Steve Fields has already done Redmond a great service. By challenging the incumbent mayor, he has highlighted significant community issues in Redmond. The important environmental and small business subjects Fields is raising are causing his opponent to play catch-up in recent campaign messages.

Fields has impressive qualifications in budgeting, financial management and performance measurement at the King County level that will be applied to gaining new efficiencies in Redmond’s municipal operations. He is committed to preserving our neighborhoods and sensibly managing growth and development. But what I am most impressed with is his dedication to transparency, accountability and responsiveness to the concerns of the average citizen. The current administration has not done well in those areas.

A formal survey commissioned by the city in 2011 concluded, “Opportunities exist to make issues facing the City more transparent to Redmond residents. They are looking for more information about the city’s agenda and how the city is handling their tax dollars.”

Quality of Life survey data for 2015 reports a continued decline in citizen satisfaction, despite frequent claims that citizens are engaged in two-way conversations and have their views valued in city decisions. In fact, for the last six years, trend lines for communications, quality of life and city job ratings are not positive. Redmond’s citizen survey data shows that a large portion of our community does not feel engaged with city decision-making or feel confident of its strategic direction. Further, based on my experience with land-use matters, citizens concerned about specific development issues do not have their views regarded as much as those developer customers who have benefitted from the touted LEAN initiative in City Hall.

Initially, Budgeting by Priorities program development engaged more citizens earlier in the process than is the case today. Now, there is just a small citizen panel that reviews and ranks for consideration budget proposals from city staff. Although 1,400 people completed a simplistic online survey this year, more substantive comments were received from residents during the hearing process. Eighteen pages of testimony and public comments were ultimately either ignored or summarily dismissed without any explanation — hardly the sign of an administration that is responsive to community input.

Fields’ candidacy has raised the level of discourse on community issues significantly. I applaud his courageous leadership in challenging the machine.  I’m voting Fields for mayor and ask that you will, too.

Tom Hinman

Redmond