questions.

 

I am a wife and a mother of two adorable girls (11 year old and 5 month old).  My family proves me every day that all I do is worth to be done and that the future we will have is the future that we all deserve.

 

 

 


 

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

 

First and foremost important quality of mine is the ability to always stay happy, no matter what happens. I am a happy person. It does not mean that I am not having all kinds of experiences and it does not mean that I am blind and ignorant about everyday issues I am facing as a private citizen or as a community leader. What I mean by that, is I am a WHOLE person and is in peace with myself (which doesn’t mean that I don’t think I should continue self-development). I think it is an extremely important quality for the leader as only the whole person can have a whole vision and be objective.

I don’t have any insecurities about myself, nor reservations. This allows me to work on any project with consideration of other people’s needs, not on my little agenda. Thanks to this ability I’ve been able to preserve the business that I am running from closure, it allowed me to initiate the project that then became Bellevue Entrepreneur Center. This is the quality that allows me not only to listen, but to actually HEAR what people are trying to say.

At the same time I am a very self-aware person. Another important quality for a leader, politician, legislator. It allows me to know my weaker points and to continually educate, develop and improve myself. Without personal growth person can’t be a leader. I found it to be a very useful quality being a Chair of a Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition Committee.

As an Executive Director I’ve been always acting in the best interest of organization that through out the years it’s been open served hundreds and hundreds of people. I’ve learned not to ever get personal. Sounds simple, but I found it to be a rare ability and I am grateful to have this ability, too.

Ability to motivate people, to lead them and to interest them in anything is my other characteristic. Working with many different organizations and projects, I found that I can easily get people involved and interested and I have enough passion for anything I do to fire up a good group of people. I truly believe that it’s a “must have” quality for a city leader, as for any other leadership position. Worked well for me when I was serving as a Washington Adult Day Services Association, as well as other organizations I’ve been with.

I think that one of the reasons I am able to motivate people, is my respect to individuals and ability to appreciate a person, despite their believes and their qualities.

At the same time my ability to see outside the box has allowed me to achieve a lot in my life, and also to be successful in anything I do. Having a comprehension of a bigger picture, yet still being able to integrate and incorporate the details, is the ability that allowed me to achieve a great results in EVERY project.

Last, but not least, I think that anyone who is seeking office has to remember that “to rule is easy, to govern is difficult”. I have been governing a little “Circle of Friend” nation quite successfully for over seven years keeping this quote in mind. I wish every City Council member knew it.

 

 

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. 

 

As I mentioned before, I have initiated the creation of Bellevue Entrepreneur Center about six-seven years ago, when I came to former Bellevue Mayor, Chuck Mosher with the proposal of “International Informational Support Center” as I called it then. He connected me with a wonderful creative, hardworking and passionate women, Ellen Miller-Wolfe, who at that time was the Manager of Economic Development Department with city of Bellevue. Her hard work, leadership and my ideas have allowed us to start what is now Bellevue Entrepreneur Center.

This organization helps start-up diverse in many ways businesses directly and thru it’s partnerships with UW Business School, City U, SBDC, Port of Seattle, City of Bellevue and many other organizations to survive, to grow, to build new jobs, to participate in economic development of the region.

 

Chairing the Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition Committee was a great and rewarding experience.

I was able to take a lead role in improving the process of the Exhibition, to bring it to the next quality level and to let Bellevue residents experience new venues that year.

 

Active participation in a rulemaking process for Washington Administrative Code governing Adult Day Health programs in WA is of the outmost importance to me. I have been able to influence the language of the regulations to the extent at which it became clear what this very important program is really about. In addition, I have provided personal representation to over 200 seniors at the Administrative Hearings that not only allowed the settlement in favor of these seniors, but also influenced the whole process of their assessment on a state level by improving the process of assessment as well as communication between the state agencies, providers and clients.H


 

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.

 

·         Bellevue Arts Commissioner as of May 2004 : Chaired of Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition in 2005-2006, as the allocations committee member, participating in a cultural development of the city, along with other fellow commissioners working on many significant art and cultural projects that are changing the landscape, appearance, feel, everyday life and the future of Bellevue

  • Board Member of Bellevue Entrepreneur Center : initiated the project, brought many unique outreach ideas
  • Back on Board of Bellevue Diversity Task Force: creating outreach, educational, networking opportunities for diverse business communities
  • Board Member of Bellevue Network on Aging: it is my first year and I am still learning, but I get a pretty good idea of where the gaps are and how they can be filled without bringing an extra dollars
  • Very First Co-Chair of the Bellevue Scholl District Advisory Council couple of years ago
  • Former Board member of Washington Adult Day Service Association (for almost five years): participated in a rulemaking process, pushed the petition that asked DSHS to allow the providers participate in this process and influenced this process
  • Formulating and developing Russian American Network that contributes to business development in our region by offering a bridging opportunities to American and Russian business communities
  • In 2001 actively participated in organization of the Grassroots Advocacy Forum that had a great success in terms of how many people it attracted and how many issues have it raised for Bellevue community
  • Was among those who organized Conversations on Race and Culture series in 2003

 

 

 

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

 

  • Representation. I believe that a City Council member has to be able to represent the interests of ALL the city residents despite their beliefs, their origin and so on. No matter how controversial the needs and opinions of constituents can appear to Council, it members have to have an ability to find out why are they important and how they can address them. With almost one third of Bellevue residents being foreign-born, this duty becomes one of the most important ones.
  • Study. The council member has to be well aware not only of the projects on hand and how they are being done, but also of their impact and potential affects. Thus the deep study of the subject is another important duty of the council member.
  • Accessibility. The government has to be accessible to it’s constituents. The council member has to be open for the dialogue with constituents and many times to be the first to initiate one, as for many people, especially for minorities there is a barrier that they can’t overcome themselves.
  • Accountability. The city council member has to be accountable for his (her) actions not only personally, but through holding accountable city staff as well as city’s partnering organizations and the organizations that receive funds from the city.
  • Outreach. City council member has to have a pretty good idea of how to reach out to ALL, including seniors, low-income, foreign-born and so on. Without the outreach half of the services if not more are wasted.
  • Structuring and formulating and then constantly shaping up the VISION of the city and it’s future, as well as sharing this vision with constituents is another duty of the council member.
  • Outside the box thinking. Visualizing and understanding of what city’s role in a regional development is another important task that city council member has to be working on.
  • Be informed and aware. Not always city council members are aware of what is going on in the city, that comes back to accountability issue. But in my opinion it’s as important to stay informed about city business, as to be aware of the outside opportunities. I have not seen our city to be involved much into regional projects, it’s very sad to see that city is not taking as advantage of Olympics that come to region in 2010.
  • Leadership. Not as a quality, but as a duty, that will allow the city government to overcome hesitations that might prevent the city from development. I think that current government underestimates Bellevue and it’s regional role and abilities. As a Chair of the Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition I with my fellow committee members was able not only to increase the number of artists who applied this year through different outreach methods, but also to reach out to international artists, improving and diversifying the quality of art selection.

 

I once heard “it’s difficult to learn to work with three people, but if you can do that, than the quantity doesn’t really matter anymore”. I agree with this statement as I’ve learned it though my personal experiences. I think I have motivation, qualities, background and vision that will allow me to be the premiere Council Member that our premiere city deserves to have.  


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.

 

1997 – Graduated with Physician and Pediatrician Medical Degree from St Petersburg Pediatrics Medical Academy1990 – Graduate Advanced English High School, St. Petersburg, Russia

 

1990 – Graduate, Advanced English High School #328, St. Petersburg, Russia

 

 

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.

 

·         Initiated the creation of the Bellevue Entrepreneur Center  (BEC)

·         Organization of the Grassroots Advocacy Forum with the Institute for Community Involvement (ICI)

·         Chairing the Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition in 2006, fine tuning the process and the quality content of it

·         Rulemaking for Adult Day programs in the state of WA in 2002-2003

·         Formulating and developing Russian American Network

·         Individual representation of over 200 seniors at the Administrative Hearings concerning their health care

·         Co-Chairing the Bellevue School District Parent Advisory Council

 

 

 

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 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:  Jason Thibedeau

 

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224                 Phone: (206) 264-1070                      Email: cec@munileague.org

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