Sewer plant crucial in Edmonds council race

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, September 2, 2001

By Bill Sheets

Edmonds Enterprise editor

EDMONDS — The three candidates hoping to fill the Edmonds City Council Position 3 seat represent the full spectrum of Edmonds politics.

There is someone who has worked in city government, former planner Jeff Wilson. There is a longtime city antagonist, Syd Locke. And there is a total newcomer, Jaycin Diaz.

All three will be on the Sept. 18 primary ballot. Two of the three will advance to the general election Nov. 6.

Each has different reasons for running.

"I found out how much I missed being involved with the citizens," said Wilson, who worked for the city for nine years and for the past year has worked at MulvannyG2 Architecture in Bellevue.

Locke’s current burning issue — aside from the city’s lawsuit against him for taking a discarded totem pole designated for special disposal — is opposition to a potential location of the Brightwater regional sewage plant on Unocal property.

Diaz, a Seattle police officer, said he simply wants to get involved and doesn’t have an agenda.

Locke said the city’s lawsuit is an example of "bullying tactics."

"They’re using public funds to go against private citizens," he said.

Locke, who has run twice before, said his experience as a construction supervisor has taught him that mitigation to control sewage-plant odor "isn’t going to do it."

He also said a regional sewage plant — five other sites are under consideration — would be a "poor use of waterfront property."

Wilson pointed out that the city cannot simply stop the project if the King County executive chooses that site.

"They (King County) can be the big brother and impose their will on the city. We have to come up with a credible, logically defensible position."

That would involve a comprehensive analysis of the technical issues involved, Wilson said, as well as how the project would affect marine resources, the waterfront, the city’s tax base and the multimodal transit center the city has long targeted for the Unocal property.

Wilson sees the transit center as critical to the city’s future, because moving the ferry dock would free up the ferry holding lanes and provide a stronger link between downtown and the waterfront — which could in turn be used as a drawing point for the city.

Diaz agreed with each of his opponents.

"We need to find a definite way to say we should not have (Brightwater) here," he said.

Diaz suggested hotels or retail for the hillside portion of the Unocal property. That would be one way of creating more sales tax revenue for the city.

"I don’t believe property tax revenues are the answer to city spending," he said.

Wilson said the city needs to focus on developing Highway 99.

"The city needs to be very proactive in recruiting business," he said.

Locke and Diaz each said they support Initiative 747, which would limit property tax increases to 1 percent. Wilson said he favors property tax relief but noted that a 1 percent increase "doesn’t keep up with the pace of inflation."