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Lisa Anderl - 2025 Election for Mercer Island City Council Position 6
101 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of the Mercer Matters podcast, Ben interviews Lisa Anderl who is running for re-election for Mercer Island City Council. In this discussion, we talk about issues facing Mercer Island residents including Proposition 1 for the construction of a new Public Safety and Maintenance Building, Lisa's vision for the future of the Town Center, public safety and an overview of the financial situation of the City of Mercer Island.
You can learn more about Lisa Anderl at her website https://www.lisaformi.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Mercer Matters Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the Mercer Matters podcast. I'm Ben Sharp and I'm your host. I started this podcast about two years ago to give Mercer Island residents another way to get information on local elections and bond measures.
00:00:16
Speaker
If you enjoy this podcast, I would appreciate it if you could like it on the platform that you're listening to and also share with your friends and family via social media. Without further ado, here is the next episode.
Introducing Lisa Andrel and Election Context
00:00:27
Speaker
Hi, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Mercer Matters Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Ben Sharp, your host for today's discussion with Lisa Andrel. She's currently on the city council for Mercer Allen, and she's running ah for re-election against Johanna Boresky for position six.
00:00:41
Speaker
ah Just a quick... Programming note, um I've invited all the candidates running for public office this cycle Mercer Island for a discussion. And unfortunately, Johanna declined the invitation to come on the podcast. So as of this recording, ah you're just going to hear from Lisa.
Lisa Andrel's Background and Contributions
00:00:55
Speaker
So Lisa, I'd like to start off by thanking you for your service to to all of us at Mercer Island, having been on the council for a number of years.
00:01:02
Speaker
and and putting in all the effort it takes to run for re-election. So ah thank you very much for doing that. um The goal for today's discussion, Lisa, is to just give Mercer Island voters an opportunity to hear directly from you, ah get to know you a little bit more and learn about how you think about different issues that are facing our city over the over the coming years.
00:01:21
Speaker
um So I'd like to start, I'd love to have you introduce yourself, your background, um and how your past experience on city council makes you the best choice moving forward to represent us on the council. Okay, thanks Ben. um And thanks for for providing this community forum. um As you noted before we went on the record, there's ah not a lot of opportunities to get to know candidates in depth. And um so I think this is this is a nice technological development that we have. um So yeah,
Role of Listening and Negotiation in Council Work
00:01:48
Speaker
my name is Lisa Anderle. I've lived on Mercer Island since 1999.
00:01:52
Speaker
I became, and during that time I was practicing law for what is now Lumen, but was, you know, US West and then Quest and then CenturyLink and then Lumen. So had a lot of business cards and a lot of titles, but the same job and the same office the whole time.
00:02:09
Speaker
um and And I think that the you know practice law does help a lot in a city council type position because you do deal with legislative issues a lot. It's helpful to be able to read ordinances or the comprehensive plan and you know pick through what those things mean.
00:02:26
Speaker
um It's also helpful to have negotiating skills and listening skills, which I think I've developed over the years. you know You're in trial, you're in a negotiation, and you have to listen carefully to what everybody else is saying because sometimes what they want or what they need is kind of hidden in those words. But if you if you're paying attention,
00:02:46
Speaker
um sometimes you can craft a compromise that makes everybody happy. And, you know i think that we've done a lot of that on council.
Council's Approach to City Challenges
00:02:53
Speaker
I mean, we have a very diverse council, the seven of us. um We don't always agree. i mean, and and people pretty much know where everybody falls out on on issues, but we've had a lot of, a lot of seven to nothing votes where we just understand what's best for the city. And maybe it's not your number one priority, or maybe you'd rather spend money on something else.
00:03:15
Speaker
But, know, you know that the water system needs water. improvements and we spend a lot of money on the water system, by the way, we can talk about that later. But um yeah, so so just working kind of across the aisle and listening and collaborating and you know just taking the time to say, hey, you know i you abstained on that vote.
00:03:36
Speaker
Can you tell me a little bit more about what your thought process was and why? And you know somebody once said, I think it's, I don't know who to attribute this quote to, but they said, um I'm always happy when I change my mind because it means I learned something.
00:03:49
Speaker
And I think that's great. I kind of try to bring that perspective to the council issues. I may think about an issue one way and and people ask me, and how are you going to vote on this? And I'm like, well, you know, I'm going to listen to the discussion and and I may be leaning this way and that may be very well where I land squarely.
Functionality and Resource Management of Mercer Island Council
00:04:06
Speaker
But try but i but i try to take into consideration ah differing points of view. And um I feel like we're very civil on the council.
00:04:16
Speaker
I've been told by people who observe other city proceedings that we have one of the most functional councils as opposed to dysfunctional councils in, you know, in this county or the state where we just work hard on city priorities and get stuff done, spend money smartly and cooperate toward the good of everybody on the island.
00:04:38
Speaker
Well, thank you very much for for sharing that introduction and and your perspective on the council. um you know as ah As a limited outsider, from my perspective, it does seem like it's a very functional council and you guys get a lot done, as especially as this is you know not everybody's full-time job, right? Right.
00:04:55
Speaker
yeah Thanks for sharing that.
City's Biggest Challenges: Budget and Infrastructure
00:04:58
Speaker
um So to dive in, I guess my first question for you is from your perspective, what are what are the biggest challenges facing the city of Mercer Island over the next couple of years, four or five years?
00:05:08
Speaker
Well, it's definitely the budget um and the infrastructure issues. You know, we can talk about Proposition 1 or the Public Safety and Maintenance Building and a separate question. But, you know, getting a facility for essential city services is is huge. I don't, you know, i don't I hope that the bond passes. I support it. I endorsed it.
00:05:28
Speaker
I contributed money to the yes Vote Yes campaign. um So that that and if it doesn't pass, that's going to be a huge issue because there are ah going to be.
00:05:41
Speaker
employee morale and retention issues, I believe, um with particularly our police force working out of trailers right now. um It's not pretty. The building won't be built for a while, but you know certainly if the community rallies and says, yes, we think you need a safe building with good access and an evidence room and a holding cell and all of the other good police stuff that we need, they think that you know that gives people hope. And then, of course, if the
00:06:11
Speaker
the trailer living has an an end date, then that doesn't impact ah you know doesn't impact morale as much because much a lot of the work is
Housing Density and Infrastructure Limitations
00:06:21
Speaker
not done in the office. So um you know they're out in the field patrolling the city.
00:06:26
Speaker
um so but So budget and infrastructure for sure. um And then, you know, coming into compliance with ah some of the state mandates for increased density in housing is going to be a huge challenge for the island because we're an island.
00:06:42
Speaker
and We don't have extra real estate. We can't just go annex things. And we frankly don't, can't even ah realistically to me, up zone neighborhoods because we don't have the underlying infrastructure. We don't have the water and the sewer capacity to, you know, triple, ah double the number of households in a neighborhood.
00:07:02
Speaker
um We don't have the parking capacity and people who think cars are going away because sound transit's going to be serving the Island or just in a dream world, people come with cars and I don't see that stopping for a long, long time.
00:07:15
Speaker
so you know, the challenge of communication, complying with state law, dealing with those zoning issues and retaining some quality of life on the island and retaining you know as much of the single family neighborhoods as we can, because that's what I hear from the residents who are here.
00:07:33
Speaker
um I don't honestly, and and this is maybe sound, i don't want to sound like a jerk, but you I don't represent the people who don't yet live here. I represent the people who live here.
00:07:46
Speaker
right And I hear over and over and over again, public safety, schools, parks, and I don't hear, gosh, it would be great to have more apartments in town center.
00:07:57
Speaker
but You know, public safety parks, single family residences. I, you know, nobody wants, I can't say nobody, but, you know, a fourplex next door changes the character of the neighborhood, you know, for better or for worse. It it just does.
00:08:13
Speaker
And so, um so those are, those are the challenges that I see. So thank you for clearly articulating those. And see so let's talk about the the infrastructure for a second. So the water system you mentioned, you know we had what was last summer, a big repair, big issue. My understanding was that the the water system was kind of band-aided in a way. a sleeve was put inside. was talking to the late Jake Jacobson about that. He mentioned that was kind of the the path that was chose. So if if I'm right on that and and we sort of
00:08:44
Speaker
it sounded like maybe less water is flowing to the island than it was previously. You raise kind of an interesting point, looking at all the infrastructure challenges we have, and it seems like a lot of it has aged and maybe it's just the time has come to start to deal with those issues. But do we have the, for example, the water and the sewer to be able to accommodate a significant amount of growth on the island?
00:09:04
Speaker
I don't think so. I mean, I'm you know i'm no water or sewer engineer, but You know, I know what the capacity of the pipes are, and there's just not a lot of, know, not a lot of it capacity for additional connections.
00:09:19
Speaker
I mean, we have, you know, two reservoirs, 2 million gallons each, I think, in Rotary Park. And that only provides backup water for the island for a short period of time. If you have a lot more population, well, you know, you're going to incrementally, you're going to draw that reserve down that much faster. So we haven't had a lot of growth on the island. The population's held steady but about 25,000. For a while, we've got about 8,000 households, 8,000 to 10,000 separate sewer and water connections.
00:09:50
Speaker
I think You know, from an infrastructure standpoint, we're built out. I mean, from a land standpoint, sure, you could add duplexes or triplexes on single family lots and build a lot more a lot more housing capacity if you wanted to. But, you know, if you've got eight people demanding water and flushing toilets versus two people to demanding water and flushing toilets, you know, you just have to think about once you multiply that by a thousand, I don't think that can happen with the way things are currently built on the island.
00:10:19
Speaker
With that, then how do you view, how does Mercer Island comply with the state law requiring or you know allowing for more dense housing? like it That seems maybe, as you touched on, much more nuanced on an island that's already very well built out.
00:10:34
Speaker
How do we manage that nuance and how do you help manage that on the council? Well, I mean, I think you have to enact zoning laws that allow certain things to happen, but I don't think you have to, frankly, encourage it.
00:10:46
Speaker
You know, you don't have to give allowances for density. um You don't have to loosen codes to encourage density. um You don't have to loosen design standards to encourage density. You know, so you keep as much of your code in place as you can, but that's going to be the work that council is going to have to do. And we're going to have to, you know, come up with a seven to nothing or a four to three solution on how you do it. And, you know, who gets on council, I may, I may be on the, maybe on the short end of that vote.
00:11:18
Speaker
I don't know. Right. And yeah you know maybe maybe another community that's looking to draw people in and it's less established like may make some of those modifications. But what you're saying is for us, you know maybe it makes less sense. Exactly. Thank you.
00:11:31
Speaker
um the Shifting gears a little bit to to budget and i yeah let's let's let's talk there. So when you say – you listed budget I think is the the first challenge, maybe not the most significant, but you listed it first.
00:11:43
Speaker
um Can you just summarize where the city is budget-wise for those that have no idea? you know How we doing relative to our peers? um Are we in good shape, poor shape? If you could kind of just help frame that
Fiscal Management and Budget Challenges
00:11:56
Speaker
for us. I think we we are in a very well-managed city from a fiscal standpoint.
00:12:02
Speaker
um We have challenges in that in the past we have not gotten a significant revenue from sales tax. And and that's that's a huge piece. So like you look at a city Issaquah who has a Costco, who has a couple of automobile dealerships, who has you know all of these but kind of the big box stores, the Lowe's and whatever.
00:12:24
Speaker
There's a significant revenue stream from Costco. sales tax that goes into those cities. Now with the advent of the pandemic and people buying from Amazon, and getting things delivered to their homes, that produced some sales tax revenue that was um above and beyond where we what we had been getting. So that helped a little bit. um did that Did that stick around? Yeah. mean, has that been kind of a sticky revenue source? Okay. I think people's shopping habits have changed kind of permanently. you know I know for me, I went to two stores on the island, and I try to patronize the island businesses as much as I can, but I was just looking for a little ah roll of shelf paper to line my kitchen cupboards.
00:13:02
Speaker
And I struck out at two stores and I put an order on Amazon for $9.99 and got my shelf paper the next day. So i I do think people tend to have kind of gotten into a groove where they just do order certain stuff from Amazon. And I i think we've seen that uptick in sales tax revenue kind of stay in place.
00:13:22
Speaker
But so then, you know, we a lot of our other revenue is dependent on um property taxes and real estate excise tax. And so that fluctuates when a a large building like the Riot Games building sells. We get a big influx of REIT revenue. If a large building, if we have a year where we don't have a lot of real estate sales, which things have been a little flat lately, that revenue declines.
00:13:46
Speaker
But the bottom line is I think that the city's you know annual operating budget for general fund is about $35 to $40 million. dollars And we're operating comfortably within that budget. I mean, we pay our salaries and um contractors and we have capital budgets for other things too. The general fund is more like an operating expense budget, but then we have capital budgets and for um more capital projects like water and sewer and and those kinds of things.
00:14:12
Speaker
So we've got a great finance team. Jesse Bond, our city manager, has done a wonderful job over the time that she's been in office or you know held her position to really be very conservative while still getting things accomplished. so But you know we we have a lot of pressures too.
00:14:30
Speaker
For example, you know the market for police officers right now is super competitive. And so You know, if we need to hire new or retain existing, you're just going to have to pay more.
00:14:41
Speaker
And, you know, maybe ah hiring bonuses, maybe some other things, because that's what other cities are offering, because they're struggling to hire and retain. And that some of those cities like Seattle Tacoma have a lot more money. So, you know, if they want to outbid us, they can.
00:14:56
Speaker
Those are you know real challenges. But right now, I think we're operating the law. State law requires us to have a balanced budget, but we are operating at a balanced budget. And and I think we're effectively delivering city services.
00:15:09
Speaker
And ah good fiscal management to that has been been on display in the past is kind of highlighted by the fact that we could just buy $9 million dollars building that is next to City Hall. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it was the building that housed the Yellowwood Academy, then we were able to buy that for cash. And we're going to be able to quickly put some city services into that building, including some custom you know a customer-facing window where if somebody has a question about their water bill or wants to check up on the status of the permits, um they can walk in to a building, which they haven't been able to do for a while. So, yeah, since the closure of City Hall, right? Yeah. And that which was about two years ago.
00:15:47
Speaker
So that's a that's a great segue. um So that the purchase of that building is obviously part of a larger plan in that the the biggest component of that plan is the maintenance facility that's going to be on the ballot in November.
00:15:59
Speaker
Could you spend a little bit of time providing some context about your view in terms of the need for the facility? I mean, obviously, you supported it. You voted in support of putting it um on the ballot, the the bond measure. but Could you just talk about the need and, you know, sort of the finances of all that from your perspective?
00:16:14
Speaker
Sure. um Well, and you know, voting to put it on the ballot is not the same as supporting it because it's just saying we want the voters to decide. But in my case, both things are true. like voted to put it on the ballot and I do also personally and professionally support it. I think a lot of hard work went into the design of this building.
00:16:33
Speaker
A lot of thoughtful changes were made to keep the cost down. I know it's expensive. It's
New Maintenance Facility and Its Impact
00:16:38
Speaker
$103 million. dollars But as I asked somebody the other day, when was the last time the city built a building? Never.
00:16:44
Speaker
I mean, I don't know when the existing operations and maintenance building was built, but it's a long time ago. And the city hall we was used when we got it. So every once in a while, once in every several generations, and this is our turn, you have to make an investment.
00:17:00
Speaker
And I think that the design of the building, it will house an emergency operations center. It will house the police. It house you know all our public works and right-of-way and maintenance. It will house... all kinds of materials and equipment. I mean, we we have a big fleet because we do a lot of stuff ourselves. We have Vactor trucks that either vacuum or push to um maintain and clean and ah repair the water and sewer systems.
00:17:29
Speaker
Those things can run a half million to three quarters of a million dollars with you know vulnerable hoses and fittings and gaskets and whatever. I don't want them sitting outside. i don't want my own car sitting outside if I can help it And I think of the covered parking, which is kind of the bullseye for some people on this building. Oh, you know, it's a luxury.
00:17:49
Speaker
i don't I don't agree with that at all. I mean, we've got vulnerable materials sitting out exposed to the weather right now. And with increased storage, we'll be able to lay in supplies of things like sand and de-icer and other items that when you need them, you really need them badly. And you don't want to have to go off island and stand in line with with every other city and in King County at you a central dispensary for sand and de-icer. You want to have it on premise.
00:18:18
Speaker
And frankly, you know, if you have a snowstorm, I don't think it's smart to have to prioritize plowing out your own equipment before you can go plow the streets. I think, you know, we've looked at a lot of different aspects of the design. The department heads who know what they need to function have you know been consulted and had input. We've had engineers and design teams. We've looked at a number of facilities throughout the area. I personally went with Jake and a couple of other council members to the Kitsap Peninsula to look at their relatively new building.
00:18:50
Speaker
And we talked to them about, you know, what do you like? What don't you like? What would you do differently? um There were a lot of design changes that were made with regard to the police area specifically, you know, to make sure that there were no vulnerable perches where somebody could wait while a prisoner was being escorted in and out. And one of the buildings that we looked at California.
00:19:12
Speaker
elsewhere in the region has such an issue. There's a ah concrete parking structure across from the ingress egress where the police go. And it makes them nervous every single day because somebody could be crouched behind the concrete wall. And, you know, I'm sorry that that's an issue, but in the world in which we live makes it an issue. So we have a need frequently, sadly, for an emergency operations center to be stood up.
00:19:37
Speaker
And we need to be able to gather all of our people there. We need to have all of our materials, equipment and supplies there in one place. Standing up an emergency operation center on an emergency basis at the community center just doesn't really work. And this will be, this EOC will be, and it'll be a multipurpose. it's It's not going to be space that just stands empty waiting for an emergency. But we've had heat emergencies We've had snow emergencies. We've had rain emergencies. We've had ah power outage emergencies. you know Luckily, in recent memory, there has not been an earthquake or anything, but um there's plenty of other things that really impact our citizenry where we do need the EOC. c
00:20:18
Speaker
um And this will be a class four building that is you know as resilient as it can be. Nothing's ever going to be. I don't see a different solution. The city hall can't be remediated. The current operations building is failing.
00:20:35
Speaker
Um, it's a cinder block construction. It can't be rehabbed really is too small. The design in the yard is super inefficient where you've got people having to back up all the time, which creates hazards and dangers.
00:20:49
Speaker
So the new design in the new building is going to be one where things flow. And you have adequate space to park and pull forward rather than backing up all the time. um There's a million big things and a million little things that I think are really, really important about being able to build this building. So that's where I come out on it.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah. No,
Public Safety Concerns with Light Rail
00:21:08
Speaker
thank you that's That's super helpful ah for us to kind of hear your perspective on that. having been involved in how the sausage was made, so to speak. And for those of you listening, um I'll also be talking with Dave Rosenbaum, who's deputy mayor um on another episode. So please check that out. And then also Mike Ciro to get his perspective on the no side of this particular issue. Yeah. Well, let me just say about that. i mean, I have the utmost respect for Mike Ciro and I consider him a friend. He's on my endorser list. I think even though I support the building, he's probably still going to vote for me.
00:21:37
Speaker
But I just don't see the science or study or mechanics or engineering behind the criticisms because I'm not seeing an alternative plan from them. I'm just i'm just hearing that it's too big and too expensive.
00:21:52
Speaker
But I'm not – I don't – get any messaging. Maybe I just haven't heard it, but about how you can make it cheaper and smaller and still do what it needs to do. Yeah. That's well, listen listen to his episode.
00:22:05
Speaker
He does. He does spend some time ah talking about that. and Let's move on to my next question. um So I'm curious, you you mentioned public safety.
00:22:16
Speaker
uh in your uh in your kind of opening remarks and i'm curious with you know what's on everybody's mind it seems like is the opening of the light rail um you know if and when this happens and the potential impact on public safety down the town center i've spent fair amount of time uh talking with the former police chief chris setter and i've spent time talking with um with michelle bennett who's the new chief Both of them have expressed fairly significant concern with that opening.
00:22:45
Speaker
How do you think about it? What what side of the coin or do do you fall on in terms of what you think life will be like in the town center from a safety perspective after the light rail opens? Well, I think light rail definitely creates additional safety concerns.
00:22:57
Speaker
You have incredibly easy access, ingress and egress to the town center. I mean, for a long time, Sound Transit wasn't even enforcing the fare rules. So, you know, literally anybody could get on anywhere.
00:23:10
Speaker
I think they're making some changes to their philosophy on that. now, but i I haven't heard for sure whether they're going to install turnstiles or just have more patrols. so But the sad truth is that a lot of the criminal activity that occurs on Mercer Island occurs where the perpetrators are not Mercer Island residents.
00:23:29
Speaker
So um if you make it easier for non-residents who have a criminal bent to come onto the island, and that's what light rail will do, you have additional risk. And we we have a a huge untreated mental health problem in probably in the country, but definitely in in the Seattle and King County area, I think.
00:23:49
Speaker
Not for lack of trying, but definitely for lack of success. People don't seem to be able to get the services that they need. And so I i think that there are going to be they're going to be issues. And we have ah great police force and we've hired a couple of extra officers in anticipation of the opening of the station.
00:24:07
Speaker
um Will that be enough to keep Mercer Island feeling as safe as it currently does? i don't know. I hope so. Yeah, I hope so too. And ah you know switch switching gears a little bit on the the town center, I'm curious, um what's what's your view for what the town center will look like in the next five or 10 years?
Vision for Town Center's Future
00:24:27
Speaker
That's a good question. I mean, city council can only do so much, you know, people talk about right revitalizing town center, but, you know, and and we can make, you know, zoning regulations and permitting easier and more. like But the market's going to do what the market's going to do, right? it Exactly. I mean, we did just institute some changes to the parking regulations that if you talk to Island, the owner of Island books, they're very happy about it because, um had parking issues in their lot with people parking there um who are not this you know patronizing those businesses. And Victor's been pretty vocal about it. So um we did just change almost all the parking in town center to two hours. um
00:25:08
Speaker
There was a move to, and we'll enforce it. I hope we're enforcing it. There was a move to make it metered. And I was originally in favor of that, but I actually changed my mind on that. And I guess enough Other council members changed their mind on it too because we're not we did not decide to meter it. Feeling like if the current regulations don't really take hold and do what they need to do, you can always add the meters, but why go to that big expense when you can take up a kind of a baby step and see how that works?
00:25:35
Speaker
um You know, we're going to have the new building, the new apartment building that's across from that market. I i don't know what kind of retail is going to go in there. I i hope, you know, some good stuff. But, um you know, as things have just kind of happened organically, we've had a lot of really wonderful businesses open on the island. And, you know, you can look at the Crawl Space Pub. You can look at Macrina. You can look at the Merriam's Bakery up by York.
00:26:00
Speaker
Where Au Chocolat used to be, Chocolat's now on the south end, it's a little bit further drive for me, but it's still worth it. um You know, I think for what we are, which is you know, ah a town with a couple of grocery stores and a um the the smattering of restaurants and fast food places and gas stations.
00:26:16
Speaker
below that or next to that is also ah really nice, diverse business center. I mean, like I said, I can pretty much find everything I want on the island. And, you know, I i mean, i hope that I hope that island residents continue to patronize those businesses and that they continue to succeed. But, you know, businesses will go out of business and they will turn over and something new will come in, just like has been happening down at that Rite Aid shopping center. You know, there were vacant storefronts and then all of a sudden they're full. Right.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah, that that center is really revitalized and and fairly quickly. And, you know, the city during the pandemic, the city acted swiftly, I think, to enable the outdoor dining, and which is something that, you know, continues now. There's a ton of places where you can sit outside and eat. And so that's something that that continues to be available for restaurants? Oh, yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, that's been a great addition, I think. Yeah, I i do too. Especially in the summer.
00:27:07
Speaker
We're turning the corner now.
Supporting Local Businesses Through Initiatives
00:27:09
Speaker
But um what what types of things has the council done? Like that's a good example, I think, of being able to encourage additional patronage of of restaurants and businesses downtown. what What other things has the council done or can they do? Well, like i said, we did just address the parking issue. One of the issues with parking is for a long time, there were ah several streets in town center that were allowed to to be permit parking only. And people could buy a permit for, i think it was like pennies a day.
00:27:38
Speaker
And that was kind of an augment to the park and ride. So they could park there all day if they worked in town center or could park there all day if they wanted to walk up to the park and ride.
00:27:49
Speaker
We did away with that because we felt like we needed to provide those spaces to support the businesses where people are going to drive to them in their cars and want to find a place to park on the street. So what else can we do? Like i said, we can you know look as closely as possible at making permitting process faster and more friendly. But real estate's expensive on the island.
00:28:11
Speaker
And most of the retail space that's going to be taken by either a food service establishment or a Pilates studio or whatever, mean, that's all controlled by private owners who are going to set market rents.
00:28:26
Speaker
So I do think, honestly, that aside from parking and permitting and flexibility in terms of how the businesses operate, like the outdoor dining, I don't know of a lot of other things.
00:28:39
Speaker
but No, that's that's fair. Appreciate you are articulating your your response there, how you did. i I know you've got a hard stop coming up, so I'm going to try to squeeze in two more questions and I'll i'll let you get on with your day.
00:28:52
Speaker
um I'm hoping that – could you articulate specifically where you and and Johanna disagree on on policy or direction for the city? i i can't because I don't know – um where she's coming from.
00:29:06
Speaker
um I've only spoken with her twice. She's lovely um to to to chat with and she seems like ah you know wonderful community member.
00:29:16
Speaker
um I feel like she is probably more progressive than I am based on the endorsements on her website. And how that um how that will play out in council votes, like um whether you encourage density, I would suspect that she and I will be different on that. I don't know, though.
00:29:33
Speaker
We had, as I think I told you before you started recording, we had seven minutes each at the Rotary. And I'm. um very grateful for that forum. It's wonderful that they host that, but, you know, seven minutes is only seven minutes. and Yeah, not a lot of time, as we said. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's pretty hard to articulate where where we differ. Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker
You know, there's going to be the League of Women Voters forum coming up. And then Island Books is generously off opening their their space for candidate forums as well, just kind of meet and greet.
00:30:06
Speaker
So we may find out more at that point. But I did ask her when we first met how she would have voted differently than I on Any of the major issues that had faced the council. And at that point, it was very early in the race. And she said that's something that she was looking at. Okay.
00:30:24
Speaker
Well, that's fair. thanks for Thanks for your honest answer there. I appreciate that. um so So to round out, maybe maybe you could close with kind of your your five to 10 year vision for the island, you know where where you see it going or where you'd like to see it go and and how you'd participate in that if you're reelected.
Balancing Growth with Quality Services
00:30:40
Speaker
And then you know also just ah tell listeners you know where you can find more information about you and how to get in contact with you. Yeah, sure. um Boy, well, you know, five to 10 years, I've been on the island since 99. And I've seen a lot of change, but it's been, you know it's been thoughtful change and growth. And, you know, that does have to happen. i mean, and people get mad when things change. They don't like it.
00:31:04
Speaker
You know, we hear all the time, why did you approve that apartment building? You know, why did you do that? We don't we don't want that. And then, you know, pretty soon there's retail in the ground floor of the apartment building and nobody really thinks twice about it.
00:31:18
Speaker
um I'd like to see the city continue to evolve and change and grow, not necessarily by population, but, you know, just in terms of housing.
00:31:28
Speaker
how we function as a city, I would like to ah would like to see us be able to continue to be a first-class city, which I think we are. we provide a whole range of services, including the services that are provided by the Mercer Island Youth and Family Services Department um that other cities just don't provide at all. We have you know our own food pantry assistance, our own rental assistance, the school counselors,
00:31:51
Speaker
plus an array of services for just the population as a whole ah that you get just by virtue of living on Mercer Island. So, you know I want to see us continue to to um be that kind of a city where we have clean parks, safe streets, city services delivered promptly and um on budget. And, you know, in terms of what happens with the residential areas, I'd like to see it.
00:32:18
Speaker
I think people should be able to choose to live in a single family neighborhood if they want to, and I will work to ah retain that to the extent possible um and continue to invest in, you know, the boring stuff that nobody sees, upgrading the water system, upgrading the sewer system.
00:32:34
Speaker
you know, in the past couple of years, we've spent over $46 million dollars on the water system. I might have to check myself on that, but- A large sum of money, nevertheless, I'm sure. A large sum of money, you know, and and stuff that nobody's ever going to see. this we We now have our own booster chlorination station. So if we need to treat our water that comes from Seattle Public Utilities because of any um any issues upstream, we can do that now. We didn't have that before.
00:33:02
Speaker
We... took and we drained and relined, recoded the interior of the reservoirs, which is a once every 20 year project. Nobody's ever going to see that, but that's money really well spent.
00:33:14
Speaker
And I just just like to see the city continue to be run that way. I think we've um i think we've been doing a good job. Well, thank you very much, Lisa, for for spending the time. And again, if if folks ah want to learn more about you, what what's your website?
00:33:28
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's lisa4mi.com. So just l-i-s-a-f-o-r-m-i.com. It doesn't have a lot of information. I mean, I only stand that website up during election years.
00:33:41
Speaker
ah So the best thing to do would be to email me ah lisa at lisa4mi.com or call me or text me 206-841-0207. Again,
00:33:53
Speaker
eight to four one zero two zero seven again two or six 206-841-0207. zero two zero seven I answer all my voicemails, texts, and emails.
00:34:07
Speaker
And i can ah I can personally attest to that when you and I had a discussion about the Flock cameras over the summer. So I appreciate your your accessibility and it can attest to that. So um Lisa, thank you very much. I think I got you out of here on time. um Appreciate you did all all that you're doing for the city. And I appreciate you spending time having this discussion with me today.
00:34:28
Speaker
Okay. Well, thanks for providing this forum. I'll be listening to the other candidates. All right. We'll talk soon. Thank you.