Endorsement

Shoreline City Coucil:

Kevin Grossman

In the race for Shoreline City Council position 4, voters have to decide between incumbent Kevin Grossman or challenger Maggie Fimia.

While former Metro King County Council member Fimia has shown she’s an activist, she’s also shown some difficulty at building consensus and getting things done as part of elected body. Fimia talks about good government coming from good process, but when it doesn’t yield her preferred result, her record shows that she can become obstructionist.

While good process is important, getting anything done on an elected body requires a spirit of cooperation and compromise.

As a member of the County Council, a partisan body, Fimia pushed for process. However, when decisions went in other directions, she was unable to work within the framework to exert any influence and was ultimately ostracized, further reducing her effectiveness.

While the process in Shoreline could use a few patches, it isn’t broken. The city’s budget is in the black and officials have proven fiscally responsible. At an annual retreat, Council members set an agenda, and the actions it takes throughout the year stick to accomplishing that agenda. Officials conduct numerous public meetings on city projects and make changes based on the feedback from those meetings.

Grossman has a thorough understanding of the issues facing the city and has a record of bringing ideas to the table. However, he, and other Council members, are developing a defensive arrogance about their work. While this reaction may be predictable given the pressures of elected office, it is not excusable. The attitude makes the Council less effective and polarizes issues further. Grossman needs to address this and voters should give him the chance to do so.