ARLINGTON — With Dick Butner’s term on Position 6 of the Arlington City Council set to expire at the end of the year, Jacob Kukuk has officially declared his candidacy for the open seat.
“With Dick Butner retiring, my decision was sparked by recent issues regarding the homeless,” Kukuk said. “I feel like Arlington is treating the homeless as an object rather than approaching the problem from a human stance.”
Kukuk, 26, credited his father’s work at the Union Gospel Mission with providing him perspective on the needs of the homeless.
“Rather than using the law to push them aside, or spending more money on government social assistance programs, we need to relabel them from ‘unemployable’ to ’employable,’ and provide more tools for nonprofit organizations to help them,” he said.
While Kukuk believes that law enforcement should ensure the safety of citizens, he shares some of the concerns of the American Civil Liberties Union, that the city’s recently passed anti-solicitation laws could be construed in ways that hinder freedom of speech.
“If you can be detained for making someone else feel uncomfortable, that can be misused,” Kukuk said. “The council overstepped its bounds on that one.”
Kukuk also took issue with the council’s budgets, which he deemed unsustainable, and what he perceived as its lack of responsiveness to the local business climate.
“How many storefronts in downtown Arlington are vacant now?” Kukuk asked. “The amount of businesses that are leaving this town risks doing long-term damage. There was no statement from the city when Haggen and the Food Pavilion closed,” for example.
Kukuk also objected to what he sees as the city’s lack of transparency concerning airport issues brought up by the state auditor’s recent report.
“I believe in government accountability,” Kukuk said. “The solution to our deficits is not to take on what’s beyond our capabilities. I hear a lot of yes votes, but I don’t hear as many discussions of how those votes will affect the city’s sustainability. We need to reduce our number of projects.”
Kukuk bemoaned the fact that younger citizens so rarely attend council meetings, and proposed fostering high school participation with a “Youth in Government” board.
A father, software engineer and owner of an aerospace engineering firm, Kukuk cited his roots in the community by noting that he’s volunteered at the Arlington Fly-In for more than 10 years.
His current run for office is not his first political campaign, since he started the year by spearheading a drive to put an initiative before voters that would allow them to decide if Washington should be split into two states.
For more information, log onto www.jacobkukuk.com.
