LFP, Shoreline leaders seeking re-election

In Lake Forest Park, Mayor Dave Hutchinson’s seat is up for reelection Nov. 4 and the mayor says he’s seriously considering running.

“I’ve been thinking hard about it, and I probably will run,” Hutchinson said. “The key issue is the budget, and getting us through that will take some knack. I’ve got the experience to do that.”

Also up for reelection are City Council seats held by Mayor Pro-tem Dwight Thompson and Roger Olstad and Ed Sterner. All three say they are strongly considering running for reelection.

City Council member Carolyn Arminini said, “I seriously thought about running for mayor, but have decided not to. I’m going to run for the Northshore Fire Board.” Armanini served as a Fire Commissioner for seven years, but was barred from running in the last election because her seat on the council was also up. State law prohibits one person from filing for two offices in the same election year.

In Shoreline, several City Council seats are up for re-election come November, including those held by Shoreline Deputy Mayor Kevin Grossman, Bob Ransom and Rich Gustafson. All three say they are seriously considering running again.

“I am seriously considering it,” Grossman said. “I think we are on the right track and are doing a good job of balancing different issues and moving forward and doing it fiscally responsibly.”

The key issue the council is dealing with is the Aurora Corridor project, and Grossman says he wants to see it through.

“We have been sensitive in balancing the real issues of the businesses against the bigger vision that is important for Shoreline,” he said. “We still need to be sensitive to how we do it, so that even if they don’t like it, businesses feel fairly treated at the end of the day.”

Gustafson said, “I am strongly interested in running for another term. There are a few things I feel need to be accomplished, like the Aurora Corridor and the Interurban Trail, both of these issues I’d like to see followed through for the next four years.”

Ransom said that while he’s not itching to start running a campaign again, he does plan to run.

“I would like to complete some projects we are on, like Aurora,” Ransom said. “I hope we can resolve the problems with the businesses. We have enough vacancies on Aurora, I want to attract businesses, and as it is, businesses are staying away. I would like to resolve this issue so that businesses are helping us, rather than fighting us, but it may not be possible.”

Ransom pointed to how the city approached the Bluff Trail several years back, as an example to follow.

“At Saltwater Park, around the top edge, home owners who owned property right up against the bluff trail, and we wanted to make it a trail with a view, but trail walkers were very antagonistic to the property owners… We ended up having a citizen’s committee and worked out a compromise. we built a berm so the trail was about three feet lower than the properties, and put the trail 10 to 12 feet away from property lines.”

Shoreline Merchants Association spokesman Dan Mann said he is thinking of running for one of the seats, but declined to indicate which one. In the 2002, election Mann ran against Mayor Scott Jepsen for his seat on the council.

“I’m giving it serious consideration,” Mann said. “I’ve heard a continued dissatisfaction with the city’s sincere response to citizens coming before the council.”

Pedestrian safety activist David Townsend, whose daughter died March 2002 after being hit in a crosswalk, said he’s been giving the election “some serious thought.”

Former Metro King County Council member Maggi Fimia said she’s also been approached to run, but said she is a full-time volunteer for the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives and hasn’t been able to put anything else on her plate at the moment.