The race for Kirkland City Council Position 3 this November will pit Brad Larssen against Penny Sweet. The Reporter sat down with each candidate for a Q&A and this is what they had to say about the issues facing the City of Kirkland. This story originally ran in the Kirkland Reporter on Oct. 14.
What are your priorities and why are you running?
Larrsen: I have a deeply held commitment to government that serves the whole community and not just a few powerful special interests. I will represent the 48,000 citizens of Kirkland and not just a handful of special interests with deep pockets. Kirkland citizens want responsible development and gradual growth that is consistent with our Comprehensive Plan and zoning codes, and that respects our citizens love for the city and its unique character. We are the only downtown on Lake Washington. We have no room for error. There is no other city like Kirkland. Our citizens and customers come to Kirkland for a Kirkland experience, not a Bellevue experience. We have more in common with Edmonds and Bellingham, small waterfront cities, than Bellevue or Seattle.
I believe in open, transparent government, conducted in public meetings with ample citizen input. That is how a democratic form of government is supposed to work. I am concerned about the large amount of money that has come into local campaigns in recent years and this year from developers, outside business packs and other special interests. Kirkland citizens deserve a council that listens to their input, respects public opinion and takes their input into account when the council makes its decisions. I will put the interests of Kirkland’s citizens first and that is why I am endorsed and supported and was encouraged to run to run by neighborhood and community leaders throughout Kirkland. I will work hard to protect Kirkland’s livability, character and quality of life.
Sweet: I have a long-term commitment to Kirkland. I think I have shown that over the last 25 years. My husband, Larry Springer, was on the council for a number of years. When he left and ran for state representative, it felt like we were kind of disconnecting ourselves from the city and it was clear that if I wanted to continue that commitment I was going to have to take it on myself. So I made that commitment several years before I made the decision to run. I also believe that I have a skill set that will help with our current city council. I have had extensive budget experience. I have worked at Group Health Cooperative as a manager and a director. In health care we have to cyclically downsize and right size as budgets fluctuate. That means constantly reevaluating programs, staffing levels and prioritization of services. That is something we have to do as a city. It means working with large staff groups and multiple unions. I have made executive hiring decisions after prolonged searches. And finally, I am a collaborator. I like to work with people who have a common commitment to get things done and that is what I hope to have happen on the city council. The immediate priorities for this council are to address the budget deficit, to prepare for annexation and to hire a new city manager. With the new council makeup as a result of the election, hopefully, I think that our council can leave behind the bickering, infighting and the current lack of civility that exists on our council and get on with the business of leading our city.
How is your candidacy going so far?
Larssen: It is going great. I have been taking our message to voters for months. We are on a pace to walk nearly the entire city. I walked all parts of Kirkland talking and listening to voters in every neighborhood. Our message is overwhelmingly popular in every part of Kirkland: reasonable development, consistent with our Comprehensive Plan and zoning codes, and a city council that values and respects citizen input and is not taking money from developers and other special interests. We have run out of literature and reprinted thousands more. Volunteers are already walking with us and for us. This is a broad, highly motivated, grass roots campaign to keep Kirkland city government responsive to citizens’ need and input, instead of a government financed by special interest. I am on a pace to walk and talk with voters in most of the city. Volunteers are committed to walk the rest. I am also attending candidate forums, neighborhood picnics and neighborhood meetings as well.
Sweet: I think it is going very well. I was late getting started because I had some surgery on my hand so I wasn’t able to get out and doorbell and I am just relearning to write. But what that gave me the opportunity to do is to pick up the phone and start calling people. So, I was able to connect with a whole lot of folks I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to talk to because they are in condos and all the locked buildings. So, that was fun and interesting. But now that I am back on the street again, I like it a whole lot more. I like that face-to-face interaction with folks and I am getting a very positive response. I am also getting great response in fundraising. The PDC reports reflect it. People have been generous and encouraging. We have had a number of meet and greet functions throughout the city, which has been very well received. I just had a lady come in a couple minutes ago, in response to that with some more questions and a check, which is always very nice. And I think the number of people in just this community, in the community of my store (The Grape Choice Wine Shop) rally me on. They are waiting for me when I come back from door-belling and they are encouraging when I am trudging out the door for door-belling. So it has overall been a pretty good experience.
I have been through an extensive interview process and been endorsed by the Kirkland Firefighters, Kirkland Police, Municipal employees, the Women’s Political Caucus, the Eastside Business Association, the Washington Conservation of Voters, NARAL Prochoice of Washington and I was given an outstanding rating by the Municipal League.
What qualifies you to be a city council member?
Larssen: I have many years experience as an organizer, officer, trustee and a delegate. I have served on executive boards, committees and regional councils both in the carpenters, the Regional Council of Carpenters and with the 45th District Democrats. I have served as political committee chair in the carpenters for many years, interviewed candidates throughout the region and served on endorsement and legislative action committees. I have a degree in history with a year of law school. I have a long record of advocating for working families and ordinary citizens locally, throughout King County and in Olympia. I led the fight to save state unemployment benefits. I fought for school funding and high funding, workers safety, apprenticeship training and many other issues. I have stood up to some of the same lobbying and special interests groups that we have to deal with here in Kirkland. I have a long record of getting things done. I have developed contacts regionally and statewide that will be helpful for Kirkland on regional issues and boards. I have already served on a variety of boards, councils, commissions and stakeholder groups the size and make up of the city council and I know how to get things done with a diverse group of people entrusted to make responsible decisions on behalf of the public.
Sweet: To begin with, I think my 31 years of experience as a manager and associate director of Group Health. I think I have described that a little bit, in terms of managing large staff groups, working in a union environment and dealing with budgetary requirements. But also, I have served the city for the 25 years I have lived in Kirkland. As I said, Larry and I made a commitment when we chose to live here, that we would become involved. So over the course of our relationship with the city I have had like a 23 or 24-year history of working with the Chamber of Commerce. I sit on the public policy committee in the Chamber of Commerce and I find out a lot of very interesting stuff. I stay pretty closely connected with the municipalities’ requirements. I am very involved in the Kirkland Downtown Association because I own a business down here. This is the third iteration of the Downtown Association for Kirkland and we have been involved in every single one. I currently sit on the executive board of directors for the KDA. In the 80s and into the 90s, I was on the board for the Kirkland Arts Center. Larry and I were involved in the development planning for the Kirkland Performance Center from the very beginning. In fact, we gave one of the first fundraisers for the KPC. For 10 years we did something with the Howard Mandville Gallery, and then a whole group of galleries, where on an annual basis we had an event called Art+Wine=, and ultimately it equaled the Steinway Grand Piano that graces the performance center now. For two years, I put together, with the steering committee for the centennial, all of the events for the Kirkland’s terrific centennial celebration. And it was wonderful.
For three years I’ve led, on a very cold January night, the (annual) One Night Count of the homeless. In Kirkland, I think we have done that three, maybe four years. I have participated, over the years – I think the first one was 25 years ago when we completely cleaned up Juanita Bay Park. You could see from the street to across the bridge. And since then we haven’t done quite as much at Juanita Bay, we are working on it again. But the park restoration efforts, they are good for the mind, good for the body. I like participating in those now that my hand is back. I spent some time, making sure that this business is green. So we participate in the Green Kirkland business program and that has been fun. And I also sat on the Downtown Action Committee. So I have, I think, a real diverse and a lot of layers of experience that I have to bring to the council.
Where do you stand on development in Kirkland?
Larssen: Kirkland citizens want responsible development and gradual growth that is consistent with our Comprehensive Plan and zoning codes and that respects our citizen’s love of our city and its unique character. We are the only downtown on Lake Washington and we have no room for error. Visitors and customers bring their business to Kirkland because of our unique character and appeal. We need a realistic response to responsible growth that focuses on what brings visitors and business to Kirkland. We are meeting our obligations for density under the GMA (Growth Management Act). We are already one of the densest cities in Washington. We have no need to rush into oversized, over-code projects that are not suitable in scale for a city this size. No matter how big we build we will never compete with Bellevue Square and mega stores for volume. Our two-lane streets will not accommodate the traffic of Bellevue’s eight lane mega streets. We need to keep our base and our strengths and build on them. We need to recruit and attract more green businesses such as Google. We need to solve the problem of redeveloping Totem Lake, which has been neglected for far too long. Our community worked long and hard to develop codes and comprehensive plans suitable to the community. Developers employ advocates of their own. It is not in our citizens’ interest to have developer advocates or candidates taking large donations from development interests running our city.
Sweet: 1.7 million people are projected to be coming into the Puget Sound basin over the course of the next 25 to 30 years. We, Kirkland, is smack-dab in the middle of the Puget Sound basin. We are close to everything. We are an absolutely beautiful city with incredible amenities and parks. If I were choosing where to go in the Puget Sound basin with my 1.7 million people or my 1.2 million jobs, I would want to come to Kirkland. And I think we have to, both take advantage of all the layers of that that we can.
But we need to be planning – planning for 25 years from now. We need to protect our neighborhoods, including the downtown neighborhood. We need a downtown corridor that limits building heights but allows for more passive open space. I would love to see, you know on Lake and Central, the current parking lot become a plaza that leads to the rest of the city. I went down to lunch with a girlfriend recently and found out that Renton has a piazza. I mean that is amazing. I also believe that there are a lot of opportunities ahead for us as we climb out of this recession. Totem Lake is ripe for redevelopment and you’re not going to hear anything different from any of the candidates. It is ripe. Our largest employer lives up there as well as a number of car dealerships. There are a lot of people up there needing a place to go, live, spend money and that is an opportunity. I think Juanita phase II is still out there. I believe that the Juanita redesign has been really healthy. I used to live in Juanita, before we moved to our current house, and you didn’t used to feel good walking down in that area. Now it is a great place to go in the evening. Wander down and have a coffee at the Starbucks. And then ultimately the annexation areas will present us with some really interesting opportunities for development. Whether it is the way we assure we can build affordable housing, that we assure we can build more compact housing, our teachers and the people who work at the hospital it would be nice to get them housing approximate to where they work.
What do you think of your opponent and why are you a better choice?
Larssen: My opponent ran two years ago and lost. She took a lot of special interest money at that time. This year again she is running with a lot of special interest money, developers, development interests, large business pacts, building industry pacts and casino, etc. … We are financed by individuals and a few non-profit groups. A good rule of thumb in politics is to follow the money. Also, I have vast regional experience, some of which I explained in a previous question. Besides the experience listed, I have spent dozens of trips to Olympia pushing on behalf of legislation on a variety of issues over a period of several years, including as a part of the stakeholder group that surfaced Thornton Creek, which was buried under Northgate Mall for a generation. I have been involved on regional councils and affiliated groups throughout the county, statewide and throughout the Northwest. I have contacts throughout the legislature and elected officials of all levels throughout King County. My opponent has no elected experience and no regional experience. I have a long record of advocating for citizens and citizen interests, ordinary workers and tax payers. My opponent has been advocating for many months for developers, certain business groups, annexation and other special interests of concern to Kirkland citizens. When unemployment benefits were cut several years ago I led the fight to save unemployment benefits for needy workers. My opponent this week is trying to explain collecting unemployment after telling voters she was operating a small business and now has changed her story about retiring from Group Health with an explanation that she was laid off and downsized from that position.
Sweet: I don’t really know much about my opponent. I know him as a member of the 45th District Democrats. I know him from the fact that two years ago he interviewed me for possible endorsement on the 45th District Democrats without acknowledging that he had already endorsed my opponent. I know that he identifies as a carpenter, a union organizer and a labor organizer. I know that he is painting me as someone who wants to turn Kirkland into Bellevue. I am troubled by his willingness to bring up partisan politics at people’s doors and handing out something that identifies himself and his co-endorsed candidates, as the real Democrats in this non-partisan race. Why do I think I am a better choice? I believe that I represent more “all” of Kirkland. I have a sincere passion for this community and just about every perspective of it. And I have no ulterior motives.
What are the hot button issues and where do you stand?
Larssen: The main issues of my campaign are also what I have found to be the hot button issues over code development that will damage the character and livability of Kirkland and developer and special interest maximum donations going into city council elections. And what is clearly a fight for control of city government. I have gone at length into this with my answers to prior questions but these are the main issues I have found on everybody’s mind as I have door belled this community.
Other hot issues, of course, are the budget deficits. All cities, county,state, all levels of government are facing this problem but it is a problem we have to solve here in Kirkland. Annexation is an issue that is directly connected with this deficit issue because the costs are going to result in a net loss in revenue to the city and a reduced level of service for our citizens. Our citizens are concerned about this and I will speak more to this on the next question. Another burning problem in Kirkland is the lack of redevelopment at Totem Lake. I will make it a top priority. This area used to be the shopping hub of a vast area. And now the entire north end of Kirkland has to leave town and pay sales tax to other communities to buy necessary, essential items. Kirkland also needs to work on getting an off-leash dog park. I have heard this from all areas of the city. It is time that we caught up with neighboring communities and made a decision on this. Another burning issue that we have to solve, along with the development issue, is that we have to get a realistic and timely solution to the parking problem, especially in the downtown area. I meet people who don’t come downtown any more due to this parking problem. We need to give this our full attention.
Sweet: I think balancing the budget is going to be the biggest issue that we face. We have to balance the budget, it is the law. And if tax revenues continue to fall, more cuts will have to be made. It means that we will have to move into a mode of prioritization that our current council can’t get to cause they can’t work civilly together. So I think that is one of the things that does have to happen. Taking those matrixes, and if we must, eliminating programs and services.
Another hot button issue is the utility tax. I am hearing all kinds of frustration from people. I personally support the utility tax cause it is already on the ballot. My belief is that I am going to learn a lot if this city says no to the utility tax. That is going to demonstrate to me that we better really determine the level of service that people want in our community. I had a conversation with a lady at the door yesterday bemoaning the fact that the medians are not being mowed and maintained. And that all she had to do is go across the street into Bellevue and things look nice, it makes the properties look better and all the rest of it. This is all a question of choice. So I am glad to see that the utility tax is going to be there. It is going to be a primmer for anybody who gets elected. The other hot button issue is annexation. There is a lot of pro and con going on. I have personally stated this before and I am pro annexation just from the perspective that for 25 years the annexation area has been a part of my customer base as has the rest of Kirkland. All of those sales tax dollars have gone into the development of Kirkland that they don’t get to share in. So, I think those will continue to be hot issues. I think it is imperative to move quickly with annexation in order to take advantage of the opportunities that it presents. It is going to take some work. It is not just going to happen over night.
What is the one thing that the council has accomplished in the last session that you agree with and what is one that you disagree with?
Larssen: I strongly agree with the council’s wise decision to set campaign finance limits for the city council elections. Far too much money from out of town interests has been going into this and other city council elections in the region and it is not healthy. I am really encouraged by this campaign finance limit and it has been helpful to ensure average citizen’s input, concerns and support is not minimized by contributions way out of scale in a city this size.
I disagree with the council, going forward this spring, with annexation at the very bottom of the market after several months of the worst economic collapse in almost 80 years. When this issue was tabled late last year, this economic collapse had not occurred. I thought it was irresponsible to bring it out for a quick vote with no chance at renewed public input being considered thoughtfully and deliberated in this economic crisis. All the figures that said that annexation would pencil out if we got the state sales tax rebate for 10 years were calculated on sales tax revenues from before this economic slowdown and recession. It doesn’t pencil out now taking current financial considerations into account. We owed our citizens a discussion of this matter when the financial circumstances and the cost of annexation changed dramatically. I meet citizens all over town that feel they should have had more input and an advisory vote on proceeding with annexation particularly in these tough economic times.
Sweet: Well, I don’t actually feel like the council has done a whole lot. I think that has to do with the fact that it is so dysfunctional and that is over the course of the last few years. I do support their annexation decision. But their decision to downsize multi-family (housing) in the annexation area immediately, without allowing those citizens input is totally inconsistent with the need for us to maximize growth and make it a possible proposition down the road. I strongly disagree with the imposition of the business head tax at the end of last year. It was not well thought out and I don’t believe that other alternatives were pursued aggressively. This is a terrible time to increase taxes on businesses. You know particularly, not my business, because I only have a three person shop, so it doesn’t affect me so much. But it is that middle size business where $100 a head is a very hefty price to pay. And what people don’t recognize is that we as businesses, in our triple nets or however we pay our taxes, are already getting hit with the same taxes that property owners are paying. I also disagreed with the council’s decision to a downtown moratorium. That effectively put an end to the redevelopment plans for the Antique Mall and if you have been there, now it sits, locked with a chain-link fence around it and a “for lease” sign.
Q&As with all the candidates
The Reporter has conducted Q&As with all of the candidates for all four positions. To find them, click on the links below:
Pos. 1: Joan McBride (inc.) and Martin Morgan
Pos. 5: Karen Tennyson and Amy Walen
Pos. 7: Tom Hodgson and Doreen Marchione
