1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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First Name |
Middle Initial or Nick Name |
Last Name |
2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
3. Are you the incumbent? Yes No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
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In the 4th Council District since 1964; in Seattle since 1951 |
5. How long have you resided in King County?
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Fifty-six (56) years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Larry Phillips for County Council |
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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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Council Chair 2004-2006 (2); Budget Chair 2002-2003 (3);Growth Management & Natural Resources Chair 2007; Regional Water Quality Chair 2007
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Central Link Committee ChairExecutive Committee Membe
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WA State Legislature, State Representative
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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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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.)
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I am seeking re-election to the Metropolitan King County Council because I am committed to providing effective regional and rural-area government services at reasonable costs. Specifically, I believe King County has a vital role to play in helping to maintain economic vitality for the region while preserving our great natural resources through conservation.
As a Council incumbent, I have worked very hard to provide policy direction, executive agency oversight, and budgetary decision-making in each of these areas, but there is much more to do. King County government is once again in transition as we move from a local service provider in urban areas to a true regional government serving the cross-jurisdictional needs of 1.8 million people. Builiding on our successful implementation of the Growth Management Act (1992 - present), and the successful merger with METRO (1994 -present), we must continue to build transportation and transit infrastructure, provide law, safety and justice services through our County's Superior Court, District Court, Prosecutor, Sheriff, and Detention programs, preserve and protect clean air, water quality and critical habitat, and enhance parks, recreation, and trail opportunities for our families. And given our continuing general fund challenge, we must do so through fiscally responsible methods and efficiencies.
As Chair of the Council and as Budget and Fiscal Management Committee Chair over three budget cycles, I have proven we can meet this challenge. I am seeking re-election to the Council to ensure King County stabilizes its general fund revenues and expenditures for the long-term so that these critical infrastructure, program and service needs can be met responsibly. Given the opportunity to serve, I am confident budget and service stability can be achieved.I am also running to enhance mobility options as a priority for our region's families and businesses. We are on the cusp of meeting this responsibility through Sound Transit's Regional Express Bus Service, Sounder, and the soon-to-be completed Link Light Rail system. As a Sound Transit Board member, I am committed to not only getting light rail to SeaTac, but also north to the University of Washington and eventually to Northgate. Transit Now dollars as well as state and federal gas tax funds are now available for transit and highway expansions and improvements. Our citizens should expect the best from County government in meeting our transportation and transit priorities, and I am committed to making them a reality. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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My most important personal characteristics as a councilmember include: - my ability to become involved in, work on, and remain focused on substantive issues as they arise before the Council; - to listen, ask good questions of staff and the public, and seek the advice of colleagues and constituents as needed; and - to be innovative and remain flexible in fashioning solutions that work and will stand the test of time.
I also have the ability to carve out areas of policy and programmatic expertise (the budget and fiscal management; natural resource protection; salmon recovery; arts, parks and open space; growth management; and now regional transit and mobility), become knowledgeable on issues within each, and thereby become a regional leader and county officeholder that my constituents and fellow elected officials can rely on to be candid and trustworthy.
I also have a demonstrated willingness and ability to work with diverse people and perspectives, especially my colleagues "across the aisle". I pride myself on making sure that the council has a "working majority" of at least 6-7 votes on nearly every issue, and that our budgets pass unanimously, or nearly so, every year. As Council chair or Budget committee chair I made sure this happened. I take on responsibility, welcome leadership opportunities and challenges, and stand ready to accomplish county objectives. I am especially proud of my long and successful collegial relationships with Bruce Laing, Louise Miller, Jane Hague, and Pete von Reichbauer -- all Republicans -- and with whom I have shared leadership responsibilities. |
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) As a recognized Council leader on growth management, natural resource conservation, open space preservation, and fish and wildlife habitat protection, I led the effort to preserve in perpetuity the Snoqualmie Forest and the effort to recover salmon in the Cedar/Sammamish/Lake Washington watershed. The Snoqualmie Forest initiative led to the permanent presrvation of nearly 100,000 acres of productive forestlands in Eastern King County -- an area nearly twice the size of Seattle. The Salmon Recovery Plan for our watershed was the culmination of nearly 10 years of work to recover Chinook and other salmon species in the state's most populous watershed, and answer the federal government's Endangered Species Act listing. I was the Steering Committee Chair for the Plan's development, now pending approval before the federal government, and which received unanimous ratification by the twenty-seven (27) cities in the watershed.
2) As Chair of the Council's Budget and Fiscal Management Committee for three budget cycles, I worked on a bi-partisan basis with my colleagues to address our budget crisis, cutting over $93 million in expenditures from our General Fund (current expense) Budget while prioritizing and preserving vital public services. In doing so, I insited on developing an open and continuous dialogue with our citizens, engaging them in problems and solutions, and challenging Executive agencies to dig deeper for efficiencies and new ways of doing business. While painful, it proved successful, as my budgets passed with overwhelming majorities and were signed into law by Executive Sims.
3) As Chair of the Regional Water Quality Committee, I led a six-year effort to develop and adopt the Regional Waterwater Services Plan, setting in place and in motion the policy direction covering a 30-year planning horizon for wastewater infrastructure, water quality improvements and water reclamation and re-use. The effort also led to the decision to build a third regional waterwater facility - Brightwater - to accommodate growth in a fiscally and environmentally responsible manner. |
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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I have been involved in many community activitives which relate to my duties as a county councilmember. But an activity of great involvement and relevance has been that of coaching young athletes in a variety of sports. I coached football (3 years), basketball (11 years), baseball (2 years), soccer (1 year), and taught young people to swim and snow-ski over many seasons. Coaching has taught me the value of effective communication and leadership; patience in working with others whose involvement is ultimately critical to success of the venture; "failure" as a great teacher and motivator for "victory", and competition as a great means by which to improve skills and build teamwork. Looking back, I'm not sure who gained more in "life's lessons"; the kids I coached, or the coach who "taught" them.
As a former high school and college athlete, and as a coach, I know the value of good coaching for the athletes involved, their families, and the community at large. I also know that the lessons of skill development, teamwork, sportsmanship, and competition are transferable to public life and the County Council as an officeholder.
As a legislator, I know the value of developing legislative skills to pass an ordinance with a strong majority vote that will also avoid an Executive's veto. I know that no measure can pass without being a "team player" among my colleagues, respecting their skills, roles and involvement. I know I have to "play by the rules" to win their respect and trust and that my ideas need merit to be "competitive" among the sea of proposals. Being an athlete and a coach "taught" me plenty about the skills I need to be an effective leader.
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As a member of the legislative branch of county government, the duties of a councilmember are to establish policy through the adoption of ordinances; levy taxes; appropriate funds and adopt budgets; establish executive departments and administrative offices and their powers and responsibilities; adopt comprehensive plans; and provide general oversight and scrutiny of executive agency functions and performance.
Of these, the most important are the adpotion of budgets and the provision of agency oversight. Through exercise of these powers, the public has assurance that their elected representatives are watching how well their tax dollars are being spent, how well services are being delivered and prioritized and how agencies and personnel are being challenged to improve performance and remain accountable. They also allow us to reshape policy and redirect programmatic efforts as circumstances change or needs arise, and serve as an important "brake" on the Executive as proposals and expansion of agencies are brought forward. As a separate, but equal, branch of county government, these two most important powers allow us to perform our duties effectively, balancing the Executive's power to run the government on a daily basis, and the judiciaries power to enforce and interpret our laws. When these powers are used effectively, we "temper" any excess of the other branches of county government. |
EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY
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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LLM George Washington National Law Center, 1981 JD Willamette School of Law, 1976 BA UW Political Science, 1973 Queen Anne High School, 1969 |
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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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.
Candidate Evaluation Coordinator: Jason Thibedeau
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: (425) 671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org