Public Safety
Improving Renton’s public safety will be one of my highest priorities when I return to City Council. No other candidate brings experience anywhere close to mine relative to overseeing our fire and police departments. I will work hard to reverse the rapid increases in crime that we have been seeing (20-80% increases over two years) in homicides, carjackings, stabbings, shootings, robberies, auto thefts, burglaries, road rage, reckless drivers, and other crimes. I helped dramatically reduce the incidences of these crimes during my previous years on council, and we can do it again.
I will work to help all residents feel safe taking walks in our neighborhoods and enjoying our business districts. Ensure we continue our fight against hate crimes and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Continue to ensure officers receive ongoing de-escalation training and that calls that can be handled by other emergency services are not unnecessarily met with an armed response. Build on our already impressive response times, to maximize our life-saving response in the event of emergencies.
I served as a board member for the Renton Fire Authority, where I have helped coordinate the work of the Fire Authority in it’s six-year-old status as a separate organization from the City of Renton. I also oversaw the Renton Fire Department for 20 years (the same fundamental group of personnel, equipment and facilities) for 20 years as a Renton Council Member while the department was under city leadership.
Past accomplishments include adding dozens of firefighters and paramedics to our department as our city grew while updating fire equipment and facilities. I was key on major capital improvements for our safety, including building Fire Station 14 which includes a fire training center, building Fire Station 15 in the Kennydale neighborhood, rebuilding Fire Stations 11 to bring it up to current standards, and replacing Fire Station 12 in to bring it up to code, create space for Medic 1 and Renton Aid Car, and add an Emergency Operation Center to help protect Renton residents during regional and national disasters. In some of these rebuilds I served in the architecture review committee in addition to providing council leadership.
In policing, I added dozens of outstanding police officers to Renton’s force to knock down crime rates in past years and keep staffing sufficient for the police workload. I also was instrumental in many capital improvements that improved our police department. I helped build a new modern police station as part of creation of our current city hall. I also I helped build a police training center that provides enhanced police de-escalation training, weapons safety training, non-lethal police techniques, and other critical training for our officers. If added new technology, enlarging and modernizing the municipal court, providing civil and criminal legal tools as needed to best protect our citizens and their property. Implement a community court that uses a problem-solving approach based on rehabilitation and accountability to work towards a reduction in reoffending.
Diversity and Inclusion
I am committed to making this the best possible home and center of opportunity for all residents of every race/ethnicity, national origin, faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and family composition. I will continue to reach out to residents from our diverse populations and seek to bring more inclusive perspectives into our discussions and plans at City Hall. I will also continue to work with our Human Resources leadership to ensure that when we recruit new talent for city employment, we reach potential candidates that represent our increasingly diverse community.
Accomplishments in this area include helping implement measurable programs of inclusion and equity that began 15 years ago and remain a model across the country . I had served on Renton Council for 26 years when this “Crosscut” article was published honoring our accomplishments. (Former Mayor Law, extensively interviewed in this article, has endorsed my campaign). I built inclusion, equity, and justice into our city’s business plan and created an Inclusion Task Force and an Equity Commission to ensure progress. I’ve helped sponsor city-wide studies and surveys to gather suggestions on improving our outreach, and helped implement meaningful changes as a result of this work. We’ve implemented continuous improvement of our HR policies, and we’ve worked to ensure we have translation services for people of any language to get assistance from City Hall offices.
Homelessness and Community Services
If voters put me back on Renton Council, I will continue to partner with Renton Housing Authority to grow Renton’s number of subsidized housing units above their already impressive inventory (currently about 800 units). Continue to implement building code standards that encourage construction of affordable housing, such as density incentives and the waiver of certain fees when housing will be offered to residents with proven need. Work with King County and non-profit agencies to move homeless residents into shelters and permanent housing, and connect them with services to get training, jobs, and needed health care.
Past accomplishments include: Working with Renton housing authority to build subsidized senior housing, and rebuild numerous housing units in Renton highlands; building subsidized veterans housing in downtown; creating low-income units throughout town with development incentives; and adding infrastructure to the highlands to provide permanent desirable need-based housing for hundreds of individuals and families. In my final year on council, as Council President, I helped create an Equity, Housing, and Human Services department in our city to improve our ability to get everybody sheltered.
Resident access to government
As I did during my previous 28 years on Council, I’ll always remember I’m a public servant working for and being accountable to Renton’s residents. I get my best ideas from the people I serve. I encourage and learn from all resident’s emails, phone calls, letters, coffee house chats, and other communications — whether they are recommending for or against a direction I am moving, or they want to share a new idea. I’ll recommend that we hold public hearings and public meetings for particularly controversial topics.
Past accomplishments in this area: Helped to get our meetings televised during my early years on council, something we take for granted now; written a public blog that has cultivated important open discussions; and worked hard to ensure we had a public vote on the downtown library location when KCLS was pushing to move it. The voters decisive preference to keep the library over the river (73% for) enabled the City of Renton to maintain this beloved iconic building and location.
Downtown
Continue to nurture renewal of downtown. Move Transit Center to Rainier and Grady, and implement changes recommended by new downtown planning effort. Work with local artists to add meaningful artwork that emphasizes Renton’s inclusive values while improving our historic buildings. Work to create a fun and vital downtown environment that offers visitors an enjoyable and unique dining and shopping experience every time they visit.
Past accomplishments include relocating auto dealers out of downtown to create the Piazza and Pavilion, helping start the Farmers Market, rezoning to create mixed use buildings and jump-starting redevelopment with the Renaissance apartments, redevelopment of Rainier Ave and moving of SR 900 out of downtown, and converting one-way streets back to two way.
Library
Work with King County Library to ensure we continue to get our fair share of service and that our libraries grow and evolve as necessary to keep current.
Past accomplishments include ensuring residents had an opportunity to vote on Library location, and personally helping the campaign to keep it over the river. I supported rebuilding of downtown and highlands libraries.
Parks and recreation
Work to complete new Benson Hill Family First Community Center, update downtown Piazza, add new May Creek Trail from Renton Highlands down to Lake Washington, improve Dog Park, and develop an overall plan for new park features across Renton. Complete the trail from Renton to Woodinville along the former rail corridor.
Past accomplishments include helping lead effort to build Henry Moses Aquatic Center, building the skate park, building the Sunset Neighborhood Park, building Heritage Park in the Highlands, building Ron Regis Park, building the Cedar River off-leash dog park, building the Piazza, Creating the Black River Riparian Forest, Springbrook Wetlands Mitigation Bank; helped purchase Narco property (home of the dog park) and May Creek natural area (future home of new trail) using open space grant funds.
Neighborhoods
I will work to Increasing green spaces and sidewalks while minimizing new traffic through established neighborhood streets. The State has mandated that Renton allow four-plexes in most of our single family neighborhoods, and I will use my long experience on City Council to comply in a way that minimizes negative impacts on these neighborhoods. I will work to incentivize new multifamily construction to the downtown urban core, the Landing, and Arterial/highways. Improve policies for new home redevelopment to minimize impacts on existing homes. Continue to build on the Neighborhood program, community improvement grants, community center plans, sidewalk replacements, and safe walk to school programs, all programs that I helped implement.
Past accomplishments include writing and promoting policy connecting apartments with transportation and services of our arterial corridors . Our improved policy focuses apartments in urban centers, and ensures they are matched by an equivalent amount of single family and townhouse construction, so that we maximized ownership opportunities in Renton. I have helped prevent negative traffic impacts many times during my time on council, always listening to residents’ concerns when development comes to their neighborhood. Recently worked to create new lot coverage maximums to lessen the gentrification in existing neighborhoods where homes are being torn-down and replaced with super-large homes.
Budget and Revenue
As I did from 1994-2021, I will support existing businesses and encourage new stores, restaurants, industries and other employers within Renton. Our shops and restaurants keep it fun and convenient for Renton residents to shop and dine in Renton. They also help us keep our sales tax here in our own city, enabling us to fix and maintain roads, add parks and expand other service with minimal tax increases on our residents or businesses. I’ll also continue to keep utility rates as low as possible, below rates of neighboring jurisdictions when possible.
Past accomplishments include rezoning land from industrial to retail near Boeing and in the IKEA business district. These rezones set the stage for the Landing, Southport, and the IKEA shopping areas, which together added tens of millions of dollars of sales tax revenue to our annual city budget. In my years on council I have helped lead us from having some of the highest utility rates in the county to some of the lowest.
Annexation and city growth
I will let areas outside our city initiate annexations at their own pace, without pressure to proceed from Renton. Approve annexations that are requested by potential new residents and make sense for existing Renton residents without straining budgets or negatively impacting services. Encourage well-planned density where it’s supported with services and transportation. Ensure all growth is accompanied by new infrastructure, paid for by the development itself– not by existing residents. Continue to collect fees at the time of new development for roads, parks, utilities, schools, and emergency services capital improvements, and then use these fees to provide meaningful service for these new residents.
Past accomplishments include creating the above policies and helping ensure they are enacted consistently across our city. I have worked to strike a balance that has allowed new development and growth, which are helpful to our overall prosperity, tax revenues and livability, while enhancing the quality of life for existing residents.
Housing affordability
Continue my work to lower the cost of new homes. This includes implementing new policy to lower development fees on smaller homes as a way to incentivize the construction of right-sized homes for people that desire a smaller-footprint. This would encourage developers to build affordable cottages for first-time buyers and empty-nesters. Past accomplishments include lowering minimum house sizes, and participating in successful pilot development programs such as the Village on Union which maximize the neighborhood feel, use of space, and residential ownership options within our single family zones. Also I’ve made it affordable for people to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in their yards for families that desire more housing options.
Transportation and Utilities
As a 33-year career engineer and engineering manager, I will continue to help ensure transportation and utility infrastructure projects are timely, efficient, and provide value to the tax payers and rate payers.
In my 28 years on city council I was involved in far too many projects to list, but they include roads and parking garage for the Landing, Rainier Avenue reconstruction, rail trestle and rail crossing reconstruction, downtown parking garage, Strander Blvd extension across the valley, I 405 improvements, Logan Avenue reconstruction near the stadium, and countless other projects. With all of these projects I have participated as an advocate for taxpayers from the layout stage to final planting, cleanup, and completion, and ensured we are all getting top value for our dollars. I’ve also helped ensure we get grant money from County, State, and Federal agencies where ever we can.
Regional Advocacy
In past years I represented Renton as the senior member of the I-405 Executive Committee, co-chair of Sound Transit Bus Rapid Transit committee, a member of East Rail Trail Committee, a member of Eastside Transportation Partnership, the Metro Transit Board, WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery, and many others. If voters put me back on Council I will again vigorously represent Renton when working with other jurisdictions and agencies, providing the most informed and persuasive advocacy we can put forward. While we can not assure every decision goes our way, I will do my best to get the most value for Renton residents wherever I can.
Recent accomplishments include: Getting funding for I-405 improvements including a new lane each way to Bellevue, noise walls on I-405, creation of I-405 Exit 3 and the 167/405 intersection improvements; obtaining state money and federal money for maintaining Cedar River shorelines, bridges, and dredging; gaining improved service from Metro Transit; getting commitments to move the Transit Center from downtown to Grady Way; and overseeing the engineering and development of the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service to Renton which will be rolled out in 2025.