Quigley to fill open seat
on L.S. Council

BY PAM STEVENS | COPY EDITOR

Coleman & Hartwell selected as Council
President & Vice President

Three months after former Mayor Lynn Walty’s surprising resignation shook up the City of Lake Stevens’ leadership structure, the City Council , moved towards a more stable environment last Monday, unanimously appointing Suzanne Quigley to fill the Council seat vacated by Walty’s eventual replacement, Mayor Vern Little.

The Council also tabbed Heather Coleman as the 2007 President and Tom Hartwell for the Vice President position.

A seat on the Council opened up when Little was appointed to fill the remainder of Walty’s term on Nov. 6. After considering six applicants and conducting a public interview process, the Council selected Quigley to fill the remainder of Little’s elected Council term.

Both are up for re-election next fall, and both have indicated a desire to run.

Next fall’s election also played heavily into the decision to appoint Coleman to Council President.

Councilman Neal Dooley, an increasingly persuasive force on the council, questioned the logic of appointing a Council President who was considering running for office in the Fall.

“A concern of mine is this year we have an election for Mayor. If the new council president would like to run for mayor it would be difficult to fulfill that position.” Dooley said.

Karen Alessi nominated Coleman, who stated she was not interested in running for mayor. Steve Brooks also indicated that he was not interested in running for mayor
“I do not have any aspirations of being mayor this year. I am very happy being on the Council.” Coleman said, a former police officer who currently works at the Snohomish County Planning Department. Steve Brooks, 2006 Council President, was also nominated and was the sole councilmember not to vote for Coleman.

“I am not going to run for Mayor this. Year. I have said that numerous times. My council seat is open for reelection this coming year. I am seriously thinking about rerunning for my council seat I feel it is important to be building teams. I think that campaigning should be an outside activity,” Brooks stated.

“I see that there will be many pressures this year. A lot of our elections were uncontested. Being council president during an election year is a lot to ask of someone,” Coleman added.

Coleman will head up a Council facing many pending issues, including the updating of the city’s Critical Area’s Ordinance, the development of the proposed civic center off Grade Road and the continuing annexation push.

The City Council delayed filling the open seat in order to consider candidates from the n ewly annexed Frontier Village area, which joined the City on Dec. 21

Quigley, 46, lives in the Frontier Village annex and is married to former State Senator Kevin Quigley.

She is very interested in projects that are “good for families, good for the environment and good for the community”.

I’m very committed to Lake Stevens and am looking forward to help build a strong community”, Suzanne said.

Hartwell said the City Council was pleased by the quality of all the applicants.

“We had six outstanding candidates that performed very well. We had a very tough decision to make. I’ve never seen such a great group of candidates,” Hartwell stated.

Hartwell also asked other candidates to continue to support the community on other committees and look into running again at the next election.

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