Integrity. Inclusion. Innovation.

We have a thriving economy, excellent schools, and high quality of life, yet our rapid growth is jeopardizing the very qualities that drew us to Bellevue as our home. I want to continue using my years of experience, as an innovative and collaborative problem-solver, to address the increasing tension between our neighborhood livability and our city’s economic vitality.

As your voice on the City Council, I have listened to neighbors in the community, heard your priorities for Bellevue's future, and collaborated toward common sense solutions that work. I believe that together, we will ensure a thriving, sustainable, and welcoming Bellevue for generations to come. Let's keep Bellevue, our city in a park, amazing. Thank you for your support.

~ Janice

My Vision. Our Vision.

I remain committed to build bridges for understanding and collaborative partnerships to ensure Bellevue’s future. My vision continues to include:

• Make the City even more strategic and innovative. Our policies must work both short-term as well as decades into the future.  Planning must be forward-thinking and we must be willing to be bold, celebrate our diverse community, welcome businesses big and small, and embrace technology to deliver services at the best value. And most importantly is to make sure the city has strong public safety and infrastructure capacity to support our continued growth smartly.

• Build more relationships - with the school district, businesses and neighborhoods. Become even more regional in our thinking. Many issues such as transportation, livability, economic growth, and community services are larger than our city limits. Solutions to these challenges cannot come solely from Bellevue. My ability to engage with regional partners (King County, other cities and the state, major businesses) and advocate for Bellevue’s concerns will be essential to our success.

• Provide effective and timely communication. When communicating with our citizens we need to articulate what the city is doing and why, and be clear about our intentions and expected outcomes. It’s important to establish, nurture, and expand the city’s relationships within the many neighborhoods, communities and businesses that live, work, and play in Bellevue.

My priorities. Our priorities.

• Safe and Supported Neighborhoods: As a mom, safety of our community members will always be a top priority for me. On the City Council, I have advocated for state funding and regional collaboration to get results on homelessness, behavioral health, and substance use treatment. I also helped secure funding to ensure Bellevue has the police, fire, and behavioral health resources necessary to respond to our community's needs in the most effective way. I will continue to make progress in addressing the very complex and difficult issues in our community.

• Infrastructure for a Healthy City: As Chief Engineer at the Port of Seattle and former Bellevue Transportation Commissioner, I approach every decision through a lens of building a healthy city with workable solutions. On the Council, I prioritized housing that's affordable at every income level for seniors, working families, retail workers, and teachers - for everyone. I also pushed for Vision Zero for safe, walkable, and connected neighborhoods, small businesses support, more parks and open spaces, to keep Bellevue the best place to live, work, and play. I will continue to lead on environmental stewardship, preserve our tree canopy, and fund investments to achieve our climate goals.

• Engaged and Empowered Communities: On the Council, I am committed to our motto "Bellevue welcomes the world. Our Diversity is our strength." And we are a city where everyone can feel like they belong. I am proud of my work in building bridges - to engage our neighbors, promote small businesses, and connect communities to improve transparency and access to city services. I will keep bringing communities together, with programs like Adopt-a-Litter and opening up city hall for community events, as well as the future Bellevue Cross Cultural Center.

A bit more on Transportation and Housing...

Transportation

The transportation challenges ahead of us continue to be staggering. To address them we need to retain leaders who can reconcile the divergent interests of various stakeholders and build coalitions for implementing innovative solutions.  Adequate funding will continue to be a challenge. I support bold steps like the low interest rate TIFIA loan and the much-needed transportation levy to support neighborhood safety and congestion relief. I have brought visionary and caring leadership to council, listens to understand the issues and ensure that mobility choices are available to keep Bellevue moving. I am especially proud of our work on the Curb Management Plan, that I first incorporated into our Comprehensive Plan when on the Bellevue Transportation Commission back in 2013. Regionally, I advocate for Bellevue’s interest for transit and bike routes, transportation corridor improvements and funding.

I bring my years serving on the Bellevue Transportation Commission recommending sound policies to council. I continue to push for engagement in the neighborhoods we serve. It is essential that the city engage our neighborhoods to understand and relieve the transportation pain points and ensure safe streets for all. As we develop infrastructure projects, we must plan from a multi-modal level of service thinking that looks at our transportation designs from a Complete Streets and Vision Zero lens.

Affordable Housing

Bellevue is an incredibly vibrant and attractive city blessed with excellent amenities and outstanding public schools. Unfortunately, the very qualities that make Bellevue so attractive have resulting in skyrocketing housing costs, putting the city out of reach for many families and middle class workers, including retail and service employees and civil servants. Children who grew up in Bellevue cannot afford to return and live here as adults. I am committed to finding ways to make housing more affordable for all who want to live, work, and play in our wonderful city. My background and experience continues to be an asset while evaluating policies and working with developers, property managers, and non-profit housing providers to create more affordable housing stock. I have advocated for both more housing and more affordable housing, that includes both rentals and home ownership.