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(Standing from left: Tim Schlitzer, Jesse Tanner, Toni Nelson, Randy Corman, Kathy Keolker, Bob Edwards; Seated from left: Mayor Earl Clymer, Dick Stredicke.)
As last-minute voters fill out their ballots for Renton’s caring and talented Mary Clymer (don’t forget!), I thought I would share this photo from when I served with her grandfather Earl Clymer in the mid 1990’s. Earl served 18 years on Council followed by 8 years as Mayor and left a family legacy of service to Renton.
Per the Seattle Times: “As a council member and as mayor, Mr. Clymer was known for his efforts to protect Renton’s aquifer, expand its parks system and senior-citizen services, and attract and retain businesses.”
I’m looking forward to seeing Earl’s granddaughter Mary, who already serves our community in many other ways, carry on Earl’s legacy at Renton City Hall.
Many of use are newcomers, so we kind of don’t care about the family trees and stuff.
But in this case, we can see Mary has paid her dues for this position by working hard to make Renton beautiful with her work on the Renton Arts Commission.
Well we have a mayor that had family roots in Renton too but look
at what has happened to Renton since he took over.
I concur. Family roots aren’t enough to qualify someone for public office, especially not as high-profile and important as the mayor’s office. I’m hoping for someone with the appropriate leadership skills and a positive forward-thinking vision to run for mayor in next election.
When will we find out who won?
Incumbents won.
Here are the results as of today for all three council races:
Very sad for my city
Dear Steve Bergquist, If your campaign manager can talk you into endorsing a candidate with DV baggage, what else can they talk you into? Should we check the graft in the Renton School District? Should we check were all the Sound Transit money has gone for Renton?
That guy is a creep.
Today I found out that KKV now only supports white people for elections.
You losers need to pipe down. We defeated little Ben, little Randy and now little Mary. We’re going make all you cis white hets pay. You’re “centrist” nonsense isn’t welcome in our Renton.
Such remarkable performance since I retired from Council in 2021. Look at the notable results that have been delivered in just four years:
Record high crime rates; increasingly overwhelming homelessness; record overdose deaths; increasing deadly roadways (reversing decades of improving safety); near-miss of an asphalt plant on our sole-source aquifer that required intervention of thousands of citizens because the city barely fought it; needless eminent domain taking of 42 homes and businesses near Renton High with no pushback from the city; failure to respect the needs of our North and South Renton neighborhoods (that add livability and vitality to our downtown); deathtrap blighted buildings at our city gateways; four-year delay in Sound Transit Bus Rapid Transit service and ten-year delay in parking for it, and still no plans for Renton light rail; small businesses and Renton pilots/students kicked out of Renton Airport to make space for out-of-town business jet owners; loss of the Pavilion Event Center and the Red Lion Convention Center; tear-out of the Piazza Park and its mature trees and iconic water features (at millions of dollars of taxpayer expense); Renton Historical Society and their priceless artifacts kicked out of the Museum, which now sits empty; hundreds of volunteers “fired” from Renton River days with paid city staff taking over; discontinuation of July 4th celebrations and early closure of Coulon Park on the holiday; endless lengthy construction delays and lane closures on Rainier Avenue; redirecting resident’s land-use appeals to Superior Court instead of Council handling them quickly and inexpensively (and learning from them) as we did in the past; reduced speaking time for residents at Council Meetings with little-to-no response or interaction with Council; and resident’s property tax payments to the city increasing 30 percent in four years.
Please tell us your plans for the next four years so we can all prepare.
If you actually ran on that, and showed voters how you would be different, you would have won. By fighting with one arm behind your back, all three of you lost your elections.
All Ben had to do was to reach out and say my opponent demands to abolish and defund the police and I don’t think that’s correct Renton.
All you had to do Randy was to say and document Kim can van wants to open up more unmanaged King county homeless shelters in Renton for the benefit of Seattle.
All Mary had to do was say, let’s reject the domestic violence and abuse of Carmen Rivera and chart a better plan for Renton that doesn’t involve defunding the police.
These horrible politicians won’t document their own stupidity, so it’s up to their Challenger to do it for them.
Not Michael Charles, your comment is important and worthy of a discussion. I might want to post an article specifically about this.
It’s true that when one runs against an incumbent, the race should be focussed on the incumbent’s record, as well as the incumbent’s and the challenger’s ideas and qualifications. But when confronting the incumbent’s record, the challenger has to remain likeable- someone that constituents would like to sit down and have a beer with.
In state and national politics, campaign staff and the media will ordinarily address many of the questions about the incumbent’s record. In local politics, especially in Renton right now, the press is very uninvolved. So it leaves challengers with the dilemma regarding when, where, and how much to challenge the incumbent’s record.
This dynamic is made worse by current confusion within city hall regarding roles and responsibilities. The Council is like the Board of Directors for the City, responsible or policy, budget, long-term direction, and creating the laws necessary to preserve order. The Mayor is like the CEO, responsible for day-to-day operations, but subordinate to Council direction for major issues. In recent elections, some Council candidates have ducked responsibility for the problems they are supposed to be solving, by claiming it’s the Mayor’s role.
Is it just me or does anyone else suspect some of the commenters to be people in office now. And honestly the level of immaturity and competition is maybe normal….if we are being deeply honest, but to come to randycorman.com and essentially boast, speaks to larger issues within the psychiatric state of the commenter(s).
What we’re going to do is get Renton to spend money on homeless programs that will be run by us. Then we’ll grift.
So true. It is really sad to see how Renton was on a good track then went to h-ll after Mayor Law left. Not sure what or who became the problem but on this same program we will become Seattle before you know it.
Why the childish name calling Carmen? Surely this behavior is beneath an elected official, even you.
Please direct your efforts toward improving Renton for all her citizens and leave the hateful lashing out to Trump.
For 28 years on Council, including leadership role, Randy Corman shaped the policies behind today’s long-running issues, not just what happened in the last four years. He halted the Highlands blight cleanup, didn’t fight for our Sound Transit dollars, and didn’t fight for what we need on 405. Now he’s out of office and pointing at everyone else.
Great fairy tale Anon,
In reality, during my 28-year council service I decreased crime; made roads and sidewalks safer; opened new parks and trails (including Henry Moses Aquatic Center); grew Renton’s water supply by 60% and protected it’s purity knowing our lives depended on it; succeeding in attracting many exciting new businesses (like the Landing, Southport, IKEA, and the Seahawks); oversaw construction of the new I-405 Exit 3 and the 167/405 flyover and prevented our single HOV lane from becoming a toll lane; ensured Renton’s airport supported primarily Renton businesses (including Boeing), pilots, and Renton students; preempted eminent domain abuse; worked hand-in-hand with residents from across the city to ensure everyone’s voice was heard (including giving every resident two five-minute speaking opportunities at every council meeting); and attracted excited new residents who moved here and annexed by the thousands, growing our population by 2 1/2 times.
But your story is that during this whole time I was managing a secret plan that would make everything turn south as soon as I retired. Is that what you’re saying?
(Sounds like the ultimate in trying to dodge responsibility by blaming the last guy.)
Your best legacy:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TTcMBzEBkjCoKp9i7?g_st=ac
In 2021, the year I retired from Council, this Rainier/Grady site (former Sound Ford dealership) was scheduled to be opened in 2024 as a Sound Transit Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) station with 700 parking spots. Now, Sound Transit is not planning on starting BRT service to this site until 2026, or installing any parking for Renton at this location until 2034. Sound Transit is letting down Renton, and the Council must hold them accountable to their promises.
Sound Transit also appears to have stopped work on developing a layout concept for a Link Light Rail connection to this Renton location. While I was on Council I pushed regularly for progress on this element. As far as I can tell, no one is currently holding Sound Transit accountable to doing this design work. This work was part of Sound Transit 3, and funded with approximately $2,500,000 in the approved voter initiative. It’s critical that it be done if we are ever going to get a Link Light Rail connection to Renton. Here is a blog entry where I discussed this particular delay.
You did a good job, but ST 1,2 and 3 skipping Renton happened under your watch. Go ask Ed Prince for ST3 details.
Sound Transit 1, 2, and 3 unfair treatment of Renton happened over my strenuous, vehement, public objections. Sound Transit is a public agency that is only subordinate to the Sound Transit Board (appointed by the King County Executive) and the State Legislature. Even though I and several Renton Mayors and Councilmembers made continued requests, the King County Executive did not appoint a Renton ST Board member until AFTER Sound Transit 3 was approved by voters.
While Sound Transit Board members and various Renton Legislators went along with Sound Transit’s unfair treatment of Renton, I continuously pushed hard for equitable Renton Sound Transit service through my testimony, letters, meetings, media outreach, and open public blog entries.
I advocated fiercely for Renton, and several of my Council Colleagues like Don Persson, Marcie Palmer, King Parker,and Ruth Perez and Denis Law were right there with me. After I retired from Council, Renton’s treatment got even worse, with years-long delays in our BRT, ten year delays in our parking, and no progress on light rail planning; We should all be asking our Council and Mayor to continue the fight for equity for Renton. Anyone implying that I did anything other than continuously fight for Renton is letting the actual culprits that showed bias against our city –the ST Board members and State Legislators– off the hook.
Here are many of my blog entries on Sound Transit, going back to 2007. I provided much of this same content directly to the agency through the years.
OK, I’ll take a little responsibility for this awkward art located on the corner of Grady Way & Rainier, along with former CM Terri Briere. We were on the Planning & Development Committee, and Transportation/Aviation Committee, when this concept for artwork was brought to both committees for approval by City Staff, way back when. Terri and I were most unhappy to have the artist arrive to the Committee the first time the concept was presented, because we agreed it didn’t fit this corner, at all. But because Staff came in with the artist, gave us a glowing report of the “deep meaning” (I don’t remember what it was) of this proposed work and pitched it as a done deal, it was too uncomfortable for either of us to talk Staff down and it proceeded. I am so sorry! I agreed when our Transportation Staff chuckled over guessing how many times it would be damaged on such a busy corner. They thought it was ridiculous when they had to help install it. It definitely does not fit that heavy transportation corridor, & I wince every time I pass it.
So there’s the “rest of the story”. I wonder what will happen to it in the future…
Hey, at least Phases 1, 2, and 3 of Rainier Avenue widening (which this artwork was part of) got completed on time, on budget, and with almost no lane closures while we were on Council. Phase 4 (since I retired) has taken 18 months longer than planned (nearly 4 years total), has incurred countless change orders, is many millions of dollars over budget, and the contractor and city have had lanes closed for seemingly no reason during much of the construction. Here is a blog post on this topic.
Marcie, thanks for that honestly. I think it points to one of the problems in that city staff often are acting like legislators and just want the council to sign off of things once it’s too late to change.
You are right, city staff often does act outside their responsibility. I will tell you, that was the last time it happened with Terri Briere and I. We went straight to the mayor and said staff would not come to committee meetings with any artist on the first presentation for future projects, or we wouldn’t hear the presentation. The artists were welcome AFTER Council made it final decision. It’s not fair to the council members trying to make a decision for the best of all of Renton. I hope current council members stand firm on receiving all information, asking for more if needed, and NOT be blindsided by the Administration. I always greatly respected staff, but Council is there to be the conduit for making sure the greater public good is done, regardless of the Administration’s preferences and prejudices. Council Members do NOT work FOR the mayor, they work for the public. I see only 2 current CMs standing for this important point, and the others consistently backing the mayor, even against the best interest for the public (electronic home monitoring comes to mind, among many others.). sigh. Well, now we’re in election mode for 2 years from now, with the mayor and 4 council seats up for election. And we know at least 2 of the 7 are eyeing the mayors seat. I have no idea if the mayor is going to run for a third term. I hope not.
Revisit the home monitoring situation – it was a complete waste of money to pay union wages for people to watch screens. There was valuable work being done when someone flew the coop, but the actual screen watching could be done by someone not costing the city $120,000 per year.
I want to thank the people in the Renton fire department and police department who endorsed Carmen Rivera because of her….. Willlingness to do what needs to be done.
I was also disappointed in both the fire and police endorsements, considering Carmen Rivera’s actions have made the work of both departments more difficult, more dangerous, and less successful. The Park Avenue building is a complete fire trap, lacking all its design fire protection systems and it puts our fire fighters lives in danger if they have to rescue anyone in an emergency. It also remains an ongoing danger to all of North Renton. A series of laws that Carmen Rivera helped lobby for (like the police pursuit limitations), now mostly rescinded, made the work of our police officers much more difficult and led to more murder and mayhem on our streets.
I was also very disappointed in the leadership at Renton City Hall for the improper (and likely illegal) blitze of praise and propaganda they provided Carmen Rivera at the peak of campaign season simply for finally completing her 30 hours training that she could have completed in her first few months in office. I do not understand why they did this. Candidates names are generally not supposed to appear on city public service announcements during their election years.
Anonymous wrote – “I want to thank the people in the Renton fire department and police department who endorsed Carmen Rivera because of her….. Willlingness to do what needs to be done.”
Are you implying that “favors” were granted? If so, that’s out of line. I’m not a Carmen fan, but enough is enough. The people have voted and it is what it is. Time to move forward.
We (myself included, for sure) need to take a cue from Mary Clymer and be gracious in defeat and victory.
This is a good point Robert. While I too was disappointed in the police and fire endorsements, these are union endorsements and it is reasonable that they will endorse pro-union candidates. Unions have the same rights as other organizations to endorse candidates who they feel will best serve their members, and there is nothing untoward about that.
My opinion was that Mary Clymer would have helped first responders in both organizations over the long term better than Carmen Rivera. Fair-minded people can disagree on this, and they should not make it personal.
There were two controversial issues that I assume likely influenced the police endorsement, and they were both issues where I would have voted the same way as Carmen Rivera. Yes, you read that right. I agreed with her.
One of the issues was when the Police Officers wanted to use savings in the medical plan to fund medical savings accounts for their members. I thought this was a reasonable request by the Police Guild, consistent with the employee-management partnership agreement that was reached with the Guild and other Renton employees many years ago. The agreement at the time was that if employees could achieve savings in the medical plan, the savings would roll back to them as a reward. The Police asked for this, and then Renton leadership said no. The Police then sued to uphold the original agreement, and the Renton Mayor and Council regrettably countersued the Police. At a time when Renton was offering $40,000 signing bonuses to get new officers, they sued the Police over this issue, even though I felt the Police were in the right. Carmen Rivera voted not to sue, which would have been an easy decision and would have been my decision.
More recently, the Mayor announced he was going to get rid of the successful 30-year-old Electronic Home Detention program, with little to no public Council discussion. When a couple of council members including Carmen Rivera asked to wait a year to study the issue further, the Mayor recommended against it and the Council outvoted them. This program has been very well run and has saved the city a lot of money over the years, as the people serving under house arrest pay for the monitoring service and save the public from paying for their incarceration. The Police Guild president said this program (which I helped start 30 years ago) was working well until the City’s Finance Department took over the billing.
Mary Clymer and her family have always worked well with City employees, and I’m confident Mary would have looked out for our workforce with these issues. Her grandfather went to bat for our police department many times, and we have a modern police station because of his work.
The two home monitoring people were just watching monitors. I kid you not. Total waste of money to have salaried people doing that.
I don’t know if you have insider experience and I’ve never worked this particular job. But I would expect that it could be considerably more complicated, especially since other cities were contracted with Renton for this service.
I think watching someone under 24/7 house arrest, who has a landline-based monitoring system with no equipment or technology malfunctions, could be as simple as just watching monitors. But it starts getting significantly more complicated when the monitored person has court-approved appointments, work release, school release, or court-approved travel out of the area. The employees doing the monitoring have to make sure the monitored person’s schedule aligns with what the court has approved (which can change daily) and keep data systems synched up.
And it can get very complicated if they have technology issues, like the monitors failing to stay connected even when a monitored person is following the rules. (Landlines systems were more predictable, but now some systems are relying on cell networks or internet connections that are subject to disruptions from power outages and tech failures). The employees doing the monitoring have to make sure that the monitored persons understand how to use the equipment properly, including all the details about making sure it has a connected signal and the batteries remain charged. Some monitored subjects have mandatory alcohol checks, or other electronic monitoring that has to be done, and all of these checks need to be verified as properly completed. This equipment also has its own unique requirements, and the monitors have to make sure the monitored persons know how to properly use it.
When a monitored person gets flagged by the system, the people doing the monitoring have probably heard a million and one possible excuses (of which some may be legitimate). I assume the employees doing the monitoring have to sort through these possible excuses to determine whether there truly was a technology failure or court miscommunication that was not the fault of the monitored person, or whether the monitored person should be brought back into physical custody, and how quickly. The employees doing the monitoring would have to apply some judgement in some situations (a power failure, for instance), complying closely with all laws, about exactly what to do in each of these unique situations. I assume the monitoring role has some similarities with parole officers, who we wouldn’t normally just replace with minimum-wage monitors.
All of these issues become more complicated with larger numbers of people being monitored, and Renton has had times when many other cities were contracting this service from us, with dozens of people on Electronic Home Detention, with just our one or two employees overseeing it.
For many years this service paid for itself because the monitored individuals (who had to be non-violent to be approved for the program) would pay to be monitored, and it kept taxpayers from having to pay to keep them in jail.
I’ve also heard testimonials through the years about how our police monitors, working closely with the monitored persons, helped the monitored persons turn their lives around through mentoring and caring advice. This kind of personal advice will never come from a commercial monitoring service.
Recent council testimony is that the financial picture changed recently, with the transfer of the billing from Police to Finance, that has now made this service lose significant money. I don’t have insight into these details, and I wish we knew more. I personally wish the Council asked more questions about this, rather than just agreeing quickly to switch over to a commercial service. I’m not convinced a commercial service will be as safe, and I suspect a commercial service will have more financial drain on our courts and police as erroneous issues get flagged. For instance, our police officers may find themselves arresting someone just because they were attending a court-ordered sobriety class, but the commercial service didn’t get the records of the court order.
I don’t know how accurately I’ve captured this, and I would like to hear from anyone who has further insider knowledge than I do. Because I don’t know everything about it, if I had still been on Council I would have voted with the group that wanted another year to study this issue before switching from the system we’ve used for the past 30 years.
It’s in between – it was a little more than staring at a screen and contacting people. But not by much.
Goband ask Ed, Ryan, James, and Armando if this isn’t withing the realm of possibility.
They need to spill the tea together (at the same time) so that one of them doesn’t get singled out by Carmen for a final “sexual harassments” accusation when she eventually goes down.
If they don’t stick together, one of them will hang separately.
You notice Ryan didn’t endorse Mary right?
Ryan was very ready to congratulate Carmen on her win. I hope they enjoy their work together.
Incumbent is supposed to be one word.
Selling Renton by the Pound
When you follow the money in this race, a pattern jumps out. Carmen Rivera reported raising about $70,000 for her campaign. Of that:
Only about $10,000 came from donors with Renton addresses.
About $32,000 came from Seattle donors and the remaining ~$28,000 came from outside Renton or from donors whose address couldn’t be verified.
So roughly 6 out of every 7 dollars backing Carmen’s campaign did not come from Renton.
She ended the election with 10,645 votes, and it works out to about $5 in non-Renton money for every single vote she received.
The question I ask is whose priorities does that money represent – Renton’s, or somewhere else’s? Is this why she’s going easy on the out of town developers at 6th and Park?
Get good you losers. Just because we’re better at fundraising doesn’t mean you get to cry about it.
There’s no way to get that message out that some of our politicians have been bought. The Renton Reporter won’t cover it.
Perhaps it would be helpful if Renton Councilmembers wore hats representing the city where they got most of their campaign donations. It would make it easier for Renton residents to understand their decisions.
You got played. You got handled. Carmen is the only real shot Renton has at Democratic Socialism. She wiped the floor with you.
Mary was a cosplay progressive at best.
Little does she know we planted people inside her campaign months ago. She’s so naïve she never even stopped to wonder why Carmen’s old die-hard supporters suddenly became her “new best friends.”
Sheesley?