Ken believes that neighborhoods are the foundation of Kirkland’s identity and strength. Each of the city’s 13 recognized neighborhoods is unique — some are bustling and dense, others quiet and open — and all are vital to the fabric of our community.

Ken has spent years working side-by-side with neighborhood leaders and understands the power of strong local connections. He will advocate for greater support from City Hall for neighborhood activities like community meetings, seasonal celebrations, and neighborhood beautification efforts. 

Our elected leaders must be present, engaged, and truly listen to residents—making sure neighborhood voices shape the decisions that affect our daily lives. By building real partnerships with neighborhoods, the City can strengthen our sense of community and help make Kirkland an even better place to live.

Kirkland is growing, and that growth must be carefully managed. Ken supports meeting state and county growth requirements and believes growth should always be aligned with local values, infrastructure capacity, and community priorities.  He believes that Kirkland should “do its part” to help the region cope with growth and also not take on the burdens of the entire Seattle area.

Kirkland is a unique community of parks, open spaces, local commercial centers, and diverse housing, all connected mostly by small roads. Poorly planned development threatens Kirkland’s character, tree canopy, and livability. Ken will work to ensure that development fits its surroundings, respects the scale and feel of neighborhoods, and is backed by appropriate investment in infrastructure — especially transportation. He supports improved transit access and safer streets for all users, so growth doesn’t translate into congestion, displacement, or lost community character.

Ken strongly believes that Kirkland must serve residents and the businesses they depend on.  Recently, powerful people in Kirkland Government have established policies and plans that are aimed to satisfy people who live elsewhere.  While it is clearly imperative that Kirkland must satisfy State and County regulations and laws, our local government must advocate on behalf of residents to preserve Kirkland’s values, character, way of living, and cherished ideals.

Ken is running to restore trust in local government. Too often recently, residents have been shut out of decisions that directly impact their neighborhoods and daily lives. As a longtime advocate and coalition builder, Ken has shown that transparent, inclusive, and respectful engagement, including asking difficult questions and having thorough discussions during public meetings leads to better outcomes — and a stronger community.

Ken will push for more open public processes, more clear and open communication with City Hall, and decisions that reflect genuine community input. He believes residents shouldn’t have to fight to be heard — they should be welcomed as partners in shaping Kirkland’s future.

Ken has a strong record of protecting taxpayers. He’s led grassroots campaigns to oppose expensive poorly structured ballot measures and pushed for accountability when public funds were at stake. He believes city government should spend wisely, focus on core services, maintain streets, keep medians and planted areas attractive, and ensure every dollar collected and spent delivers real community benefit.     

Sensible spending includes ensuring that capital project contracts are awarded to reliable and proven contractors who do quality work and get the job done on time, at or under budget.  It also includes allocating enough City staff members to effectively manage projects so that the City gets its money’s worth.

As a Councilmember, Ken will bring a disciplined, data-informed approach to budgeting and long-term planning — prioritizing investments that improve quality of life while keeping Kirkland affordable for families, seniors, and small businesses.    

Ken loves Kirkland’s many and varied Parks.  He and his family have spent many happy hours playing organized games, swimming at lake beaches and the Peter Kirk pool, tossing and kicking a ball around, hiking on trails, and simply relaxing while the world goes by.  

Maintaining and even growing Kirkland’s open spaces is a challenge that he relishes and he’s optimistic that Kirkland can continue to provide everyone with plenty of open space to enjoy, even as Kirkland grows and becomes more dense. Some recent city planning decisions pushed open space into the back seat as more land is dedicated to dense development.  Ken concluded that it’s time for development to have less land and for people have more open space to enjoy.