We haven’t had a mayoral race that has been contested for eight years. As a resident of Redmond for more than 18 years, I have been intrigued by the growing excitement over Redmond’s mayoral race, our only competitive municipal race this year.

I’ve known Steve Fields personally and professionally for most of those 18 years. I’m glad to see a highly qualified candidate taking the initiative to run for mayor to change the status quo and move Redmond forward with new leadership. As a voter, it is refreshing to place my confidence in a strong candidate with fresh ideas and vote for change.

As a small business owner, I interacted with Fields over the past decade where he worked in the Executive Office at King County and the City of Seattle advising on policy, performance improvement and budgeting. I found his approach to solving problems to be very creative while keeping budgetary goals in mind.

His everyday responsibilities were to manage government and find innovative ways to make it better for its stakeholders: we the people. He worked across all levels of the organizations improving operations for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources and Parks. He has expertise in capital investment and implementing new efficiency methods and systems for all departments.

From my experience, I think Fields is a candidate that took his wealth of private sector experience in finance and contracts working with government agencies and translated those skills to become a successful public servant in local government.

Join me and many of my friends and neighbors in voting for Fields to lead a government that will better serve its citizens.

Art Olsen

Redmond