New Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett has a lot of issues to deal with in the next five years, including annexation, the redevelopment of Totem Lake Mall and a budget deficit. The Reporter sat down with Triplett on July 15 to discuss his plans and vision for the City of Kirkland. This is the second of a two-part series.

Q: What surprises you so far about this position?

A: Every surprise has been a pleasant one. I had really high expectations of Kirkland before I came and it has been an amazing community and exceeded my expectations since I got here. It is a beautiful community with incredibly involved neighborhoods, amazing parks and city staff has been really responsive.

Two things have struck me, you know I am on day 12. One is how strong the underpinnings of the community are. Again, I, coming from King County have got a chance to see Kirkland in context with the 39 other cities and the county. I think you have an extremely experienced and talented city council. They are decisive. They are thoughtful. Even in that discussion on the changes of the appeals process the policy issues were articulated on both sides but then again they are not paralyzed by analysis and debate. They have a thoughtful debate and then they act. It is a very strong council that is very committed.

But I have also been impressed with the financial underpinnings. Kirkland has a AAA credit rating, I did not know that. Happy that it does because that was going to be one of my goals, so I can check that one off. But they have done that through strong financial reserves and prudent fiscal planning.

I have been surprised by the emphasis on infrastructure, which is essential to make sure your streets, your sewers, your water system work. But many jurisdictions push that off. It is hard to say that we are going to set aside money and make those cuts, but Kirkland has and I respect that.

The final thing that gave me greater understanding from my time at the county is I understand more, even in just 12 days, why there is so much intensity around land use decisions. And it is because there is not as much area, if something happens to an area that is going to be that way for a long time. So there is a stronger opportunity cost when a decision is made in the city. In my time at the county, as an example, if I need to site a transit center or a waste transfer station we have 2,000 square miles and 39 cities. For us it was multiple sites. And what I see now on this side is, if you are one of those multiple sites and you are a city that might be your only site and if that thing goes there then other things can’t. But overall I am just thrilled to be here and every day has been great so far.

Q: Specifically what changes would you like to see in Kirkland?

A: I am still in an assessment period of what may have to change. I think there are probably several main focuses that I am going to have, a bunch of this of course is at the direction of the city council. First and foremost, is to make sure that we are supporting and encouraging economic development and jobs. A lot of that has gone on and gone well but we are just going to make sure that we are going to renew that focus and put a lot of energy behind that.

Second is to really look hard at our city budget. Are we aligned correctly? Are we doing the right things in the right ways? It is possible that we are doing a little too much and not as well as we could. We may possibly need to do some reprioritizing to do a few less things but better. But that is an issue that I still need to check in on. I want to make sure that we are really demonstrating to the public the value of their tax dollars, to make sure that they know that when they give us a dollar it is being invested correctly for them. It has been tough. Kirkland like many cities has had to cut things that have never been cut before. It is difficult and the public has an expectation that we will pick the right things to prioritize.

And there are major regional issues that may impact Kirkland over the next year or two. One is what is going to happen with the 520 tolling? It is not clear to me that the state has done much analysis on the impact on Kirkland and even Bellevue as I think they should. There has been tremendous focus on real people being diverted down to I-90 once 520 is tolled. I have a strong concern that hundreds and maybe thousands of people might decide that they want to go up and around the lake. And that could be a huge impact on Lake Washington Boulevard and Market Street.

One of the things I have done, very proactively, is I have asked my Public Work’s team to start working with the state on what analysis has been done? And if it has not been done, what can we do to get it done? If there is an impact, how do we make sure that some of those toll revenues are coming to the city to alleviate those impacts?

Finally, I think the whole issue with the Burlington-Northern corridor is something that we as Kirkland really need to stay focused in on the conversation. There is a lot going on with the board of Sound Transit and King County and the whole issue of rails and trails and dual use. But the bottom line is that it goes right through Kirkland, five and a half miles and what happens on that corridor is going to have a big impact on us and we have got to be engaged in it.

Q: You have received a lot of attention for your salary. What do you think about the fact you make more than some White House staff members?

A: The public has a legitimate right to look at those and ask questions about it. It is my obligation to demonstrate my value for that salary. What I would say is that the process was very objective. What both the city council and I did was look at what city managers are paid in surrounding jurisdictions, what opportunities I would have had in the private sector and in other roles and it was a very objective and somewhat market driven decision.

You know in the end, I certainly understand that the public is concerned. What I believe will happen is that I will demonstrate maximum value for that investment for the city. I hope to bring in tremendous resources from the state and the federal government to more than offset that. The public sector as a whole is an issue that I think people are looking really hard right now, and I think legitimately so, as everyone struggles for your tax dollars. At the same time if you want to have great people and retain them you have to pay a wage that they are going to choose to come here.

The one thing that I will say is that it is considerably less than I made at King County and it is less than I could have made with other choices. I chose to forgo that because I think it is a very generous salary but also because I believe in what I am doing. I believe in working in the public sector and helping a community like Kirkland continue to be the great community that it is. I will demonstrate my value for that salary. I don’t mind the public questioning that, it is their right to do so. I am happy to show them I am worth it. I also agreed, and this was voluntary, the city council did not ask me to do this, I agreed to make the same reductions to my salary that all the other city employees did. I do believe in this sort of all for one and one for all relationship with the city employees. And I believe given these tough economic times it is a time that public sector leaders need to step up.

Q: How has the community received you so far and how did the transition go between you and former Kirkland City Manager Dave Ramsay?

A: Deputy Mayor Penny Sweet asked me if I would come to the Fourth of July parade, which my family and I were delighted to, and we were just overwhelmed by how nice people were. We saw so many people who came up and said ‘welcome to Kirkland.’ It was incredibly welcoming. My kids loved it, I loved it and my wife, well she was asked to drive a stick, which was a little challenging for her but she also had a great time despite being nervous. We also stayed for the fireworks.

The people in the community and the staff have been amazing. The business community … has been incredibly welcoming too. Everybody has ideas and suggestions for the City Manager, but they have all started with welcome to Kirkland and that has really been impressive.

As I said in my opening remarks to the city council, I have always had a great deal of respect for Dave Ramsay. I feel privileged to follow him. I thought he was an exceptional city manager and he has built an incredibly strong team and great community. He and I are getting together next week I think and I will get to pick his brain. I want to build on the foundation that is here. I do have some perspective from the county side that I will bring in that will help. But that will just help to build on the foundation that is here.

Q: Where do you see Kirkland at the end of your five-year contract?

A: Several major things will have happened. First, I think we will see the Parkplace development well under way. I think ground will be broken and hopefully one of the first buildings will have been built. People in the community will begin to see the benefits that the project will bring.

I hope that we will have made a breakthrough at Totem Lake, whether it is with the current owners or we are able to find a way to bring in a new partnership that will have revitalized that area, make substantial improvements up there and also have some major projects going on. I hope we will have shown an increase in transit and alternative modes of transportation through Kirkland with (Totem Lake) as a designated center. These are all going to be challenges given the current financial issues faced by the current Metro Transit system. We will hopefully have gotten underway a transit oriented development project at the South Kirkland Parking lot. That is going to take tremendous community involvement. We need to make sure that we are really working with the community on that. But I hope they will develop a project that everyone can be happy with.

I believe that we are going to see the economy rebound and I think the great under pinnings of Kirkland itself will resurface and we will be able to restore ourselves to normal Kirkland-level services. When I was talking about annexation versus Kirkland, you know, it is important to remember that even the current Kirkland isn’t at Kirkland’s normal level of service. We’ve had to take a pretty big hit as a result of the downturn in the economy. Hopefully when we see the resurgence in the economy we will be able to restore some of those services.

I am very cautiously optimistic that Kirkland is on sound footing and I think we will come out of this well. I believe that we will see some major progress on those issues. If all those things happen in five years I will have done my job.