Edmonds City Councilmember Tom Mesaros announced Wednesday that he is running for election to the Position 6 seat he was appointed to fill 14 months ago.

Mesaros noted that he and his wife Margaret moved to Edmonds in 1990 “to raise our children and enjoy the small town feel and quality of life in our city on Puget Sound.  Twenty-five years later, we remain residents of Edmonds for the same reason: the small town feel and the quality of life.

“From the shopping, the restaurants, the arts, and the walks along the waterfront or up through the Westgate neighborhood, we truly enjoy this city,” he said. “Many other families will continue to move here to raise their families and will stay long after their families have grown because of the quality of life we enjoy in our city. I want to ensure that the families coming here in the years ahead will have all that we enjoy today and even more.”

In his announcement, Mesaros said he is “eager to continue to focus on the key issues facing our community: assuring that Edmonds remains one of the most picturesque and livable cities in our state, improving our roads and city infrastructure, making government more accessible and open, improving the Hwy 99 corridor and doing all this without raising new taxes.”

He said that since his appointment, the council has made “some very significant accomplishments,” including finalizing plans for the new Senior Center, creating new zoning on Highway 99 to allow for mixed-use development, dedicating plaza space in front of the city’s Public Safety Complex for a new Veterans’ Memorial, approving a new shoreline management plan with a focus on the Edmonds Marsh, and creating a Diversity Commission “so that all of our citizens and visitors feel welcome.”

Before he was appointed, Mesaros said his goal was to bring unity to the council governing process. He indicated in his  campaign announcement that while councilmembers don’t always agree, “we are all working in good faith toward a vision of how our city can retain its great quality of life while accommodating the external changes that we know are inevitable: a changing demographic, the need to find new sources of revenue and preservation of the environment.”

Mesaros is the former president and CEO of the Alford Group, which provides organizational and fundraising consulting services for not-for-profit organizations. He now serves as senior counsel for the organization.

“In my professional career, I have learned that change is constant and inevitable, and we have to be able to manage it,” he said. “We have to retain what we treasure about Edmonds while addressing the opportunities and challenges ahead.

A native of Connecticut, Mesaros graduated with his bachelor of arts degree from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota and served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1974 as a Czech linguist for the Army Security Agency.