Razor thin, but Marchione in Redmond

Redmond's longtime mayor might be leaving, but the city's challenges of growth and traffic will continue unabated. In a razor-thin call, The Seattle Times recommends John Marchione to succeed Rosemarie Ives, the strongest of strong mayors. Marchione will be a strong mayor, too, but will bring public administrative expertise to the city's chief-executive job that gives him the edge over his opponent.

Marchione, a one-term councilman, faces colleague Jim Robinson, who is completing his fourth term on the council. Robinson is a committed and passionate advocate for Redmond who has the résumé chops to do the job — he also has Ives' endorsement. Robinson wants to consider raising Redmond's business head tax — shifting more of the tax burden to employers than residents. But Marchione wants to improve the business climate and is more averse to raising taxes; he helped push the council to embrace a priorities-of-government budget model.

• In Position 3, Dayle "Hank" Margeson is the better of two excellent candidates because of his experience working on city issues as a member of the city's park board and the Education Hill Citizens Advisory Committee. His opponent, Brian Conlin, impresses us with plenty of experience advocating for schools, including testifying before the Legislature on funding issues. We hope he stays involved with city issues.

• Richard Cole's experience and steadfast commitment to improving Redmond's bottom line gives him the edge over Michallea Schuelke for council Position 5. Cole, who is finishing his fifth term, was the chief instigator of Redmond's embrace of prioritization budgeting and, as those efforts shift into full swing, he should get the chance to see it through.

Schuelke, a former co-president of the Lake Washington PTSA Council, is a solid, thoughtful candidate, but doesn't make a compelling case to turn out Cole's experience.

• In Position 7, Brian Seitz has the edge over fellow-techie David Carson. Both men work for Microsoft — Seitz as a marketing communications engineer and Carson as a contract software engineer. A lifetime resident of Redmond, Seitz wants to find ways to make government more transparent and accessible to citizens, through technology as well as an open-government mindset.

Opponent Carson has a record of working "with and against Redmond city government." He campaigned against the city's 2006 property-tax increase ballot request, which was defeated, but supported this year's successful, smaller measure.

Carson would be a shrewdly sharp-penciled council member, but Seitz's more-regional perspective makes him our choice.