Kent City Council, school board see more candidates

Two candidates are challenging incumbent Elizabeth Albertson for her seat on the Kent City Council.

Geoff Koepp and Barbara Phillips will be in the running against Albertson for Council Position No. 6 on the Aug. 18 primary ballot. The two candidates with the most votes will move on to the Nov. 3 general election.

On June 5 Koepp and Phillips both filed with the King County Elections division. Albertson filed June 3.

Council Position 6 is the only race with more than two candidates, and therefore the only Council race in the primary.

Albertson, 47, is the executive director for Communities in Schools of Kent, a group that helps children stay in school and prepare for life after school. She defeated Russell Hansom with 58 percent of the vote in 2005 to earn a four-year term on the Council that expires the end of this year. She served two years on the city Land Use and Planning Board before joining the Council.

Albertson chairs the Council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee and is a member of the Council’s Parks and Human Services Committee.

“I think with the unprecedented (economic) times we are facing, my experience counts in this race,” Albertson said in a phone interview Monday. “I’ve spent four years learning how city government works and that helps me and I can help this city weather the storm.”

Koepp, 38, moved to Kent in 2000 from the Burien area and is making his first run for an elected office.

“There are a lot of things I can bring to Kent,” Koepp said in a phone interview Monday. “I love living in Kent and I want to make it better.”

Koepp works as a financial planner for Ameriprise Financial. He believes those work skills could benefit the Council as it looks at the city budget.

“We’re heading into tough times and we need to be careful with what we do with our resources and manage what we have,” Koepp said.

Phillips, 52, moved to Kent 16 years ago from St. Louis. She is in her second year on the city’s Land Use and Planning Board.

Phillips said she decided to run for the Council to address her concerns about housing and crime. Her interests include the city’s East Hill Weed and Seed program, a citizen-city organization aimed at reducing crime.

“There have been a number of issues I would like to see handled differently and this is one way of handling that,” Phillips said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I listen to the concerns of residents and this is a way to focus on those concerns.”

Phillips works as a management program assistant for the Federal Aviation Administration in Renton. She made an unsuccessful run in the 1990s for the Kent School Board. She has not run for any other elected offices.

The Council members are paid $13,752 per year for their part-time positions. Their positions are at-large.

Kent School Board

With an open seat on the Kent School District Board of Directors up for election this year, three candidates have thrown their hats into the ring to take over for outgoing board member Sandy Collins, who announced earlier this year she is not seeking re-election.

Taking her place will be either Tim Clark, Dale Smith or Dave Watson, all three of whom filed with the King County Department of Elections before the June 5 deadline.

Clark, 63, is the best known of the candidates as he presently serves on the Kent City Council, where he is finishing out his 16th year. Clark is a former social studies teacher who retired from the Kent School District in 2000 and now teaches at Highline Community College. Clark said he has grandchildren presently enrolled in Kent.

“That’s been my day job all my life,” he said of the schools, adding that he could bring to the board “significant experience you wouldn’t find in the average candidate.”

Clark also served as president of the Kent Education Association before he retired and said his experience in four terms on the city council has given him a perspective on planning for the future.

“Unlike an ordinary teacher running for the school board, I not only carry that experience … but I bring the bigger picture with that,” he said.

Clark said his priority as a board member would be a “prioritized restoration” of the programs and positions cut during this year’s budget session.

Watson, 48, is also a teacher who has worked as a substitute in Kent and presently teaches English as a second language at Green River Community College. He is the parent of four students currently enrolled in the district.

As a substitute, Watson said he has seen the district from the inside at many different schools, a perspective that would help inform his views on the board.

“I believe that I have an insight into the school that hardly anyone has,” he said.

Watson said he decided to run after several school-related issues affected his family, such as school boundaries, which have his high school-aged children going to a school eight miles from his home, while there are other closer by.

Watson said his agenda would be having a board that is “responsive to the community” and provides oversight over the administration.

Watson and his wife are also involved in a legal complaint against the district regarding her termination from a position as a paraeducator.

Smith, 48, is a geopolitical analyst at Boeing who said he has been “highly involved” in the schools for 14 years as his two children have made their way through the district. His wife is a teacher in Black Diamond in the Enumclaw district.

“Along the way we’ve become very concerned about the district’s commitment to prepare all students,” he said, adding that in particular he sees growing inequities between school communities based on economic differences and diversity.

Smith is also the chair of the district’s Alliance for Diversity and Equity and said he wanted the board to keep a focus on helping to eliminate the inequities that arise from the differing economic backgrounds at each school.

“There’s bound to be differences when there’s a such vast differences between the private resources between the schools,” he said.

Smith said he decided to run because he understands how to be a :change agent” and because after years being vocal about the issues, he decided it was time to try and do something about it.

“I guess at some point you can raise the issues, but you have to take the next step and become part of the leadership,” he said.

The Kent School Board Director positions are open to any resident of the ward they hope to represent, but the entire district votes on election day.

The Kent School Board are unpaid positions.