ARLINGTON — The race for mayor in Arlington is pitting embattled first-term incumbent Barbara Tolbert against returning challenger Craig Christianson over questions of whether the city has been heading in the right direction.
Christianson, 58, a retired firefighter who touts his fifth-generation Arlington roots, has asserted that morale is down among city staff, police and firefighters, while Tolbert, 57, pointed to signs of progress that the city has made the past four years.
Although Christianson acknowledged that “Arlington is doing a lot of things right,” including the marketing of the city, he’d like to see more emphasis on promoting downtown.
Tolbert credited much of Arlington’s success in attracting new businesses to “one of the fastest permitting processes in the state.” She reported that, through September, the city has issued 25 new retail business permits in 2015, and experienced a net gain in business and jobs since she was sworn in.
Tolbert agreed with Christianson that Arlington could be marketed better, and cited a direct marketing campaign that’s been included in the 2016 budget.
Christianson was hard-pressed to lay out any issues on which his decisions would have differed from Tolbert’s if he’d been elected four years ago, aside from pledging greater transparency and proposing a city manager may be needed, instead of a mayor.
“She had to make some tough decisions to make things work,” said Christianson, who nonetheless criticized the low staffing levels of the police and fire departments, especially in conjunction with what he sees as “big raises for higher-ups.”
Tolbert countered that the reductions in personnel were made with an eye toward shifting responsibilities between the remaining employees, so that citizens would experience no significant cuts in services. Although she was reticent to raise property taxes, which were among the lowest in the county and had never been banked to capacity, she pointed out that it was put to the voters, who approved doing so.
Christianson further expressed concerns about a conflict of interest between Tolbert’s roles as mayor of the city and executive director of the Fly-In, especially in light of the Arlington Airport’s recent state audit findings. But Tolbert dismissed those claims by asserting the airport’s lease processes have remained largely unchanged since the 1970s, well before she was mayor, and adding that the airport has findings just about every year.
On the subject of fire and emergency medical services, Tolbert explained that the demand for fire and EMS has grown 40 percent over the past seven years, and that 80 percent of that demand is for EMS. This presents a problem when state law sets a maximum of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation on EMS taxes.
Christianson proposes a single fire and EMS agency for Snohomish County to handle this demand, so that individual fire stations can share personnel, equipment and other resources.
Tolbert praised the ability of the Arlington, Oso and Darrington fire departments to handle the demands of the Oso slide last year, which she ranks as one of the city’s worst tragedies and greatest successes during her time in office. She and Christianson are united in their support of the Arlington Community Resource Center.
“I care deeply about what happens here,” said Christianson, who pledged to keep working on the city’s issues even if he’s not elected. “We need to get everybody involved, because downtown Arlington is America.”
“I have passion, energy and an understanding of the city’s systems,” said Tolbert, who came into office when the city’s reserves were $77, and noted they’re now at 85 percent of their required level. “With that expertise, I can continue to lead us in the right direction.”
