Some controversy in all Mountlake Terrace Council races
Published 3:38 pm Wednesday, October 26, 2011
While most attention in the Mountlake Terrace City election is on the race between two-term incumbent Councilman John Zambrano and challenger Seaun Richards, the other two contests have their own controversies.
One contest matches Councilwoman Laura Sonmore, the Council’s longest-serving member, and challenger Christina O’Brien.
The other matches two-term Councilwoman Michelle Robles and challenger Robert Reedy.
Reedy has complained about bumper stickers on cars that say that Robles and Sonmore are endorsed by fire fighters.
He said last week that the bumper stickers didn’t reflect an endorsement from local groups,
He noted that Terrace no longer has a fire department, being served through a contract with County Fire District 1, which also serves Brier, Edmonds, Woodway and nearby unincorporated areas.
Robles said that the endorsement came from a group of District 1 fire fighters who serve Mountlake Terrace.
She noted that many fire fighters who endorsed her had worked for the former Mountlake Terrace fire department, live in the City and have known her since they were all growing up in Mountlake Terrace.
Reedy said that such endorsements usually come after an organization has listened to all candidates before making an endorsement but said that hadn’t happened with the organization that represents District 1 fire fighters.
All candidates talk about downtown development, keeping sound finances and about a new civic campus.
Voters last year turned down a bond issue for a civic campus. The City has used rented space for a city hall and police station. Most candidates talk about developing a scaled-back proposal.
Incumbent Sonmore said that the City should present voters with a proposal with fewer “bells and whistles.”
Sonmore said last week that the Council would soon consider a proposal to present to voters in the spring, for a bond measure with about two-thirds the price tag of the 2010 measure,
Reedy, who is challenging incumbent Robles, says that the City needs the City Hall and police station.
Reedy has criticized Robles for a poor attendance record.
Robles that many absences have been due to health issues and that her earlier absences came when a previous employer wouldn’t adjust her schedule for City business. She said that her current employer accommodates her City obligations. She added that her leave of absence a year and a half ago followed an illness and a divorce.
The contest between Sonmore and O’Brien is between experience and youth.
Sonmore said the City needs her experience. O’Brien said that she could offer new ideas. O’Brien also said that she wants to bring more transparency to City government.
None of the candidates has reported raising or spending any money. All are using the State Public
Disclosure Commission’s “mini-reporting: option, which exempts them from filing detailed periodic
reports until after the election and as long as each raises and spends less than $5,000.
Mountlake Terrace Candidate Profiles
Council Position 5
Name: Robert Reedy, Ph.D.
Age: 57
Occupation Semi-retired from Bell Telephone; now doing project jobs including Census and other government-related work, and certain kinds of insurance work
Website: None but an be reached @ drbob1954_9@hotmail.com
Priorities: Wise and frugal spending; a new city hall and police station must be built soon and as citizens it is our question to answer; continuation of the Town Center. This city belongs to the people.
Name: Michelle Robles
Age: 49
Occupation: Pharmacist
Website: None
Priorities:
• Economic vitality and revitalization
• Environment and Sustainability
• Civic Campus and 56th street make over
Not ranked by priority. All are important to me as is continued financial stability.
Council Position 6
Name Christina O’Brien
Age 33
Occupation: Customer service
Website: “Christina O’Brien for Council”, via Facebook.
Priorities: My priorities for Council are to work for the good of the citizens. I will bring my youth, energy and new ideas to the table.
Name: Laura Sonmore
Occupation: Employed at Boeing. Our organization is an ODA, designated by the FAA. The FAA delegates certain types of authorities to our organization.
Website: N/A
Priorities:
1. Maintaining leadership, commitment, and results by providing our citizens the highest level of services.
Even in the worst of times our city is providing our citizens the highest levels of service in years fire, police, parks, recreation). We are excellent stewards of finances, achieving an AA bond rating and finance reporting awards. We have developed and fostered partnerships locally, regionally, and nationally which has resulted in our city obtaining $6.5 millions in grants. This is unprecedented accomplishment for a city our size.
2. Maintaining Community Safety and recreation enjoyment: We have a low crimes rate with strong public safety resources. The SNCOM 911 center is located in our city, and we recently received funding for a new emergency-operating center.
We have a new transit center, noticeable sidewalk and street program, new trails, park improvements, recreation center, and utilizing volunteers to reduce cost for parks and at city hall. We will maintain safety and recreation enjoyment by communicating to our residents through our newsletters, public announcements, Facebook, city website, and Coffee with the City.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com
