Positions 2, 4, 6, and 7 are up for election in November.
Position 2
Les Rubstello
Sitting council member. Running unopposed. No response submitted. Contact: rubstellocampaign@gmail.com
Position 4
Elaine Cook
Sitting mayor. Running unopposed. No response submitted. Contact: elainecook@outlook.com
Position 6
Al Taylor
Sitting council member. No response submitted. Contact: altaylor2007@gmail.com
Nicolas Duchastel de Montrouge
Contact: nicolas@votefornicolas.com, http://www.votefornicolas.com/Do you have any direct experience with disability?
Yes. I have limited direct experience. my nephew is autistic.
1 - HOUSING: How would you make affordable housing available to people with developmental disabilities?
Everyone deserves a safe and clean place to call their home.
People with development disability seem to be homeless at a higher rate. We should come up with tangible solutions.
I am not an expert ; and thus, I would rely on experts in this field to guide us; but, a few ideas would be to have programs such as low income housing, auxiliary housing units, or shared accommodations such as "mother-in-law": e.g. often people end-up with a large home in their senior years: this could be an opportunity. All of these could be encourage by the city through zoning and ordinance changes. I would be for such an approach.
2 - SHELTER: How would you ensure people with developmental disabilities have a safe place to sleep and stay?
The first issue is that we do not have enough spaces for homeless people, regardless of any development disability status. We would need to increase our capacity; and more importantly; encourage programs to take people off the streets.
That said, when creating extra capacity, we should consider different needs. As there seems to be a large population of homeless people with specific needs (e.g. more quieter environment), we should find creative ways to build that when adding more beds and rooms for homeless people. It should be noted that we have different populations with specific needs - people with pets, vets, LBGTQ.
The city has a duty to address this issue. This doesn't necessarily imply the City of Woodinville has to do this by itself. Being a smaller city, we should team up with other jurisdictions and work together to find a regional solution.
I would look at Woodinville doing its fair share in a regional solution.
3 - SUPPORTIVE HOUSING: How would you ensure people with developmental disabilities are receiving case management and the support needed to escape homelessness?
The best solution to homelessness is stop it before it happens. Giving services to people at risk of becoming homeless is a great approach. Of course, services need also to be tailored to people once they do become homeless (even a great set of services to reduce homeless before it happens won't be perfect).
In all situations, we need to consider special cases. Development Disability seems to be a clear important one. Others need to also be addressed.
My engineering background is to use a data approach - look at the needs, and prioritize them. We can't solve this by ourselves. We need to have a regional approach and work with other cities, the counties and the state. Only working together, will we solve this. Woodinville should do its part.
4 - SAFETY: How would you ensure the safety of people with developmental disabilities in police interactions?
Better training, monitoring and accountability.
Ensuring that law enforcement agencies get the proper training to be aware of special situation of development disabilities; and how to best interact with such people is probably the best approach.
Again, not being well versed in these issues, it is hard for me to come up with concrete answers, but, I believe Woodinville needs to be part of a consortium in the region to address this. Our Police staff is pooled from King County, so we should lean on them to guide us with proper training and ensure that we monitor and track interactions between police officers (and other staff) and population with special considerations: of course people with development disabilities, but, also others such as LBGTQ and minorities.
5 - SAFETY & JUSTICE: Would you support cross-training among professionals in the courtroom, police departments, victim assistance agencies and schools to prepare the justice community for situations involving people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities so they can receive equal justice?
Yes. Similar to my answer about Police, the same 3 prong approach: training, monitoring and accountability needs to be used.
We start with considering that our law enforcement, safety and justice professionals want to do the right thing: they have a hard job which is demanding and they mostly do a good job.
We then make sure that we have the right training available to all. It just seems reasonable to have cross-training.
Then, our government as a whole needs to be accountable. This is accomplished with clear metrics and tracking of these metrics (e.g. how many interactions in different categories; and what outcome did we get). This would show up in a yearly report; and potentially with a board made up of the public.
This is not new; and probably mostly exists.
The City of Woodinville is just a small city and probably would need to join other larger jurisdictions and be part of a regional process rather than trying to have its own set of rules and processes - BUT, the city still should be accountable to make sure that these processes, metrics and reports are done.
6 - ACCESS & ACCOMMODATIONS: How would you ensure access to straws in public areas?
I did not know this need for plastic straws.
We should consider this if we were to pass any ordinance banning straws or other plastic products: have a clear exception for people who need it.
If required, I would make plastic straws available in key places throughout the city - e.g. it could be in coffee shops or restaurants; in homeless centers, or other public places.
7 - JOBS: What would you do to increase job prospects for people with developmental disabilities?
We should rely on Washington State Labor and Industries to have program encouraging people with development disabilities gaining proper employment.
I would imagine that with a very low unemployment rate in our state, there are many businesses, larger or smaller, which have difficulties filling positions. Some jobs can be well suited for people with development disabilities; even if they are classified as having a cognitive, ambulatory, or independent living disabilities. The challenge is to match these people with some opportunities. Again, this is something that we should do; but, the City of Woodinville cannot reasonability take on by itself. With better relations in our region, we can work with other agencies to make sure that these programs mentioned above are promoted throughout our region and in our city.
8 - SAFETY: How will you ensure your city's streets, sidewalks and intersections are safe and accessible to everyone?
Our city needs to be people-based rather than car-based. We need a more walkable downtown. This implies sidewalks and trails that go somewhere. It also means better intersections - both signage, light coordination, wheelchair ramps and other accommodations.
Of course, as we build up our walkable and bikable city, we need to consider people with development disabilities, wheelchair or other ambulatory devices.
This is accomplished by keeping in touch with organizations like ARC (and others) and then building up the city as a people-oriented city FIRST and not as a second thought: e.g. we should have clear guidelines established to ensure these aspects are considered for any and all new projects. We also should do a walkable assessment of our city; look for deficiencies and put them , in priority, on our CIP (Capital Improvement Plan): addressing them one-by-one as budgets permit.
9 - TRANSIT: Do you think Lyft, Uber and other ride-share companies should be required to include wheelchair accessible vehicles in their fleets?
I am not sure that a regulatory solution to this problem is the best way to go; especially not within the City of Woodinville: how many Uber, Lyft and other ride-share cars are there registered in Woodinville itself?
This problem could probably best be resolved by having King Metro (or other regional transit authority) fill out the gap: e.g. maybe they could operate a ride-share type service with the proper wheelchair accessible vehicles?
We could also encourage Lyft, Uber and other ride-share companies to consider this.
10 - TRANSIT: What will you do to expand transit service and improve reliability? Transportation is the #1 issue that I hear from people when I meet them.
This is a regional problem and cannot be solved by Woodinville by itself. We need to work with other cities, counties and the state.
That said, Woodinville can and should start pilot programs, encourage new things and try things.
For example, we could reach out to various companies with fleets of small buses (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing,...) and start a pilot program with wineries to move around people visiting our tourism locations during the week-end. Once we have these shuttles, we could expand them to be 1) during the work week; 2) not just for wineries; but to get people across our local region. This would be a private-public partnership to prove the effectiveness of such "last-mile" type solutions. We would then move this to be run by regional transit authorities like King Metro or Sound Transit.
The city does manage many roads and should be more aware of transit needs and make necessary changes if applicable: I would start by understanding our transit needs and growth; and then, add projects into our CIP (Capital Improvement Plan). Also, we just missed our chance to add projects from the $100M pool made available as part of Sound Transit #3: opportunities like that CANNOT be missed again.
This is a very complex issue; we need to work regionally.
Position 7
Gary Harris
Sitting Deputy Mayor. No response submitted. Contact: gcharris3@comcast.net, http://www.harris4woodinville.com/
Paul Hagen
Contact: paul@hagenforcouncil.com
Do you have any direct experience with disability?
Yes. Members of my family have dealt with various physical or developmental disabilities, so I have had significant direct experience with disabilities. My younger brother is on the autistic spectrum, my mother-in-law has a significant physical disability due to spinal core damage, and my oldest son has sensory processing disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
1 - HOUSING: How would you make affordable housing available to people with developmental disabilities?
This is personal for me. My brother who is nearly 17 years younger than me has been occasionally homeless or housing insecure. What was most helpful for him was moving into a small, auxiliary housing unit (ADUs). Many cities have approved these smaller dwellings as additional housing options built on single family lots, and I believe Woodinville could pursue similar zoning as a way to provide more affordable housing options for those who otherwise may not be able to afford housing. Because these ADUs are compact they tend to be much more affordable and bring the median rental price in an area down. Additionally, cities should provide additional housing assistance to those already recieving SSI. This could be in the form of city-wide housing vouchers, access to affordable transportation, etc.
2 - SHELTER: How would you ensure people with developmental disabilities have a safe place to sleep and stay?
A shelter-first approach to homelessness means that the first priority for a city is to provide accessible, no-questions-asked shelter for all who need it. Woodinville needs to directly fund shelters within the city and must also work with area non-profits to address homelessness in the city. Understanding that shelter options cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution is important to create safe spaces for various homeless populations (including those with developmental disabilities, those with pets, those who are part of the LGBTQ community, etc.).
3 - SUPPORTIVE HOUSING: How would you ensure people with developmental disabilities are receiving case management and the support needed to escape homelessness?
While I am not an expert on this particular issue, it does appear that the VI-SPDAT's approach is limited and should be re-thought. In the city of Woodinville we need to fully fund supportive housing options for our most vulnerable residents, including those with developmental disabilities.
4 - SAFETY: How would you ensure the safety of people with developmental disabilities in police interactions?
Police must have regular and consistent training. Policing is an exceptionally hard job and we need to give our police the tools they need to interact with people of all backgrounds and abilities effectively, so that interactions and altercations do not become deadly.
5 - SAFETY & JUSTICE: Would you support cross-training among professionals in the courtroom, police departments, victim assistance agencies and schools to prepare the justice community for situations involving people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities so they can receive equal justice?
Yes, certainly. Our society needs to protect out most vulnerable members.
6 - ACCESS & ACCOMMODATIONS: How would you ensure access to straws in public areas?
This is a great question! Candidly I have never thought of straws as an issue of accessibility, so I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. On one hand, I believe we need to do everything we can to protect our environment, including reducing our plastic consumption and waste. On the other hand, I am deeply and personally committed to protecting marginalized members of our communities, including those with developmental disabilities. So, this question is hard. I would like to know more about this issue. For example, why are some straw alternatives unsafe? Are there additional alternatives available? In the end, I am always in favor of providing the resources and services necessary for all members of our community to live healthy, safe, and fulfilled lives.
7 - JOBS: What would you do to increase job prospects for people with developmental disabilities?
Small, local businesses are often more likely to hire those within their community with developmental disabilities, so as a City Council member I would support small, local business. Additionally, the City of Woodinville could provide incentives for local businesses to hire a diverse workforce (including cognitive and developmental diversity). Finally, the city can sponsor job training fairs or provide other resources to residents with developmental disabilities).
8 - SAFETY: How will you ensure your city's streets, sidewalks and intersections are safe and accessible to everyone?
Accessibility is vitally important and is one of my main issues as a candidate. As our city grows and develops we need to ensure that we have a plan in place to ensure accessibility to all. This includes access to parks, safe sidewalks, safe crosswalks, etc.
9 - TRANSIT: Do you think Lyft, Uber and other ride-share companies should be required to include wheelchair accessible vehicles in their fleets?
Because Lyft, Uber and other ride-share companies rely heavily on private vehicles, it seems difficult for a small city like Woodinville to require them to include wheelchair accessible vehicles. Instead, perhaps the city could provide incentives for both the companies (and the drivers) to provide such accommodations.
10 - TRANSIT: What will you do to expand transit service and improve reliability?
Unfortunately, Woodinville's current city council has missed several opportunities to work with King County Metro to increase public transit options in the city. If elected, I will advocate for transit options within Woodinville including metro buses and sound transit. Having a robust public transit system in our city is important for all residents and is a matter of equity that cannot be overlooked.
