MARYSVILLE The status quo will be on the ballot this fall, as the current occupants of all three seats up for re-election on the Marysville City Council in November say they will run, as will mayor Dennis Kendall.
John Soriano, Lee Phillips and Carmen Rasmussen are all filing for re-election, or in Rasmussens case, election to the Council. Rasmussen was appointed to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of former Councilwoman Lisa Vares.
Soriano will be finishing his second four-year term, and Phillips his first. Records maintained by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission show that no one has filed to run against them or Kendall. Current Councilman Jeff Seibert ran against Kendall in a crowded field four years ago and said hes happy with the job the mayor is doing and wont try to unseat him.
For Phillips this fall will bring great changes, as he celebrates his birthday, engagement and campaign kickoff May 12 from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. at the Village Restaurant in Marysville. He recently proposed to girlfriend Mechelle Richardson and plans to wed later this year. He joked that he is checking to see if he can raise funds for a campaign and a honeymoon at the same time, but was thankful that his fiance has the patience to let him run for office first. At 25 years of age, Phillips is by far the youngest member of the Council and was elected at age 22. He works at Fred Meyer.
He said he wants to work for more funding for transportation, increased fiscal responsibility and better programming and less fees for the citys cable TV channel. He has butted heads with Seibert over the TV channels $1 fee, and has chafed under Kendalls ribbing over his youth. He voted to retain the Marysville Police dispatch center and was the only member to vote against the contract for city chief administrator Mary Swenson.
Theres so much to accomplish, weve only just started, Phillips said.
He can be reached at voteforlee@comcast.net or by phone at 360-653-1502. He is running for Position 6.
Soriano works in operations at Boeing and wants to improve the fire, police and other emergency services provided by the city, and joined in voting with Phillips to retain the in-house police dispatch service. They were the only two members to vote against contracting the service out to a county-run consortium. He said he didnt like that city staff used numbers and figures when the 12-person unit was down to seven or eight people, racking up huge amounts of overtime.
I just wanted the comparison done when our staff was at full staff and functioning at 100 percent, Soriano explained.
As more revenue-producing commercial activity is generated in the city, the coffers should be full and allow the Council to make needed improvements in transportation infrastructure.
I think our focus is going to be traffic, making traffic work better, Soriano said. Id like to see our parks system grow a bit also.
He saluted Kendalls tenure and said the former business executive has been a catalyst for all the economic activity in town.
I think hes doing a great job. I think that in the four years hes been in office, as far as leadership, hes provided what I thought is a good direction, Soriano said. He deserves a lot of the credit for whats happened to the city.
Serving for two terms, Soriano said he has learned to compromise, one of the tougher parts of serving on the Council. Hes also happy to see how the relationships with the Tulalip Tribes have improved, and said the aborted NASCAR marriage left the city with a national reputation that is paying off with developments such as Lakewood Crossings and Gateway Plaza.
It gave us a lot of national exposure, he explained. For the big box stores it kind of put us in the spotlight for a city that was looking for economic growth. Even though it didnt happen we got the exposure we needed.
Soriano is running for Position No. 5 and can be reached at 360-655-5314 or by email at jsoriano@ci.Marysville.wa.us.
A graduate of Washington State University with a bachelors degree in criminal science, Rasmussen married a Cougar with a veterinary degree. Now he is a sergeant with the Marysville Police Department while she sells pet supplies online. She has two children with husband Darin and voted to close the city-operated dispatch center.
That was probably the hardest vote, because I personally know many of them and its a job I used to do, Rasmussen said. I felt that I really understood what the officers would be losing.
Despite the hard feelings that might have resulted, she pointed out that with a 5-to-2 tally, she could have abstained or voted the other way and it would not have changed the outcome.
But thats not who I am, Rasmussen said.
Like Soriano, she wants better roads and parks, and would like to found a youth council that would get teens involved in city government and teach them about civics and encourage more community involvement. She said her modus operandi was to keep her eye to the Marysville she would like to see in the future and examine each vote and ask if it gets the city closer to that goal. She kicked off her campaign in early April and can be reached at Carmen4council@aol.com. She is running for Position No. 7.
Kendall has already filed for re-election and plans to hold a campaign kick off in the next few weeks, he said May 7.