Lynnwood's first woman mayor has seen her last hurrah
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When Tina Roberts-Martinez became the first woman to run for the Lynnwood City Council, she says, people called her a "broad" and questioned her ability to be a politician.
Undaunted, she campaigned on a promise to improve the city through government and beat an incumbent in the 1975 council election.
Twenty-six years later, at age 55, Roberts-Martinez has finally decided to leave City Hall, where she served 4½ terms on the council before being elected mayor eight years ago. She won't be seeking re-election in the fall.
She said she's leaving to spend more time with her new husband, whom she married in November. She is also weary of her often contentious relationship with the City Council.
Roberts-Martinez said her goal as mayor has been to make City Hall more accessible to Lynnwood's 33,000 residents. She still answers her own phone and, both critics and supporters say, she is warm, friendly and unfailingly polite to everyone.
She also prides herself on hiring talented department heads. At the same time, much of the criticism leveled at her by the council is over her reliance on this staff.
"(The staff) has too much independence," said Councilman Jim Smith, who ran against Roberts-Martinez in the past two mayoral elections and is running again this year. "I'd like to get advice from staff and get other information to substantiate that."
They also have opposed her on budget matters, zoning changes and other issues, which has left her feeling she can't accomplish some of what she'd like to. At the same time, some have criticized her for not pushing her proposals hard enough.
"I wish we'd have the mayor at least stick her head out," said Councilman Ned Daniels, who says that though it's well-known that the mayor wants a business-and-occupation tax, it has never come to a vote. He'd probably vote against such a proposal, he adds.
The customer comes first
A Dairy Queen manager when she decided to run for City Council in 1975, Roberts-Martinez said her goal was to make the city provide better "customer service." She admits, though, that she didn't know how the government worked. She recalls some of the comments when she went doorbelling during her first campaign. Some voters asked her if she, as the only councilwoman, intended on breaking up colleagues' marriages. Others admonished her to stay home and have babies.
Roberts-Martinez said even she wondered sometimes if she had any business joining the council.
"Everything I was wasn't what I thought a council member should be," she recalled. "I didn't like politics. I was never blessed with children. I knew nothing about politics and nothing about the city."
Still, with the backing of the Lynnwood Jaycees, who thought she had moxie and wanted to see fresh blood on the council, she overcame the sexism and beat incumbent Jim Diemert.
During her first term in office, people scrutinized her mistakes especially hard because she was a woman, said her predecessor, M.J. Hrdlicka, who was mayor for 25 years.
She didn't believe at first that she would run for a second term, but she did and got re-elected not once but four times. In 1993, when Hrdlicka retired, she ran against another councilman to fill his seat. She won with 57 percent of the vote. Four years later, she beat Smith with 58 percent.
The second homefront
Roberts-Martinez threw herself into the job from the beginning. She made her office a second home; those with questions or complaints could find her there late at night or on Saturday mornings.
"I was single for 18 years on the council and as mayor for eight," she said. "I could have gone anywhere else, but this is where I made my home."
She also refused to accept a raise. The mayor's yearly $78,000 salary has not changed since she's been in office.
Her perspective has changed, though, since she married retired state employee Frank Martinez. She says she's leaving to spend some time traveling with him, though she will continue to live in Lynnwood.
As mayor, Roberts-Martinez has overseen Lynnwood's first-ever senior center, a new library, sidewalks on streets previously inhospitable to pedestrians and a plan to give the city a new downtown with tall buildings.
She believes the best thing she's done is hire an expert staff that has put together proposals on everything from small traffic improvements to major neighborhood rezones.
Even critics agree she's changed the city for the better.
Daniels, the councilman who sometimes criticizes her, said she's helped turn Lynnwood into a "professional city, not small-town U.S.A."
Catherine Tarpley can be reached at 206-464-8255, or ctarpley@seattletimes.com.