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?
5. How long have you resided in King County?
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32 years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Citizens for Sonny Putter |
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Address: |
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City/State/Zip: |
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Campaign Phone: |
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Campaign Fax: |
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Campaign E-mail: |
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Campaign Website: |
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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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King Co. Regional Policy Committee
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Member, Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board
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2. If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:
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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 feel a sense of responsibility to help complete three key civic intiatives in Newcastle which will assure the City's long term viability -- complete the expansion and improvement of Coal Creek Parkway for its entire length in Newcastle without delay, develop Newcastle's downtown into a vibrant, higher density, pedestrian-friendly urban village and attract more stores, restaurants and entertainment amenities which will increase revenues to fund city services.
Since incorporation in 1994, we built Newcastle into a special place and the envy of the Eastside. A landfill became the upscale Golf Club at Newcastle. We attracted high-valued homes, two new elementary schools, a new King County Library and a full-service YMCA. We completed Coal Creek Parkway Phase One as Newcastle’s signature project, funded mostly with outside money. We increased city service levels for police, fire, emergency medical services and maintenance, as we improved Newcastle’s financial health through sound fiscal management.
Despite our growth, we preserved trees and open spaces and our small town feel. We expanded parks and trails and increased safety with new sidewalks and walkways. Our high quality of life continues to improve.
I want to serve another term on the Newcastle City Council to assure that the progress we have made in building our unique community is not reversed.
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2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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My approach in government has been to focus on righteous outcomes, rather than on process. My working style tends to collaborative, working with people for common goals. As a leader, I found that the "servant leader" approach values all participants and tends to lead to constructive results. From my business and government experience, I find most useful my capacity to both see the "big picture" and the smaller details of issues.
My financial education and skills, professional experience in investments and my leadership style have led to positive outcomes for my constituents in Newcastle. When we started the City, we adopted a "contract city" model, limiting the number of staff and front-end start-up costs. Commodity-type services like police, fire and emergency medical services are still being purchased from adjacent city and county jurisdictions, with policy guidance and oversight retained by Newcastle. In funding expensive street, park and cultural projects, Newcastle has achieved considerable leverage on its own small investment through the use of grants and loans from outside parties. Newcastle's investments in the Coal Creek Parkway projects, in the Newcastle Transit Center, in athletic fields and in the YMCA all reflect the success of this strategy.
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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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The three accomplishments of which I am most proud are the founding of a viable City of Newcastle, the building of a sense of community in Newcastle and the acquisition of over $40 million in outside funding for Coal Creek Parkway improvements.
While some may see the incorporation of Newcastle in 1994 as a purely ministerial act, it took years of conversations, persistence and "heavy lifting" by many residents in Newcastle to finally achieve that milestone. As a strong vocal supporter of creating a new city, I became one of the key "salesmen" for incorporation. This required not only persuading neighbors of the financial viability of the city but also inspiring in them a sense of confidence that the future we envisioned was achievable. The last 13 years have proved us right.
Forming a city was a lot easier than building a sense of community, a sense of belonging, in Newcastle. Though a small city of just 9200 people, Newcastle is fortunate to have a compact center around which to build a viable business, civic and cultural core. Today, through community events like the Concerts in the Park, Moonlight Movies and Newcastle Days, residents have some opportunities to interact as neighbors. In the future, with the development of an urban village in downtown Newcastle, residents will have more opportunities and public places for individual interaction on a daily basis. Encouraging this kind of development is not without controversy and it takes political courage to articulate a vision and help bring people together to move in that direction.
The improvement of Coal Creek Parkway, Newcastle's principal arterial, has been our key legacy project since incorporation. Working together and with funding partners at Federal, State, County and local levels, all councilmembers and staff have contributed to the aggregation of over $40 million in outside funding for this major project. I have been a key participant in this effort for my entire tenure on the City Council. |
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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As a small city councilmember, I realized early on that our residents would be strongly affected by decisions that were made in neighboring cities and by King County, the Puget Sound region and the State of Washington. For that reason, I chose to build on 20 years of prior involvement in charitable organization governance to become actively involved in regional government organizations.
I am one of Newcastle's two representatives to the Eastside Transportation Partnership (1994-2007), of which I was formerly Vice Chair (2002). I was also Newcastle’s representative on the I-405 Corridor Program Executive Committee (2000-2005).
I served as a Board Member of Suburban Cities Association of King County (1998-2001). From 2002 to 2004, I was elected by my peers in other cities to serve as Co-Chair of Suburban Cities Association's Intercity Cooperation Policy Board and as a member of the organization’s executive committee. In 2005, I was elected Vice Chair of the Suburban Cities Association's Public Issues Committee, the member cities' primary collective policy-making body in King County. I now chair Suburban Cities’ King County Charter Review Task Force (2007).
I currently represent all King County cities outside Seattle on the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Executive Board (2003-2007) and on the Metropolitan King County Regional Policy Committee (2003-2007; Caucus Lead 2005-2006). I served in the same capacity as a member of the Metropolitan King County Regional Water Quality Committee (1996-1998), the Regional Transit Committee (2002) and the King County Jail Advisory Committee (1999-2001).
At the State level, I served on the Association of Washington Cities' Legislative Committee (1996-2003) and on the Streamlined Sales Tax Task Force (2004-2006). I also earned accreditation as a Certified Municipal Leader from the Association.
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The primary role of the Newcastle City Council is to set policy in the best interests of the community. What constitutes the best interests of the community is usually the subject of considerable due diligence, debate and sometimes contentiousness.
Major Council policy directions and decisions are most directly reflected in the annual operating and capital improvement budgets. These budgets are initially prepared by city staff after significant input from the public and councilmembers, then amended and approved by the City Council.
The City Manager is the Chief Executive Officer of the City and is charged with implementing the policy directions of the City Council. The City Manager serves at the pleasure of the City Council and is the only city employee that the City Council hires or fires.
A significant informal duty of the City Council is listening to the public and reconciling often disparate views. In this role, the City Council can act both as advocate and as mediator.
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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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Certified Public Accountant - State of Washington (1990) Master of Business Adminstration - Finance, Accounting & Management - University of Puget Sound (1979) Master of Science - Applied (1970) & Bachelor of Science (1968) - McGill University |
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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Eastside Transportation Partnership (1994-2007; Vice Chair 2002); I-405 Corridor Program Executive Comm. (2000-2005); Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board (2003-2007); King Co. Regional Policy Comm. (2003-2007; Caucus Lead 2005-2006); King Co. Regional Transit Comm. (2002); King Co. Jail Advisory Comm. (1999-2001); King Co. Regional Water Quality Comm. (1996-1998); Chair, Suburban Cities Association's (SCA) King Co. Charter Review Task Force (2007); SCA Public Issues Comm. (2005-2007; Vice Chair 2005); Co-chair, SCA Intercity Cooperation Policy Board (2002-2004); Board of Directors, Suburban Cities Association (1998-2001); Legislative Comm., Assoc. of WA Cities (1996-2003); Certified Municipal Leader, Assoc. of WA Cities; Founding Board Member, Greater Newcastle Chamber of Commerce (1994). |
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