Margaret Pageler* - Seattle Pos. 5
Age: 62
Residence: Lakewood/Seward Park
Occupation: Seattle City Council member
Education: B.A., social studies, Wheaton College; M.A., school administration, Northern Illinois University; J.D., University of Chicago Law School
Community/political experience: Seattle City Council (1992-present); council president (2000-01); State Board of Health (1995-2001); Association of Washington Cities (1997-present), Executive Board; King County Board of Health (1993-present); Seattle Water System Operating Board (2002-present)
Campaign Web site: www.margaretpageler.com
Questions:
1. Is Seattle too accommodating or too hostile to business?
Seattle has become hostile to business by fostering anti-corporate rhetoric, creating processes that tend to disregard economic realities and underestimating the importance of auto and freight access for business activity. Businesses are under stress and political hostility makes things worse.
2. If forced to choose, which would you cut first: police or human-services budgets?
My first-cut priorities are overhead, agency overlap and excess costs. Neither police nor human services are exempt from this analysis. Examples: Seattle Neighborhood Group can provide some crime-prevention programs for Seattle Police Department. Project Share has 50 percent+ overhead costs. There are no sacred cows.
3. Has Mayor Greg Nickels successfully led Seattle city government?
Mayor Nickels has been successful in bringing the city departments under executive control, focusing on economic-development opportunities and providing strong leadership on issues such as the Olympic Pipeline. He tends to be unilateral, but this balances Seattle's endlessly inclusive process.
4. What one initiative or change to city law do you pledge to accomplish during a first term?
I'm not a campaign-promise maker, but there's a challenge I'm eager to tackle. The city's land-use code and permitting/planning processes are ripe for overhaul and rationalization, bringing certainty to land-use decisions. I'd like to reduce the shrillness in our civic land-use debates, too.