Candidate Forum

OneRedmond has developed a new format for our 2021 Candidate Forum. We invited all six Redmond City Council candidates to participate in individual online meetings, where we asked each of them the same set of five questions, curated from our OneRedmond Board of Directors. The short two minute videos of their responses, organized by question, are provided below.

6 Candidates. 5 Questions. Here's What They Had to Say

**click on the questions below to view the Candidate’s video responses**

  • Affordable housing in Redmond has not kept up with demand. Today, too few people who want to live in Redmond can afford to do so and increasingly our residents are being priced out of the city as their housing needs change. How should the City work to increase its supply of affordable housing?

    Steve Fields, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… as I’ve advocated at city council meetings and to my colleagues, often, we need to think in terms of affordable lives, as opposed to simply affordable housing.”

    Janet Richards, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… I bring a little bit different perspective to the idea of affordable housing. As a city, it’s essential that we have a diversity of housing.”

    Dennis Ellis, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “I see a number of steps that Redmond should be able to take and as a city council member I would work to try to do. Reducing the fees is number one.”

    Melissa Stuart, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “… when it comes to the policy of affordable housing, I think we need to start prioritizing Redmond workers and to revisit our inclusive zoning.”

    Jeralee Anderson, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… there are steps I think we can take to protect tenant rights … in terms of affordability, we should be thinking about how affordable housing works with transportation and infrastructure and the whole cost of living in Redmond.”

    Tara Van Niman, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… we really need to address this missing middle housing. We need to find ways to add different types of housing so that people can enter the housing market …”

  • While Redmond is well known as a high-tech hub, it is also home to a diverse number of small businesses including manufacturers that have historically provided many living wage jobs in Redmond, but these companies and jobs are now being threatened by reduction in light industrial space availability and high costs of living for employees. Should the City take steps to protect small businesses that provide many living wage jobs in Redmond? If so, what steps?

    Dennis Ellis, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “I’d really like to see the City of Redmond dive deeper and determine why we lost Genie Industries and what we can do to not lose such valuable businesses.”

    Melissa Stuart, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “… now is the time to get involved on Redmond 2050, our comprehensive plan for our city … this is where we’re going to make those decisions about the future of our city. Where are we going to protect those industrial jobs.”

    Jeralee Anderson, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… I think the city can do a lot of things including supporting small businesses, there’s even displacement costs we may be able to cover depending on need and viability within the community, as well as rezoning or relocating services within Redmond … I’m looking forward to working on some of those things.”

    Tara Van Niman, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… mixed use zoning is supposed to result in people living and shopping and working in the same area … we need to find ways to work with developers to build areas that will be suitable for all of those things …”

    Steve Fields, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… we can focus on ensuring that existing businesses remain in our areas. And that means integrating and having that mixed land use zoning that encourages that.”

    Janet Richards, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… my first step would be to hear more from the industries impacted in terms of what types of issues they’re facing, and where they’re seeking remedies.”

  • The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) and King County have asked Redmond to accommodate significant growth – 20,000 more households and 24,000 more jobs. What should the city of Redmond’s priorities be when planning for significant growth?

    Jeralee Anderson, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “The answer for me even though it’s a really complex issue is our priorities for accommodating growth, include making sure our infrastructure has the capacity to accept it in the first place, our businesses are prepared, and that we’re supporting a well maintained city that is, in fact affordable.”

    Tara Van Niman, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… we don’t have a choice actually in terms of saying how many people are going to move here in accordance with the Growth Management Act … what we do have a choice over is how we do it.”

    Steve Fields, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “Specifically, we need to update our design standards … we need to have a focus on sustainability, we need to have a focus on safety.”

    Janet Richards, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… as we welcome people in our community from different cultures, some cultures have different ways that they like to live together and share community together … we need communities and neighborhoods that allow for different types of living.”

    Dennis Ellis, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “… the most logical is to start with the traffic light syncing for all of Redmond … I would think that this is something that we could easily manage with the talents that we have located in Redmond …”

    Melissa Stuart, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “… my neighborhood by the end of the decade is projected to have the same size residential population as downtown Redmond … as a resident of this neighborhood, I’m really eager to use my voice, and to use the voices of my neighbors to make sure that we are well represented in this next decade …”

  • Global warming is a concern for all of us. There are many proposals being discussed to require new construction and existing buildings and homes to become more energy efficient as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, all of these will add cost and may contribute to further reduction in housing affordability in Redmond. How do you feel the competing priorities of sustainability and affordability should be addressed? If one or the other should be given priority, which is it?

    Janet Richards, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… Microsoft is re-imagining their campus to be carbon neutral in the future … we can do this in an innovative way that enables us to continue on track from a sustainability and a housing perspective.”

    Steve Fields, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “What I would like to see is more focus on the other factors that are driving up the cost of homes, which are the market forces, and this is something that we may have a little bit of control over.”

    Melisssa Stuart, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “… our comprehensive plan update is the time to tackle the tough questions that are going to allow us to live out this vision of having both …”

    Dennis Ellis, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “… I think that what we need to do still is not overly tax people at the expense of something that we may not even be able to manage.”

    Tara Van Niman, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… in terms of the end user costs, the government can step in and we can find ways to subsidize the building so that in the long run, they are providing the energy efficiency that we need them to.”

    Jeralee Anderson, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “I don’t believe that they’re competing priorities. I believe that both sustainability and affordability are achievable.”

  • What in your opinion is the most important issue the City of Redmond is facing and what are your plans for addressing it?

    Melissa Stuart, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “…I would be remiss not to leave this conversation acknowledging that we have ongoing impacts of the pandemic. What I would like to do about it is to continue to focus on safety, continue to make smart science-based decisions to get our community through it, while also creating thoughtful opportunities for folks to be in community with one another.”

    Dennis Ellis, Redmond City Council, Position 4

    “I believe the Mayor and the City Council in my heart have lost sight of who they represent — the citizens and residents of this wonderful city. Instead, in my opinion, they are pushing fringe policies that only appear to benefit some and grow government.”

    Tara Van Niman, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… how we manage to keep our culture, how we manage to create a vibrant, connected community throughout this period of intense growth, that is what is important to most people … what I have found so fascinating, since I’ve started running, is how all these issues are truly connected.”

    Jeralee Anderson, Redmond City Council, Position 6

    “… my answer, response, to this question the most important priority, obviously, is the active pandemic that we are all experiencing and overall, overcoming this major issue together through community health and engagement …”

    Steve Fields, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… it’s our job in government to facilitate how we all negotiate living together, we need to be smarter, we need to be more compassionate, and we need to be more proactive in making sure that our everyone’s voice is heard, and everyone is a participant. That’s our biggest problem. That’s our biggest threat.”

    Janet Richards, Redmond City Council, Position 2

    “… how we come together as a community, how we make shared decisions, how we think about the future of our community that is inclusive of everyone, how we solve innovatively the problems that we face. That’s really the biggest challenge that I see that we face.”

Meet The Candidates

Steve Fields

Redmond City Council, Position 2 http://electstevefields.com stevefieldsredmond@gmail.com (425) 444-3188

Janet Richards

Redmond City Council, Position 2 http://janet4redmond.com janet@janet4redmond.com (425) 372-6212

Dennis Ellis

Redmond City Council, Position 4 http://www.dennisaellis.com elect@dennisaellis.com (425) 829-9250

Melissa Stuart

Redmond City Council, Position 4 http://www.electmelissastuart.com electmelissastuart@gmail.com (425) 224-3438

Jeralee Anderson

Redmond City Council, Position 6 https://www.jeraleeanderson.com vote@jeraleeanderson.com (805) 517-4537

Tara Van Niman

Redmond City Council, Position 6 https://www.taravanniman.com campaign@taravanniman.com (206) 310-2365