Shoreline Pos. 6 primary set

SHORELINE — Three candidates have filed to run for Shoreline City Council Position 6 – incumbent Bob Ransom, environmentalist Janet Way and Planning Commission Chair Brian Doennebrink.

The candidates face a Sept. 16 primary and the two with the most votes will advance to the Nov. 4 general election.

Ransom said he is surprised Way and Doennebrink chose to challenge him.

“I recommended Janet Way to the Shoreline Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Committee and she served two years, but showed up less than 50 percent of the time, and only when it served her environmental issues,” he said. “I don’t think she has a record of commitment.”

Of Doennebrink, Ransom said, “He takes the hard stand to push the Aurora Corridor project through and I take the stand, if it’s highly controversial, you need to take community concerns into consideration and work out a compromise. It’s what we did with the Bluff Trail and the Richmond Little League field. If we don’t compromise, the Shoreline Merchants will hold up the Aurora Corridor project for 10 years or more.”

Doennebrink said concern over the Aurora Corridor project prompted his run for City Council. He wants to get the project to widen and redevelop Aurora Avenue N. through Shoreline started with minimum delay. The Shoreline Merchants Association has appealed in King County Superior Court a design for the first mile of the project, delaying the project, he said.

“There are possible solutions out there that are waiting to be explored if the rhetoric and misinformation can be toned down … I would lead towards win-win-win solutions for businesses, pedestrians and transit,” Doennebrink said.

Doennebrink, 44, is a senior transportation planner with Community Transit and has served on the Shoreline Planning Commission for the past three years and is its current chair. He also served as the first chair of the Echo Lake neighborhood association and was involved in Vision Shoreline, working for incorporation of the city.

“The reason I am running is I have a great concern over the way the Council is being influenced by special interests. As a council member, you have to represent the whole community, not any one interest group,” Doennebrink said.

“The incumbent got a lot of his contributions in his last election from the Shoreline Merchants Association, and before then he voted in favor of the Aurora Corridor project,” Doennebrink said. “Since that election, he’s voted against it. That’s confusing for voters.

“I am not supported by the SMA, so I don’t have the problem of being under the influence of that special interest group. I also have a long history of community involvement in a wider variety of areas than Janet.”

Doennebrink said he is also concerned about pedestrian safety around schools, neighborhoods, churches and bus zones.

Another issue is parks.

“The incumbent spoke of building a city hall in Cromwell Park and that isn’t a good idea,” Doennebrink said. “We need to preserve our parks and enhance them.”

Ransom, 62, is a human resources consultant and has served on the City Council since 1995, when the city incorporated. Before that he served 12 years on King County’s Shoreline Parks and Recreation District Commission and eight years on the Shoreline School Board.

“I have concentrated on a broad spectrum of things: public safety — we cut crime by 50 percent and closed drug houses with a street crimes unit, and I fought for that,” Ransom said. “I’ve also supported parks and the ball fields, and have fought for the Shoreline Arts Council and museum so they get adequate funding.”

Ransom said the business community is divided over who to endorse in this election.

“Rep. Maralyn Chase is telling the businesses to support Janet because I ran against Maralyn (in 2002 for state Rep.). But the Shoreline Merchants Association is divided. They endorsed me four years ago, but no vote was taken this year,” Ransom said.

Ransom, who was contacted by the state Public Disclosure Commission for not reporting campaign donations timely, said as of Aug. 6 he is up to date on his filing.

Janet Way, 53, is a photographic artist who owns a commercial art studio. She is co-founder and president of the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund, which is involved in an appeal in King County Superior Court over development on land in Shoreline near a channel of water that could be salmon habitat.

“I think I am the candidate with the most experience working on environmental issues,” Way said. “I am different because I have direct experience in environmental work, and the other candidates tend to favor development. I want to be an independent voice for the environment.

“Residents need someone who is going to scrutinize development and land-use issues to make sure the public process is protected. Big development interests should not entirely control our policies and I think our council has ended up going along with them.”

Way said she empathizes “with business owners on Aurora who may be seriously impacted by proposals that the city has put out and for people in the Fircrest area and the residents there and their families that will be affected” by the state’s decision to downsize the Shoreline institution for developmentally disabled and move residents to other state institutions.

“Fircrest is very much a city issue, because the city could be sticking up for keeping Fircrest, like the city of Buckley did for their institution, but they are not. The city clearly has the power to make land-use decisions and they are in denial of their responsibility for the people there.”