2 races, 4 good candidates
Published 1:57 pm Thursday, October 15, 2009
Richard Emery stepped onto a steep learning curve when he was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Mukilteo City Council 20 months ago.
He’s proven himself a quick study, and an effective council member. Although he faces an impressive challenger in Ed Kunigonis, we recommend voters elect Emery to a full term in Position 2.
Emery’s credentials suggested he was a good choice to fill the seat formerly held by Marko Liias, who left to join the state Legislature. He was an active organizer of the Japanese Gulch Group, a grassroots organization working to preserve the gulch as open space. A home remodeler, he served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity in Seattle and Everett, leading the Everett board for three years. He’s intelligent, even-tempered and works well with others.
He’s also practical. On one of the key issues facing the city, the potential annexation of 11,000 residents and commercial space to the south, he says he’s open but skeptical — an appropriate stance. When the annexation was being pushed this year, he argued for waiting until the impact of the recession on city finances was better known. Now, Emery says, Fire District 1’s legal challenge has bought the city time that it should use to study the pros and cons thoroughly and explain them to citizens.
Kunigonis, a Boeing security manager, says he has knocked on thousands of doors during the campaign, listening carefully to citizens. He pledges to let their views guide him on the council, rather than operating from a personal agenda. We admire that approach, even though we question how well anyone can really know what most of the community thinks about an issue at any given time. We’d like to see Kunigonis have a chance to serve; just not at Emery’s expense.
In the only other contested race, and in a close call, we favor challenger Patty Cooper over one-term incumbent Kevin Stoltz, who ran unopposed in 2005.
Like Kunigonis, Cooper has doorbelled extensively, and says she’ll regularly and actively solicit citizens’ views if elected. A supporter of the proposed annexation, she makes a compelling case that without it, citizens will soon face higher taxes, reduced services or both. Cooper is recently retired after a career as a 911 operator.
Stoltz has been a leading voice for increasing public access to the waterfront, a point in his favor. He is criticized by some as a naysayer on many issues rather than a force for cooperation but that’s not necessarily a weakness — the positions he has taken no doubt represent those of certain blocs of citizens.
Stoltz opposes the current annexation plan because it contains “dicey” parts of Highway 99, a view many residents no doubt share. We think Cooper has a realistic view of why that commercial space is needed — sources of new revenue are limited — and of the wisdom of having more influence over how it’s developed.
