After attending the City of Snohomish candidate forum, I remain concerned about replacing experienced incumbents with inexperienced candidates who, with the exception of Bill Webster running for Position 6, don’t appear to have any experience with government process nor have they been seen to engage as leaders or volunteers directly with our community.
With four council seats up for reelection as well as the mayor I feel a change this drastic will do a disservice to the community. It can take at least two years for new candidates to become familiar with government process, laws and the complexity of projects and issues. Three of the four challengers for council and the challenger for mayor are clearly running on a common ticket with a shared agenda. In order to be truly representative and nonpartisan (as these positions are) it is important to listen to the needs of all of the community, not just those who share your views. I don’t get the impression that these candidates will have an open mind on issues, nor for the first two years will they be able to be the best representatives for our community.
The questions at the forum were wide ranging and the contrast in answers between the incumbents and challengers was telling. What I heard from most of the challengers was how they would do things differently, be more representative and transparent. It is always good to find improvements in the process, but the idea that our current government has been anything less than representative, transparent and good stewards of our money is misinformed.
I believe we should build on the success of our current government by retaining incumbents Linda Redmon, Tom Merrill, David Flynn, Karen Guzak and elect Bill Webster to fill council position 6.
Donna Ray
Snohomish
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