BOTHELL — This city is spending tens of millions of dollars to reinvent its downtown.
It is realigning Highway 522. It plans to purchase and develop 18 acres downtown currently owned by the Northshore School District.
The nine people competing for open seats on Bothell City’s Council want a say in how those projects end.
Gerry Gawne, a 67-year-old candidate for Position 3, wants the city turn the project over to developers.
“The smallest, thinnest book in the world is called ‘Successful City Hall Capitalist Projects.’ City Halls do not know anything about that,” said Gawne, a media producer and first-time candidate. “(Local government) is not about free choices. It’s about ‘Pay your taxes.’”
Incumbent Del Spivey, a 46-year-old firefighter, holds the seat Gawne wants.
Spivey thinks some city ownership in the area is positive.
“We have started a great plan downtown,” he said. “I want to follow through on it.”
The third candidate for Position 3 — Bothell’s only race in the August primary — is Jeffrey Bogdan.
Bogdan, who said he is in early 30s but declined to state his age, works in Kirkland’s public works department.
His goal is to increase the public’s access to its local government.
“I’ll be there to listen,” Bogdan said. “I’m there as a representative for everybody.”
Council members are elected by the entire city to four year terms. Starting in January, a council position pays $10,800 a year without medical benefits — or $6,000 with them.
The other races in Bothell will all go straight to the general election.
For Position 1, incumbent Joshua Freed faces Joyce Wojcik, who has been on the city’s planning commission for 17 years.
Incumbent Patrick Ewing faces Jennifer Armenta, a systems manager, for Position 5.
The final race pits incumbent deputy mayor Sandy Guinn against Tom Agnew, a retired firefighter paramedic.
@List subhead:Jeffrey Bogdan
Age: N/A
Kirkland public works employee
@List subhead:Gerry Gawne
Age: 67
Occupation: TV, media producer
@List subhead:Del Spivey
Age: 46
Occupation: Firefighter, paramedic
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