Fellow Snoqualmians,

I came to the City Council somewhat unexpectedly last election cycle, when my good friend, Bob Jeans asked me to run for the seat he was vacating. He was finishing his 16th year on the Council, and he was not interested in making it 20. I’d never considered politics, and the idea didn’t particularly appeal to me, but when Bob says you ought to do something, he’s hard to dismiss. 

I ran in 2021 with Bob’s endorsement, and I got 97% of the vote. A decisive victory!

Some people (“nitpickers,” I call ’em) like to point out that I was running unopposed in that election. So what?! Ninety-seven percent is ninety-seven percent! That’s so many percent!

However, full disclosure demands that I reveal to you that I was not even a little bit certain that the 3% of the electorate who wrote in random names was wrong. I entered my term on the Council feeling like an unprepared, unqualified mistake of unopposed politics. A fluke of an election year with too many races and too few candidates. When the actual City Council work began, I was overwhelmed by the numbers, the scope of work it takes to run a city, and the overwhelming gravity of representing your fellow citizens. With every decision put before the Council, I felt like Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln were looking over my shoulder and expecting me to consider every angle, every argument, and every resident. And they were expecting me to do it well.

Fortunately, City Council is a team sport. In the last 3.8ish years, I have served with 8 other councilmembers. Each one has approached the job with a different perspective, from a different angle, with different ideas, concerns, and priorities. It has been one of the great privileges of my life to discuss, compromise, and debate with these excellent people.

Additionally, you are a member of the team that steers Snoqualmie, if you want to be. Perhaps the most satisfying part of this job is to be emailed or called or approached in the grocery store by a citizen who points out how we are doing things wrong, or where we have opportunities to do things better. This is how I know how to best represent you.

This is an election, so it is natural for you to hear from candidates that they know best how to handle every problem. I want to make sure that you understand that I am not that guy. I do not know better than you. Furthermore, I believe that if I did know better than you, that would disqualify me from the job of representing you.

I have a different skill set. I can listen. I can listen to you, and to that lady, and even that guy over there, and then I can measure all of that against the Constitution and my three core governing values: public safety, fiscal responsibility, and personal rights. Once I’ve done that, I can draw up my conclusions, show them to the four guys looking over my shoulder, then boil them down to an “aye” or “nay.”

I love Snoqualmie. Ours is a wonderful city. It has been an honor to represent you. I hope you will allow me to continue.

-Ethan