There’s been much talk about the finance and budgeting qualifications of the candidates for mayor in this election. One candidate says he’s been an efficiency expert. One candidate has actually implemented efficiency.

As a chief operating officer of a wealth management company, I deal with managing operating efficiency daily and therefore recognize those who accomplish the same.

This fall, we have a choice on two candidates whose qualifications are distinctly different it comes to this direct work experience.

Since Mayor John Marchione came into office, he completely overhauled the budgeting process for the city to a more transparent, citizen-driven process, reduced the size of city government and produced balanced budgets. We survived the big recession without having to make painful cuts to city services. The City of Redmond now has an AAA rating from Standard and Poor’s.

Mayor Marchione had 10 years of experience as a CFO at Meydenbauer prior to becoming mayor. Small businesses are important to a city, but running a city is not like running a small business.

Before running for mayor, Mayor Marchione served on the City Council, learning more about how Redmond worked before attempting to run it himself. He also was a founding board member of the Lake Washington Schools Foundation, as well as active in other community organizations.

Qualifications and experience. That’s what I want in a mayor.

Tim Nappen

Redmond