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Monday, January 16, 2006

Going Public

Posted by on January 16 at 15:36 PM

City council members Peter Steinbrueck and Nick Licata have posted their preliminary lists of candidates to replace city council member Jim Compton on the Stranger’s Slog. Read all about it here.


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Here are my thoughts and names to advance for interviews for the City Council vacancy.

Richard Conlin

There are many more highly qualified candidates for the City Council vacancy than the 18 that we are able to list as our selections to advance to the interview stage. I have reviewed the resumes and materials from the 3-minute presentations, and have applied three criteria and two rules-of-thumb to winnow the field down to the final 18 choices.

Criteria:
1. The candidate must have a demonstrated commitment to the values of Seattle citizens. This commitment is best demonstrated by involvement in a range of civic activities, such as neighborhood or community-based organizations, and on a variety of topics, as well as knowledge and experience in key issues.
2. The candidate must have cultural competence and experience in working with diverse communities. Persons who are members in a community currently underrepresented in city government have an edge, and others are evaluated on the basis of their activities and understanding.
3. As best as can be determined, the candidate should clearly be able to work collegially in a group setting. Sharp edges are okay, but must be combined with the ability to compromise and to work well with others.

Applying these criteria reduced the field significantly, but still left many more than 18 strong candidates. To further reduce the field, I applied two rules-of-thumb:

Rules-of-thumb
1. I excluded candidates who were applying as caretakers only. I believe tht the Council should strive to find a candidate who is willing to serve beyond one year if the voters agree. If caretaker candidates move to the interview stage, I will seriously consider them and go along if the majority of the Council determines that a caretaker is the strongest candidate, but I do not choose to encourage selection of a caretaker. If the Council is unable to agree on a final candidate, we can reopen the list and pick from among those who are interested in the caretaker option.
2. I also excluded candidates who had run in 2005. While having been a candidate for Council in the past does demonstrate commitment to the position, it just did not feel right to me to pick a person who had just been turned down by the voters -- besides the danger to their mental and physical health of forcing them to run for Council three years in a row... Again, there are fine candidates who are excluded by this rule, and if these candidates make it to the interview stage I will seriously consider them and go along if the Council determines they are the strongest candidate.

Even after applying these standards, there are still people who I know and respect who will be disappointed that they are not on my list. I still had to make hard choices, and regret that this is the case.

Here are my selections:

Ross Baker
Bruce Bentley
Russ Brubaker
Stella Chao
Gail Chiarello
Sally Clark
Bookda Gheiser
Lee Hatcher
David Hopkins
Verlene Jones
Ven Knox
Sharon Maeda
Kate Mortenson
Sara Patton
Darryl Smith
Roger Valdez
Venus Velasquez
Thomas Whittemore

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