By Matt Phelps and Carrie Wood

Kirkland Reporter

The Kirkland Reporter sat down with both candidates prior to the primary for Kirkland City Council position No. 5 for a Q&A concerning the issues. The candidates were given the same questions with as much time as they needed to explain where they stand on the issues. This story originally ran in the Kirkland Reporter on July 22.

What are your priorities and why are you running?

Tennyson: The first issue that I have is with some of the development that’s taking place across the city. I’m not against development because that would stop everything in Kirkland from economic development. But what I would like is development that would match the Comprehensive Plan, and I know there’s very vague language in the plan that tends to be interpreted a number of different ways. So one of the things I’d like to see done is to have the language tightened up so that everyone has an understanding of what it means and what we can expect from the development instead of some of the development that we’re getting and we’re totally shocked that it’s there.

The other issue for me is the continued budget deficits that we’re having. What I would like to see is our budget process change and I would like us to respond to trends better. I would like us to do a better job of forecasting and I would like us to develop and maintain a sustainable budget.

Walen: To help pick a city manager. Addressing the city’s budget problems. With or without annexation, we need to ensure that essential services are provided to every person. Tackling those things are my first priority.

Why am I running? I think I can do a good job there. We need diversity on the council and I think I bring the skill set that is needed right now. There is a lot of budget stuff right now and I have been a CFO for a long time, I have a legal background, I think it is just a time when somebody with real management experience goes to work for the council. Our business (Ford of Kirkland) does $75 to $100 million a year in revenue. So I have big business experience.

How is your candidacy going so far?

Tennyson: It’s going really well. We just had a kick-off last night at the Women’s Club and it was very successful. It’s interesting with the contribution cap that the city passed, which I was all in favor of doing that, but it’s been interesting how that’s affecting the different campaigns to do that.

Walen: My candidacy is going really well and I am working really hard by getting out and meeting people. I have this coffee morning thing I do from 8-10 on Wednesdays and a lot of people come see me. You might not think they do but they will. But also, I will meet anybody anywhere. I am trying to be like here is my e-mail, here is my Web site, here is my phone number, call me let’s talk, I’ll meet you. Everyday I have five or six meetings with different people. I feel like I am doing my homework and getting myself where I need to be. I met with the city manager, met with the police chief, I am meeting with the fire chief. I have been meeting with some of the previous council members, and people who have served before, to get their take. I think it is going well. We have raised, I think we are getting close to $10,000. I have been endorsed by the firefighters and the Seattle/King County Realtors. A lot of people haven’t chosen yet. I did not get the Women’s Political Caucus, they chose Karen (Tennyson). And I didn’t get the public employees’ union, which chose Matt (Gregory) and I totally understand why. I am getting my fair share and I am working on it.

What qualifies you to be a city council member?

Tennyson: I started as a neighborhood activist and then moved into being a community activist. I’ve been the chair of the North Rose Hill Neighborhood Association twice, I’ve been a board member over 10 years. I’ve been on the KAN (Kirkland Alliance of Neighborhoods) group also for about 10 years. I was on the 85th Street Corridor Study on the Community Action Committee and I was also on the North Rose Hill, which was the very first neighborhood comprehensive plan to be updated and I was on that committee.

Then I thought I needed broader experience in that and I needed to get more familiar with the business community. I am a small business owner (she’s a software distributor for educational software and instructional material lines). So I got appointed to the Kirkland Economic Partnership, which was a group that was concerned about economic development. We came up with the recommendation to hire an economic development manager for the city. I learned an awful lot about Kirkland, what some of the constraints are for businesses to be here, got a much better understanding of business issues.

I got appointed to the ARCH (Regional Coalition for Housing) Board, I was on the Eastside Sexual Assault Center Board. I’ve been on the Planning Commission for five years and was the chair for awhile and while I was there I was the commission representative for the Market neighborhood team and worked on the Market Corridor Plan updates.

Walen: I think I have the educational background. I think I have the proven management experience. We have managed to keep a Ford dealership in business and profitable since we started there in 2005. I think I have the qualities as a human being. I am not a neighborhood candidate, a business candidate, a developer candidate. I come into this with a fresh approach and fresh eyes to look at everything. I love Kirkland. This is my future. My husband and I are invested in living here. And now I am getting a really good feel for the vision. I have been reading the Comprehensive Plan. I see why people are passionate about Kirkland. As a good council person I think you have to have a real sense of working for the public good, which I do. And you have to listen really well and have respect for the people you are working for, which are the people in the city. You have to be able to work well with others. I have that. I have done that. I think you need to have a sense of integrity and courage to vote. You can’t try to please everyone, you have to have courage. As long as you are working within the vision of the community that you set forth, you can be brave and get something accomplished on the council.

Where do you stand on development in Kirkland?

Tennyson: I support development in Kirkland. If you don’t support it, Kirkland will die economically. So we need to have development, but we just need to be assured in what is developed and how it’s developed.

As part of the Planning Commission, I worked on a lot of zoning codes that allowed development and we were generous on Totem Lake Mall, to make that so that it could support redevelopment, though they never did it. We also did the 85th Street Corridor zoning and tried to add as many incentives into that to spark redevelopment on 85th Street.

I know downtown has been everybody’s topic, but we have other businesses in Kirkland that produce a lot more than downtown and are capable of producing a lot more than downtown and I would like to focus on those areas and get those to be even better engines than they are now. Even Totem Lake, as broken as it is, still does over 30 percent of the city’s revenue and little 85th Street, which is not glamorous by any means, does almost 20 percent.

Walen: Development in Kirkland has been a really hot issue. I think I come at it with a different perspective than my opponents cause I don’t have a planning background. I respect them very much and the work they have done on those boards. But there are some other people on the council that have that background. I think we need to focus on redeveloping Totem Lake and make heroic measures to get something going at Totem Lake to create an economic engine for our town. People need to be able to work, shop, go to school, everything they want to do in their life. We need to make it happen in Kirkland. And we need to make their kids want to live in Kirkland, too. So, a beautiful mall at Totem Lake, like University Village style, but with affordable housing up above. Bike paths connecting to the hospital buildings. It would be great for seniors, close to medical. People who work in the medical field could live there. I see that as our biggest opportunity for development, but downtown needs to be developed too. It is just so sensitive right now. But since we have focused on developing the downtown and fighting over that, we’ve let some bad things happen to our budget.

What do you think of your opponent and why are you a better choice?

Tennyson: I’m the only one that comes with neighborhood experience. Matt and I have been on the Planning Commission together. I like Matt a lot; I like Amy, she’s very nice. There’s really been no acrimony in the campaign so far.

Walen: I respect people who seek public service. These folks have been incredibly active in their community. Not only have they had successful careers but they have been community activists, neighborhood activists, involved on boards and commissions and I have nothing but respect for them. What is different about me is that I am relatively new and I have a fresh perspective. I can come in and look at things with a fresh perspective and a fresh approach. I am a leader and a team builder. I am a proven commodity as far as that goes and I think that is what the city needs right now.

What are some of the hot-button issues the council faces and where do you stand on those?

Tennyson: Annexation is probably number one and that will probably be the driving force. I did not support annexation when it started. I went to almost every annexation meeting that we had because I wanted to hear what everyone’s views were on it. And what I saw was a city bleeding revenue and to me, if we couldn’t take care of ourselves and get ourselves under control the size we are, how did we think we were going to do it if we doubled in size? But I think we have the right things underway. Dave Ramsay is resigning and we’re going to get a new city manager. I hope we get one that has better budget experience.

So once the city (went forward with) annexation, and my only concern was what it would do to Kirkland and how we’d respond to it. But if it passes, we all need to get on board and support it and I have been supportive of it since the council passed it because I think that’s the position to take.

But those people (in the PAA) are here – they’re part of Kirkland now. It’s not going to change much except that we’ll have more area to contend with.

Utility tax: In a recession, I don’t think you raise taxes. But what I understand about the utility tax is that they’re tying specific programs to that. So if you want to save those programs, then you should vote for the utility tax. I don’t know if they’ve decided what those programs are. I thought that was a good way to go about it so everyone can make a choice. It’s before the voters, that’s where it should be. They can decide what’s important to them.

Walen: I am sad that we have gotten ourselves in the situation that we have to put the Utility Tax on the ballot. But I think it is an appropriate thing to be on the ballot because I think it is a way of crystalizing the message from the people to the city. You know what? We want this level of service to continue. What we have we want to keep it and we are willing to pay for it. Or, you know what? You need to make more cuts. You need to make do with less, just like we are making do with less. I am for annexation. I think it is part of our responsibility. I think we are a city of annexations and mergers. It is the natural continuation of the process that began with Totem Lake being taken. It is our moral responsibility. I think it is just time. The state wants us to do it, the county wants us to do it and we need to step up and do it. If you look at the map of Kirkland it makes sense that those places belong to us. They think they live in Kirkland, they have a Kirkland address. They use our services, our parks and come to Kirkland functions.

What is one thing the city has accomplished during the last session that you agree with, and one you disagree with?

Tennyson: I was really pleased when they did the campaign contribution cap. I thought that was really a worthwhile thing and I was glad they took it on and passed it.

There’s lots of things I don’t agree with. They had so many arguments it was just ridiculous.

I voted against Parkplace, not because of development, but because I felt it was flat zoning and I think they should have looked at the entire zone, that they should have done the whole CBD (Central Business District) 5 and not created a new area. I felt it was disingenuous on the city’s part to just take this one development and forget the other property owners that are there, some of who have built to the maximum what the zoning was and to give this one property a bonus and not include everybody was a wrong choice.

Walen: I support the city needing to tax businesses on some level but I think the Head Tax was the wrong model. I think a B&O or revenue-based tax would have been more appropriate considering we are a sales-tax based economy. We are not a bedroom community and we need our own economic base. I just think it makes more sense to tax revenue rather than the number of employees. Maybe there is the philosophy that they use the streets more, they use the services more. But I really think that revenue is a more fair basis. We want people to create jobs. We don’t want people to think, “Ooh, create a job, pay another $100.” That is not a good thought process for our businesses. But I do support some sort of tax on business.

The council was talking about down zoning in the annexation area and I would not support that. I think that it would be unfair, to come in at this point, before it is even on the ballot and say, “Yep, we’re going to downsize you guys, you can’t have 35 feet (height of a single family home) anymore. You can only have 30.” I think that is a vote against annexation and it is a way of making annexation less attractive to people in that area. I think it is more appropriate for neighbors to get together and make up their own minds, the way we did in our city, about what their zoning restrictions are going to be.

The council may take up the issue of installing some red-light cameras during the next session. What are the pros and cons of red-light cameras?

Tennyson: If you look at other city’s when they put them in – and almost all of them have put them in for revenue generation – and when it first starts it does generate a lot of revenue because you have people that are running red lights. But it doesn’t take people very long before they get it and they don’t (run red lights) and then it doesn’t generate revenue. I know that some of the cities that have them in are looking at taking them out now. Their drivers have been trained. It fosters safe driving habits.

Walen: I love red-light cameras but I am worried about the expense. But I do need to study it in more detail. I think the fundamental reason for government is to pay for services that people can’t afford on their own. Police, fire those things that are essential. Public safety is the number one priority of the city. So I would have to know, do we have a problem as far as safety goes with people running red lights. And if we do, then I would support red-light cameras. I do worry about the budget parts. The pro is that it improves public safety, the con is that it is expensive.

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. 3: Penny Sweet and Brad Larssen

Pos. 7: Tom Hodgson and Doreen Marchione