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Mary and me at this year’s dragon festival downtown. The festival was put on by Renton Arts Commission, a group that has benefited immensely from Mary’s involvement and volunteer work.
I’ve been encouraging Mary Clymer to run for Renton City Council for many years. She is an inspirational leader in our community, an experienced Renton business owner, and a beloved producer/promoter of the arts. She has been demonstrating in all her work and community activities that she is perfectly-suited to help lead Renton towards an even brighter future.
Mary has been around Renton leadership all her life. I enjoyed serving on Renton Council with Mary’s grandfather, Earl Clymer, when he was Mayor of Renton. We worked together on such key projects as finalizing Renton’s Aquifer Protection Ordinance, creating our first Economic Development Department, bringing IKEA into town, and accommodating rapid growth in manufacturing at Boeing and Paccar. Mayor Clymer wanted to hear from residents, giving each resident TWO five-minute opportunities to converse with council at every council meeting– once near the start, and once near the end– a practice which kept us connected to our residents and their needs. Mary has told me she wants to help foster that same degree of open dialogue her grandfather did, even on difficult subjects, and ensure the Council, Mayor, residents and businesses work closely together on a bright Renton future. Mary’s parents, like her grandfather, modeled Renton community engagement and service to her throughout her life.
In contrast, the incumbent is finishing her first term on Renton Council, and has unfortunately made many enemies through her combative, impulsive style. No current Renton elected officials are supporting the incumbent for reelection. Countless Renton residents and all of the incumbent’s council colleagues have been on the receiving end of her calling them liars or even worse names simply for having reasonable differences of opinion with her. A recent Axios article describes the incumbent’s past domestic violence arrest and ongoing anger management issues. Even worse, some of the incumbent’s policies have proven dangerous to Renton residents. For instance, she aggressively lobbied to keep a state law banning almost all police pursuits even while Renton’s other six councilmembers all lobbied for the opposite, to allow reasonable police pursuit authority. The police pursuit restriction passed the legislature, but then had to be rescinded three years later after it led to skyrocketing rates of reckless driving, car theft, violent road rage, smash-and-grab burglaries, and fatal car crashes. The incumbent later promoted a legislative bill which would prevent police from pulling over motorists who lack basic safety equipment like brake lights, another law which would have increased fatal accidents if the legislature had not rejected it.
To get the positive, safe future that everyone in Renton deserves, we need a healthy change in Renton Council Position 2. Mary Clymer is ready to be that change. Please vote for Mary by August 5.
From left, me, my wife Cathy, Mary Clymer, and Former Mayor Denis Law at Renton’s Farmers Market
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