The following segments are from the City Council Campaign of 2015, but are advisory as to my overall philosophy, and therefore instructive regarding the 2017 mayoral campaign. Sometime before the 2017 pre-Primary mayoral debate, I will fill in this section with more up-to-date issues regarding this year's campaign.
By Mark Greene
1. Running for Office
I am running to ensure that Federal Way remains prosperous, vibrant and maintains basic city services in a professional and financially prudent manner, including not digging into the pocketbooks of residential taxpayers a cent more than the current rates before the year 2020. Federal Way needs to continue working with private organizations, developers, businesses and entrepreneurs to use their money, not city funds so much, and innovation, in revitalizing downtown and neighborhood enterprises and business centers. Federal Way should invite creative businesses into the city, whose core values are in line with that of the majority of the citizens of this great city. We need to make a special effort to appeal to those businesses that have the ingenuity, insight and focus on big problems to develop niche markets that have a broad appeal. An example would be businesses that work on renewable or non-fossil fueled energy solutions, such as solar, geothermal and wind technologies. Another example, would be working on imaginative housing ideas and alternatives that meet the standards of family living, and civilizing societal influences and outlooks that commoners can sustain. Federal Way could be the center of solution-based, problem solving businesses in Washington, that want a profitable base, or a non-profit environment, as well as finding solutions to a host of 21st century problems that are present now or may eventually come about.
2. Personal Characteristics
If anything, throughout my life, I have really taken to my name from the New Testament's Book of Mark, regarded by theological scholars as the gospel of action. I really believe service of community, or to an isolated person or persons, through action is greater than expressing some joyful sentiment through words. So action, decisiveness and assertiveness are the main attributes that I possess that would aid my political service. Decisiveness, not in the sense that I have all the answers and no doubts, but in the sense that when I have finally reached a conclusion, I have come to the right idea or plan, most likely through studying others’ experiences, writings, speeches and opinions, so that when I go forward with a plan, I will stick with it despite the inevitable setbacks, compromises, and failures that pretty much comes with the territory called life. Finally, in regards to assertiveness, which is something that a person is not necessarily born with, but learns, there comes a point that in order to get anything useful or necessary done, if done at all, we as individuals must do it ourselves.
3. Professional Accomplishments
One of the proudest accomplishments in my political career is crafting wording for Initiative 1338, which attempted to give consumers essential information about how our food is made and what that entails regarding agriculture, the environment and our own health. Although, this initiative ultimately did not succeed, it was yet another building block in educating voters about the pitfalls of the new science of genetic engineering, which basically came on the scene in the 1990s, and changed the whole science of how food is developed in the United States despite being rejected by large swaths of the rest of the world. Although the language of my initiative borrowed heavily from past right-to-know or anti-GMO measures, most significantly from a California Proposition, there was my own original material in it as well, such as allowing an alternative labeling option on the nutrition facts section of a package, and also disallowing the word "natural" to be used on any genetically engineered food that wasn't exempted elsewhere in the initiative, as exemptions have basically been put in these kind of measures to keep states from running afoul of federal laws that supersede the state, and thereby keeping these initiatives, if passed, safe from a legal challenge. So my ability to craft laws is on display through Initiative 1338, and other initiatives from past years, such as Initiative 432, which would have changed the way candidates could file for office through a petition.
4. Activities
My activities have included establishing a political party, the Revived Citizens Party, that gives voters another option other than the so-called two party system, which is a custom, not a part of the Constitution of the United States, and civic organizations such as Democracy in Election Process, which helps prospective political activists or would-be candidates take their first steps in government and politics, registers voters, and helps lay people maneuver general government bureaucracy, especially election and registration procedures. In the last 10 years, my organizations have helped more than 1,000 Washington citizens either upgrade or initially obtain their voter registrations. Independently, I have helped people with filling out tax forms or obtaining jobs by assisting them with job resumes and general paperwork.
5. Duties of Council
The Federal Way City Council manages the governmental affairs of the city, including the budget to run city departments, and the departments themselves, such as those involving police, public safety in general, public health, public works, parks and recreation, etcetera. The Council approves staff to run these departments, makes policy directives through ordinances, and generally oversees how departments are run, and that they are effectively providing the services to the general public that they are mandated by ordinance, or instructed by governing authorities, to provide. The Council generally has the authority, in conjunction with the mayor’s office, to suggest staff changes, and to generally approve or deny the mayor’s appointments. The Council, through committee assignments, engages in policy formulation, budget structuring, changing personnel, and the general day-to-day running of governmental affairs of whatever their committee assignments entail, including making sure that the city is in accord with all federal, state, and local laws. The Council also sets the city property tax rate which allocates funds to the city to run the government. All of these Council duties are important, but among the most important are vetting and choosing the staff that they are considering to approve or appoint as department heads, since micro-management is not practical or advisable, these managers and how they manage are the core of how successful city government will ultimately be. Additionally, budget and tax policies, and how they are managed are central to setting the direction and organization of the city’s priorities, and thereby a general guidance of what to expect from the government.
2017 Issues
P.A.E.C.: I will ask a private developer to be a partner with the City of Federal Way in managing the Performing Arts & Events Center, with the requirement that costs for attending shows should be on a graduated scale; in other words, the upper classes should pay higher fees, the upper middle classes should pay normal fees, and the working classes should pay workers' fees. Free seats will be given to the economically disadvantaged and those trying to find work. My City Attorney will have to work out a way so that all this is legal, so that Federal Way will not be sued by those claiming price disparities, but if King County can do practically the same thing with Metro/bus/light-rail train pricing, I am confident this will pass legal muster.
-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Federal Way City Council, Position 1
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