Wales seeks a second council term, Osborne will not

Published 1:35 pm Wednesday, January 28, 2015

A tale of two Auburn City Councilmembers.

One hopes to stay, the other eyes the exit.

Largo Wales seeks a second term on the council. Wayne Osborne will not.

Wales, formerly a teacher and Auburn School District administrator, as well as former director of ACAP Child and Family Services, filed her paperwork with the Public Disclosure Commission last week.

She explained why she is running again for the seat she first won in 2012.

“I’ve thought about it for probably about the last year. It’s a lot of work, and a lot of it is not pleasant,” Wales began. … “But I feel like I can really make contributions in some areas. And I’m really proud of what we’ve done on the council.

“With my love of kids and families, we are doing some incredible things,” Wales said.

A backward glance, Wales said, shows her that in each of the last three years she has been on the council it has accomplished at least one significant thing.

In year one, Wales said, the big deal was getting the Auburn Valley Humane Society, its animal shelter on A Street Southeast and Animal Control Officer George Winner up and running.

“You can see how the community spirit has wrapped around that,” Wales said. “And the expansion of the Thrift store has added a whole new dimension and gotten a whole group of people involved in our community.”

Year two’s accomplishment, Wales continued, was the decision to scrap the municipal court system in favor of contracting with King County District Court.

“That has turned out to be an incredible move,” Wales said. “Moving all those jail-type activities has allowed us to save $3 million a year, which we have now applied toward paying off the costs of the SCORE Jail.”

And in year three, Wales said, the big accomplishment was deciding to move forward with a combined Auburn Youth Center and Community Center on the north end of Les Gove Park, when earlier plans to build a community center on the park’s south end proved too costly.

“That is going to be pretty significant,” Wales said of the youth component of the overall $9 million project. “Research shows that homeless youth tend to become homeless for rest of their lives, whereas older people can come in and out of homelessness. Nobody talks about it, but this center is going to serve as a major intervention in this community toward dealing with youth homeless issues.”

Wales also noted the council’s recent scrapping of its red light photo enforcement system.

Wales is the only council member in the state of Washington to serve on two health boards simultaneously, in her case, the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health and the Seattle King County Board of Health.

In 2014, Wales used her position on the Seattle-King County Board to help save the King County Health Clinic in Auburn, which a cash-strapped county had talked about shuttering by the end of the year.

Wales explained what happened.

“As a voting member of Seattle-King County Public Health, at the end of the year we get the announcement that we are like $35 million in arrears, which is $70 million for two years, So they are going to cut four clinics: Federal Way and ours, and a couple of others up north. I said, ‘This doesn’t make sense to me. We have the highest needs right here in South King County, and you are talking about cutting the two farthest out.’

“I advocated for Federal Way and ours. I said when you have two Public Health clinics in Kent and Renton, it only makes sense to cut one from Kent and Renton and leave ours alone. I said this on television and everywhere I went. I brought it to my fellow City Councilmembers, and they agreed. And I kept bringing it up and bringing it up. It seems like King County thinks South King County is just going to go away, and we are not going to go away,” Wales said.

Wales praised Mayor Nancy Backus for her ability to focus, and how the mayor turned her laser beam on the clinic issue and built the support that saved it at least for the next two years, until a permanent funding solution can be devised.

Wales, also member of the Human Development Committee for the National League of Cities, said the committee is on “the verge of turning the corner” on controversial family quality-of-life issues, such as raising the federal minimum wage, and she wants to be around to see big changes happen.

Osborne wants to step aside

It’s about age.

It’s about giving younger people, with more energy and time to spare, their shot.

So says Wayne Osborne of his decision not to seek a second term.

“The primary reason is age,” Osborne, 74, said this week. “I think now that we have changed (from subcommittees) to work sessions, a younger person, a working person can serve on the council. I think that would be an ideal situation.”

He added, “And I’m not going to be doing this when I am 80 years old.”

Osborne, a former FAA air traffic controller, was a member of the City Council freshman class of 2012, comprised of himself, Largo Wales and John Holman.

In his single term, Osborne, former chairman of the Public Works Committee, has gained a reputation as nearly a walking encyclopedia of what’s happening with City government, down to the last jot and tittle.

And he plans to stay involved with that government.

“I’m not going to go away from City government. I’m going to try and get back on some boards and commissions, but where it’s a once-a-month situation. I do put in a lot of hours on the City Council job, and it would be kind of nice to actually retire. My wife wants to do some traveling,” Osborne said.

Looking back, Osborne said, he finds much to be proud of.

“I think this three years, so far, has been very active,” he said.

He lauded the City’s change from running its own municipal court to going with King County District court, which, he said, “has saved the City a tremendous amount of money.”

Osborne noted that the City also equalized out its solid waste rates. Initially, he said, they were supported by commercial development and are now equalized between residential and commercial.

“We’ve also revised some of our expectations of downtown development, and I think we’re better off. Because of the changes we’ve made, people have been able to come in and actually build, where before there were some restrictions that caused people not to come in,” Osborne said.

“Look, all things come to an end. And if anybody wants to know how important they are, let ’em stick their hand in a bucket of water, pull it out, and see what kind of impression they’ve left,” Osborne said.