Kirkland Council Member Greenway Running for Re-Election

Saying she wants to see through the annexation process that will add 31,000 residents to Kirkland, City Council member Jessica Greenway announced that she will run for a third term.

“This is the first (Kirkland) election that residents of the annexation area can both run in and vote in,” Greenway said Wednesday of the Nov. 8 ballot. “A major goal is to make that annexation successful. It’s a huge project.”

Annexation of the northern neighborhoods of Finn Hill, Kingsgate and north Juanita takes effect June 1, boosting Kirkland’s population from 49,000 to about 80,000. That will initiate a process that Greenway said would take a couple of years.

“The No. 1 thing is providing fire service and police service for that area. We’ll have to deal with managing the revenue, assessing infrastructure there, such as roads and sidewalks. We’ll be studying zoning and reaching out to the neighborhoods.”

Greenwood, 64 and a resident of the Norkirk neighborhood, said she filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission earlier this month, and on Tuesday she issued a statement announcing her decision to run for another four-year term on the nonpartisan council.

So far, no challenger has publicly emerged.

“I will be very, very surprised if I don’t have an opponent,” she said. “Both previous terms I faced very strong opponents and campaigned very hard.”

Two other Kirkland City Council members are up for re-election this fall, David Asher and Bob Sternoff. Neither has announced plans yet, but Asher is expected to run again.

Greenway has lived in three Kirkland neighborhoods over 23 years, and entered civic life here by serving on the parks board for nine years. She also served on the planning commission for two years and helped found and served as the first president of the South Rose Hill/Bridle Trails Neighborhood Association.

A certified financial planner who runs a business in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, she also chairs the council’s Finance Committee. Known as a leader in recycling and waste reduction efforts, she also chairs the countywide Solid Waste Planning Committee.

Waste reduction remains a focus of the City Council.

“Kirkland is a regional leader in recycling, composting and waste reduction, and we want to do even better,” she said, adding that annexation-area residents will be incorporated in those efforts June 1.

Other big challenges for the city, she said, include encouraging economic activity in these tough times, city budget issues in an era of declining revenue, the police department's and municipal court’s pending move to the Totem Lake area, and keeping the city safe.

“Maybe even the most basic part of our quality of life is the fact that our community is safe and citizens feel so safe,” she said. “The council and city makes a major commitment to public safety and I think that is so important.”