Politics & Government

Meet Dave Asher, Incumbent Candidate for City Council

Asher's top priorities are a successful annexation transition, economic recovery and establishing a performance management process for the city.

Editor's note: Here's another in a series of candidate profiles Patch is bringing to you for the 2011 elections. Dave Asher is being challenged by James A. Hart of Houghton and Martin Morgan of Rose Hill in the Aug. 16 primary for his position 6 seat on the Kirkland City Council. Morgan did not respond to Patch requests for profile information.

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Full legal name:

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David Scott Asher 
 
Occupation and job title:

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and retired from the University of Washington, where I was the chief financial officer for UW Educational Outreach.

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When and Where Were You Born? 

I celebrated my 63rd birthday recently and grew up in Oak Ridge, Tenn. 
 
Where do you live now and how long have you lived there?

Kirkland’s North Rose Hill Neighborhood, 18 years.  
 
Spouse or domestic partner if any:

My bride is Hae-Sun Asher.
 
Children:  

My wife says I’m the only kid in the house.   
 
Education: 

MS Logistics Management, 1984; BS, Business Administration, 1971.

Military Service:  

 US Army, Regular Army commission 1971-92; Infantry officer, Airborne, Ranger, Aviator (utility & attack helicopters), Master Logistician designation, retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. 
 
Memberships and affiliations with organizations: 

State Board of Directors, Transportation Choices Coalition; Board of Directors and Secretary, Eastside TimeBank; Co-founder and convener, Kirkland Conversations; Member, Greater Kirkland Chamber of Commerce; Founding Member, Eastside Business Association; Life Member, Sierra Club; Life Member, Military Officers Association of America; Life Member, Washington Arms Collectors; Lake Washington United Methodist Church; Kirkland Arts Center; Washington Conservation Voters; Washington Environmental Council; Cascade Land Conservancy; Futurewise; Nature Conservancy; Northwest Product Stewardship Council; Washington State Arts Alliance; KUOW; Former President, Partnerships Foundation, supporting Lake Washington schools; Kirkland Interfaith Transitions in Housing; Community Supper; Kirkland Interfaith Network; Standing Ovation (an Eastside foundation supporting the arts).  

Public experience:

Regional Law, Safety and Justice Committee (former chair & current member); Kirkland City Council’s Public Safety Committee (founding chair & current member); Kirkland City Council’s Legislative Committee (current member); Kirkland City Council’s Ethics Committee (current member); King County Emergency Medical Services Advisory Task Force - Kirkland representative (2011-13); Former Chair, Performance Audit Committee examining Sound Transit; Former Trustee, Cascadia Community College Foundation; Committee Member, Washington State Dept. of Transportation, SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Project; Sound Transit, Executive Advisory Committee for Kirkland Projects; Metro Transit’s Eastside Sounding Board; Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH) Citizen’s Advisory Board; Kirkland’s Ad Hoc Transportation Committee.

Have you or a business you owned ever filed bankruptcy? 

No 
 
As an adult, have you been convicted or charged with a crime other than a minor traffic violation?

No 

 

CAMPAIGN INFORMATION: 
 
Web site:  daveasher.org 
Email address:  dave@daveasher.org 
Phone number:  425-681-3283 
Campaign manager:  self 
 
Previous elected office(s): 
 
Kirkland City Council 1999, 2003, 2007 
 
Other campaigns for public office:

WA State Legislature, 1996, 2002

 
 
THIS CAMPAIGN: 
 
What is the primary reason you are running for this office?

I can continue to effectively contribute to helping build Kirkland’s future, and I am still having fun in this important endeavor we call self-government.  I completely enjoy working with the wide variety of people that make up our great city and learning about different perspectives and interests that make us a community.  

What will be your top three priorities if you get elected and why?

  1. Successfully addressing the annexation and making services equitable across the entire city.  This will take us about a decade. Establishing effective lines of communication with new residents is an important step in getting to know one another, and it gives us means to build trust and understanding. 
  2. Producing results in economic recovery and being prepared for redevelopment opportunities with Totem Lake Malls when the private litigation that currently stops development is no longer an issue.  Taking action on the recent Urban Land Institute study of parts of Totem Lake should also provide us ways to stimulate economic development in those areas.
  3. Improving the City’s process for Managing For Results (sometimes called performance management). This is a straightforward system of planning and implementation requiring clear goals and measures indicating progress toward those goals.  The net outcome of Managing For Results will be transparency and accountability to the citizens of Kirkland. Right now, it’s difficult or impossible for the average citizen to understand anything more than simple pieces of the city’s activities. Our efforts must be focused on achieving measurable outcomes with clear reporting to the people about:
  • Where we are headed
  • What we are doing to get there
  • How well we are progressing toward our goals.

What sets you apart from the other candidates and/or previous office holders? 

I have a lifetime of experience dealing with challenges in serving the public.  My military career is replete with examples of great challenges and successes.  My experience in neighborhood association leadership as a member, a traffic committee chair, neighborhood association chair, and finally as the co-chair of the Kirkland Alliance of Neighborhoods taught me that there is a wide variety of points of view that make up our community. To facilitate the sharing of these viewpoints, I co-founded a group, with the President of the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce, to bring together community members that would otherwise have little opportunity to hear one another’s’ views on important community topics.  That group, Kirkland Conversations, has been meeting for over a dozen years and has provided a forum to discuss the variety of perspectives on many issues that arise in our community.   

In my position as Chief Financial Officer for UW’s Educational Outreach, I became adept at working to turn around fiscally failing programs and organizations.  As a self-sustaining entity in the University (no state funding), our programs had to be profitable or sustained by other of our program offerings.  There were several debt-ridden programs that my organization took on and turned around to profitability.  Those that couldn’t develop a pathway to profitability were generally eliminated.  The revenue of the organization grew from $25 million to $90 million in five years and we were profitable in all except the first year. 

How much money do you expect your campaign to spend on this election?

That really depends on the competition and my best understanding of their intentions. In a situation where a competitor may be able to self-fund his campaign, I may have to raise and spend as much as $35,000. I would prefer to have a better way to carry on a public discussion about what we want our city to become.  If we could remove the great expense of campaigns, we should be able to have better campaigns that might appeal to those with better ideas, not better funding sources.  I authored Kirkland’s first ordinance limiting campaign contributions and spearheaded Kirkland’s first ordinance limiting gifts to city council members.

Endorsements:

Washington Conservation Voters; Sierra Club; Cascade Bicycle ClubSeattle Times; NARAL Pro-Choice Washington; King County Democrats; King County Young Democrats; 32d District Democrats; 45th District Democrats; 48th District Democrats.

State Sen. Marilyn Chase; state Rep. Frank Chopp; U.S. Rep Jay Inslee; state Rep. Ruth Kagi; LWSD Supt. Chip Kimball; state Rep. Cindy Ryu.

 



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