Kirkland: under new management

KIRKLAND clearly understood the importance of Tuesday's City Council elections.

By large margins in four races, they opted for vision, competence and civility. Disputes and schisms had made the Kirkland City Council so dysfunctional members were barely speaking to one another, let alone working as a respectful civic body.

The winners were council veteran Joan McBride, two newcomers, Penny Sweet and Amy Walen, and a seasoned former mayor of Redmond, Doreen Marchione. Together they bring a range of professional and community connections and experience that will refresh local government.

All those skills and energy will be needed. For starters, Kirkland is on the threshold adding 33,000 new residents.

Voters in Finn Hill, Kingsgate and North Juanita are saying yes to annexation. The approval rate must stay above 60 percent because the terms require acceptance of a share of Kirkland existing debt. Final voter turnout must also reach 6,580 — equal to 40 percent of the potential annexation area's turnout in the 2008 general election.

Kirkland voters made clear they wanted change on the City Council, but they turned down a 1.5 percent utility-tax increase that would have raised the taxes on electricity, natural gas, phone and cable bills to 7.5 percent. The message was: Get along better, and do more with less. The City Council will be looking at balancing the city budget with cuts to jobs or services — or both.

Kirkland is in the midst of change. Downtown is a flurry of activity, with construction on a transit center, redevelopment of Kirkland Park Place, new commercial development and a King County utility project.

New council members are eager to promote their community as they protect the picturesque qualities of its waterfront downtown. They are eager to explore the opportunities around the Totem Lake urban center, as it looks to a second act.

With a pending retirement, the reconfigured City Council will be hiring a new city manager. Kirkland, on several levels, will be under new management.