Following last fall’s hotly contested elections, the winners of mayoral and council races across South Snohomish County are now sworn in and seated.
The Enterprise asked these newly elected city officials what issues they plan to champion in the upcoming months and the roads they will take to accomplish their goals.
Lynnwood
In Lynnwood, balancing the budget is the leading issue to tackle with both re-elected Mark Smith and newly elected Kerry Lonergan.
Smith taps fiscal responsibility in budgeting that meets the needs and desires of the city – residents and businesses – as the leading issue he will champion. “With our strong economic base, we have one of the lowest property taxes in (the county). For better or worse Lynnwood is a city, and we need to grow to our strengths. We will get there through the council being more proactive.”
“We have to decide on priorities,” Lonergan said. “We need to identify what government should be doing.”
To accomplish this, she suggests reaching out to citizens to help them guide council through the next step in the budget process. “There is no funding to do it all.” She suggests seeking funds through eliminating inefficiencies and redundancies and through public-private partnerships. “In my mind there will be no new taxes.”
Smith also identified the quality of life for those living within the city as an ideal he will champion. “Access to services is incumbent upon us to put in place policies that enhance quality of life – from quality of parks and transportation to quality of public works and our own neighborhoods. We are not going to please everybody.”
Initially to address quality of life, Smith will revisit the city center plan and update it with an eye toward pursuing public-private partnerships to jump-start the development of the multi-use area.
Edmonds
Echoing a vision of development is Strom Peterson. Elected recently by Edmonds voters to council, Peterson previously served on the council as an appointee to fill a vacant seat. Peterson cites sustainability as his leading issue to challenge.
“We need to look at green building design and see how we can get those concepts written into the building code,” he said. “That will encourage quality developers wanting to come to Edmonds to develop more than just buildings. Good developers, that are more community oriented, are good for the city. The environment and the economy are not contradictory to each other.”
For Edmonds’ re-elected councilman Michael Plunkett, campaign reform tops his list of initiatives to address in the coming months. “Candidates for (council), including myself, spent far too much money, which was raised, in some cases, from large individual contributions,” he said.
In an attempt to level the playing field for candidates with lesser means, Plunkett supports a city ordinance limiting campaign contributions to $250.
Mountlake Terrace
In Mountlake Terrace, re-elected mayor Jerry Smith looks to spur downtown development. “That’s why I ran,” he told the Enterprise.
Re-elected councilwoman Kyoko Wright suggests that, even with a balanced budget in Mountlake Terrace, council needs to figure out how to get things better. “Eventually we will run out of money,” she said.
Rick Ryan, securing his council seat after his original appointment, plans to spearhead the town center vision. “The citizens want it,” he says. He plans to keep the progress on track by revisiting the issue on a regular basis while seeking investors. “It is key to revisit the downtown development and increase our tax revenue.”
Brier
Brier’s re-elected mayor Bob Colinas sees the annexation of the two blocks in the Allview neighborhood in the southeast corner of Brier as leading his list of initiatives. He expects the plan to be finalized by June.
Comments from Mill Creek officials will be published in the Feb. 24 edition of the Enterprise.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
