South County Politics: Issue statements from Alderwood Water candidates

Publisher’s note: At the end of this article, you’ll find an audio file recording of this story, courtesy of Edmonds voice coach Malya Muth. She will providing recordings of selected stories, as a service to our readers who may have vision issues or just prefer listening to reading.

Alderwood Water and Wastewater District board candidates Charles Liu, Larry Jones and Jeremiah Styles recently sent statements about what they think are the most important issues in this year’s election.

The three are running on the Aug. 1 primary ballot for the position on the Alderwood Water and Wastewater District board of commissioners that Jones now holds. The top two vote-getters in the primary qualify for the Nov. 7 general election ballot.

The district includes the cities of Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace, the east part of Edmonds, parts of Brier, Bothell, Mill Creek, Mukilteo and Everett, and unincorporated areas near those cities.

Woodway, the west part of Edmonds and unincorporated areas near Woodway and west Edmonds are in the Olympic View Water District. That district has one position on the November ballot.

A second Alderwood position on 2017 ballots will appear only on the November ballot because it has only two candidates.

Ballots for the August primary will go to voters by first-class mail starting July 13, with voters’ pamphlets sent a day earlier by bulk mail.

Here are the candidates’ issue statements in the order that their names will appear on the primary ballot and in the voters’ pamphlet.

ALDERWOOD WATER AND WASTEWATER DISTRICT

Director District 3, non-partisan office, six-year term

Charles Liu

As your commissioner, I intend to listen closely and discover with fresh eyes what the community’s needs and wants are, prioritize them, and execute judiciously, responsibly. I will work with fellow commissioners, learn and offer new insights to provide value immediately and for the long run; maintain services that work well, steadily improve what can be better, more efficient. Having excellent private sector experience, I am confident with my ability to deliver for you.

Larry Jones

The top priority for Alderwood has been and always will be excellent water quality and affordable sustainable rates. How that service is delivered is what makes the difference. Issues facing the District currently are. Ensuring redundancy and inflow and infiltration reduction are built into our wastewater treatment plant to avoid disasters such as the West Point treatment plant failure. Capital project evaluation is important to ensure adequate infrastructure while minimizing revenue requirements. Implementing updates to support systems for more efficient service to the public. Make strong hiring selections to ensure good decision making by staff to avoid issues similar to Flint, Michigan where lead leached into the water supply.

Jeremiah Styles

The purpose of this district is to provide quality water services at a reasonable and affordable price to serve its residents.

My primary goal when elected is to maintain and improve the quality of service, while avoiding any further rate increases and exploring possibilities to lower the cost burden to you, our customers.

As with any public office, I insist on complete transparency to the public with immediate response to any concerns or grievances the consumer may have.

I ask for your vote in order to serve all who are delivered this vital utility service by the Alderwood Water district. Thank you!

Palumbo: last-day state budget decisions must stop

State Sen. Guy Palumbo says last-day state budget decisions, like last week’s agreement that prevented a government shutdown, can’t continue.

“It would be tragic if we allow these high-stakes games of chicken to continuously push our state to the brink of a shutdown with zero public input,” he said. “I will be working with a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators to reform this system to create greater transparency for the public. A first step is a bill I introduced yesterday SJR 8210 with Sen Kuderer, which will create a constitutional amendment to require 72 hours before final passage of a bill. This will ensure the public, and legislators, have an opportunity to review budgets before they are passed.”

Democrat Palumbo represents most of Mountlake Terrace, along with Brier and the rest of the 1st Legislative District.

–By Evan Smith
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.

By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.