The Mirror just came out with their candidate endorsements and I agree with them with one exception: I urge you to vote for JULIE HILLER (Mr. Federal Way’s choice) because, although she may be the underdog in the race for City Council Position 5, she truly is the better candidate.
Her opponent (Mark Kopang) may have served on the Citizen’s Superintendent Search Committee and a couple of city commissions but that doesn’t make him the better candidate (contrary to what the Mirror would like you to believe).
He is what I call a “city insider.” There are a couple of important qualities that make Julie Hiller stand out and give her a clear advantage over her opponent: (1) as the Mirror clearly pointed out, she is very professional, very passionate about the city and the issues that must be addressed (i.e. the Performing Arts and Event Center, traffic, homeless people, etc.) and when she doesn’t agree on an issue, she always comes with another well thought-out alternative/solution to consider; (2) she is totally independent; and (3) finally, she has a strong background when it comes to fiscal issues and dealing with the plight of homeless individuals in our city, which is a serious issue that must be addressed.
Most importantly, she will listen to the needs of the residents of our city and will stand up for the best interests of all our citizens. We need another independent voice on our council and she is the ideal candidate to fill that need — so again, I urge you to vote for JULIE HILLER.
Finally, I also urge you to vote for CLAIRE WILSON for School Board District Position 2. One of the qualities I appreciate about Claire is her willingness to listen to her constituents as evidenced by the fact that she was willing to meet with me to discuss school issues when she was first running for the board.
She is extremely knowledgeable about education issues and has brought consensus to the board. She is passionate about improving the high school graduation rates (which took too long to become a priority in our district) and raising math scores, which are two of the top priorities in our district now.
She was part of the board that voted 5-0 to hire Dr. Tammy Campbell as the new superintendent. She has four years of experience serving on the Board, was endorsed by the Federal Way Education Association and is deserving of re-election. She has been endorsed by all of the other board candidates except Danny Peterson who is stepping down.
Campbell and the current board members make up a great team to lead our school district and it is vitally important that we keep them together as we move forward. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Gary Robertson, Federal Way
