Last week Ray Martin submitted a letter to the editor assailing my character. It was riddled with false statements and misrepresentations, from the very first accusation to the last. I was, quite frankly, appalled that the Enterprise would even run such rubbish.

He reported that I first ran for office in 1984. I did not. He reported that I have had 30 financial reporting violations and been warned by the Public Disclosure Commission. In fact, Ray was the person who reported me to the PDC, over the course of three campaigns, for a handful of small things. And no action, other than providing me technical assistance, was taken by the PDC.

He says that I “strongly” supported Brightwater and then opposed it. I didn’t strongly support it. I was doing what is called “due diligence” by studying the issue thoroughly — as you would expect an elected official to do — before I came to the conclusion that it was unworkable and wrong for Edmonds.

Martin reported that I am a consistent supporter of higher downtown building heights. Wrong. My interest, from the beginning, was in preserving a viable downtown retail core by requiring an increased first-floor ceiling height in the BD1 zone. Yes, I would have liked it if we could have kept the ability to build a third floor in the zone. However, we did not win on that point. That issue has now been decided and is over for me.

Mr. Martin fails to recall that the person who recently gave me a generous campaign contribution was the same person that I respectfully told no to on gambling in the past. And he knows that my position has not, and will not, change.

He failed to note that I voted, in the majority, to purchase a five-and-a-half acre park which exceeded the planned size of a park in the south Edmonds neighborhood.

His allegation regarding my Sound Transit negotiations with Everett is so factually wrong it baffles me. And the fact that I prefer in-person, face-to-face communication over e-mail is not at all unusual. My phone number and address have been a matter of public record, and easily accessible, in this community for nearly 30 years.

And I never claimed that I, “personally and individually,” won the Silver Anvil award. Ray claims to have, “received full details from the person in charge of this project.” Wrong. Had he done this, he would have contacted me. I was, in fact, the person who conceived and wrote the plan. I was the person in charge and who made the assignments of the 43 people who came in to execute the plan. It was a team effort and I was privileged to have led the team on a major national event. And, had I been willing to fork over $350 I was eligible to have received a duplicate of the award.

Richard L. Marin

Edmonds City Council