In Their Own Words: Meet Lake Forest Park City Council Position No. 6 Incumbent Ed Sterner

CANDIDATE PROFILE INFORMATION:

What is your full, legal name? 

Edwin B. Sterner

Where do you work and what is your job title? 

I am an attorney.  I both work from my home office and I work with my clients at their offices.

When and Where Were You Born?

Aug. 7, 1951, Indianapolis, Indiana

Where do you live now and  how long have you lived there?

3836 NE 189th Place, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155; 22 years

Spouse or domestic partner if any: 

Kathy Sterner

Children: 

Eliott

Education (include graduation date(s), if any): 

BA, Indiana University 1973 in Political Science and US History, Secondary Education certification;

Masters of Public Affairs (MPA); Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs 1975;

Juris Doctoris (JD), Columbia University School of Law 1979

Military Service (include year(s) of discharge, if any):

N/A

Memberships and affiliations with clubs and other organizations: 

Lake Forest Park Rotary, Past President; Seattle Audubon Society, Mountaineers; Nature Conservancy; LFP Streamkeepers; LFP Stewardship Foundation; LFP Boy Scout Troop 348 merit badge counselor; University Presbyterian Church (Sunday School teacher, Elder and Deacon); Reinvesting in Youth Advisory Board; Northshore-Shoreline Community Health and Safety Network

Have you or a business you owned (or had principal interest in) 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:

Email address: sterner@mindspring.com

Phone number: 206-362-0957

Campaign manager: self

PREVIOUS ELECTED OFFICE(S): 

LFP City Council

Elected: 1999, 2003, 2007

Other campaigns for public office: King County Council 1997, 2001

THIS CAMPAIGN:

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

To work for the best Lake Forest Park community possible by providing the best possible services at the lowest possible cost, focusing on preserving police service at levels that will continue LFP’s status as having the lowest crime rate of any city around LFP; preserving our city’s environment, parks and community character; enabling our senior citizens and others with infirmities to remain in their homes with needed transportation and safety; and preserving and maintaining our roads, sewers and other infrastructure so they are safe and reliable.

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

1.  Preserving police services that maintain fast response times and the ability of LFP Police to investigate most if not all crimes.  From my work on criminal justice I’ve learned that when incarcerated, folk in jail do talk about where not to commit crimes and those are the places that actually investigate crimes and have fast response times and LFP is known for both.  Low crime rates enhance property values and enable people to live safely in their homes for as long as they want to.  It is no accident that LFP has the lowest crime rate in the area and it is a core function of the LFP government to keep it that way.

2. Maintaining our roads, sewers, parks and other infrastructure.  Through the use of a top quality public works department coordinated with volunteers, we can and must maintain our infrastructure.  Proper maintenance in fact saves large amounts of money.  Edmonds and Seattle, for example, are looking to voters for substantial additional revenues well above $20 local car tab fees to make up for deferred maintenance.  Timely maintenance provides both current safety and enjoyment and saves money over time.  A stitch in time really does save nine.  By carefully maintaining infrastructure we get the best of both worlds – lowest cost and highest quality.

3. Maintaining core programs that fight crime, promote strong families and neighborhoods and help enable residents to remain in their homes for as long as they choose to.  Our police’s juvenile intervention program, our domestic violence advocate and our funding of after school programs all prevent and reduce crime at very low cost.  These services must be provided by trained professionals and many of those that need them cannot afford them on their own. Our contracts with the Shoreline – Lake Forest Park Senior Center help our seniors avoid isolation while remaining in their homes, a great leveraging of funds with volunteer support stretching the dollars.  Our contracts with the City of Shoreline and others provide access to a full range of activities and resources at less than a penny a day for our residents.

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

Demonstrated hard work, a history of volunteer service to our community and experience.

Just during my last term, we have found ways to cut city expenditures by a total of over $1.7 million.  Our per capita expenditures for all general fund activities other than police are lower than our sister cities of Shoreline, Kenmore (a city that although a bit bigger is very similar both demographically and in commercial activity relative to city size) and Mountlake Terrace. Also, our costs per officer and detective are lower than other cities and lower than what the King County Sheriff’s office would charge for the same level of service. Over the last 12 years the city has developed a level of professionalism that provides quality services at the lowest cost around.  We do not want to lose that.  It will only cost more in the end. Even Kenmore recognizes a good deal and contracts with LFP for its public works.

I support the volunteer efforts of our city by being one, including being a volunteer “stream keeper” regularly monitoring the water quality of our streams, a volunteer and supporter of the Stewardship Foundation, a Boy Scout merit badge counselor and a proud recipient of the PTA’s “Golden Apple” award for outstanding volunteer service to our schools.  I am active in the Lake Forest Park Rotary Club, regularly collecting bread and pastries for our local food banks, cleaning Ballinger Way and serving at the “Giving Tree” in the Town Centre each holiday season, and I have served as Secretary and President of the club, and served last year as Club Service Chair.  My son built the garden at the junction of Ballinger Way and 40th Place NE for his Eagle Scout project and I, with his help and the help of Rotarians and the Boatsman family (who provide the water) have maintained it at no cost to the city for going on seven years.

I have served for 14 years on the King County Oversight Committee for the Juvenile Justice Operational Master Plan, a plan that has resulted in dramatically lower juvenile crime in King County and not only avoided the construction of a second juvenile detention facility but has taken the current facility from being significantly overcrowded 15 years ago to having one-third of the facility “moth balled” and another third reserved for special needs youth who are in crisis when admitted.  This alone has saved taxpayers millions each year, made our neighborhoods and schools safer and turned around the lives of countless youth and their families.  Efforts as Chair of the Regional Law, Safety and Justice Committee and the Jail Advisory Group (the “JAG”) and with King County Executive Dow Constantine helped eliminate the need for an additional jail on the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park border, saving taxpayers millions in the process.  The JAG has just recently announced it is disbanding because it is no longer needed.

My experience with city operations started with the City of Indianapolis.  It had just unified all of the cities in its county except 2 with the county with the county government in “Unigov”.  It was my job to take every line item from all of the city and county budgets that were being unified and create historical budgets to reflect what that unified government would have had as a budget if unification had happened earlier.  I learned how to scour budgets and find the savings and duplications and learned the value of careful budget analysis.  I have applied those skills to provide Lake Forest Park with a top notch service level at the lowest per capita costs in the area while avoiding the pitfalls of “savings” by deferred maintenance.  I supported, with fellow councilmembers, the setting aside of substantial reserves during the good times that the city has used to help preserve services during these lean times.  As a result, although we have had substantial cuts that do affect our city’s ability to deliver service at the level we are used to, we have been able to maintain the core services that are needed to keep Lake Forest Park the great and safe place that it is to live.

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

I have no idea.

What groups or individuals are your major endorsers?

County Executive Dow Constantine

County Councilmember Bob Ferguson

State Representative Ruth Kagi

Secretary of State Sam Reed

Past LFP Councilmembers Roger Olstad, Peggy Gerdes, Don MacGilvra

Kenmore Mayor David Baker

LFP Mayor David Hutchinson