A Letter To You: My 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 profound 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 learn 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.
My most valuable skill is that 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 taken all these factors into consideration, I can draw up my conclusions, show them to the four guys looking over my shoulder for their approval, 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
About Ethan Benson
About Ethan
My family moved to Snoqualmie in 2011 and fell in love with the city. Our three children were still young at the time, with one in middle school, one in elementary school, and our youngest still a baby. We immediately loved the natural beauty of the area, and after having grown up in the Los Angeles area, my wife, Tricia and I found the experience of living in a small town absolutely restorative. We knew we had found our forever home. We bought a house on the Ridge, and made friendships throughout our neighborhood, and then in 2021 we bought a house downtown in the Greek Streets. We have loved every part of Snoqualmie.
Connection and Investment in the Community
Tricia and I were both elementary school teachers when we came here, but shortly after moving here, she and her best friend decided to open Rooster Valley Farm School, a farm-themed preschool in downtown Snoqualmie. A few years later, after a 25-year career in teaching, I left the profession to start Serve Snoqualmie Sports, a collection of adult sports leagues sponsored for the community by Church on the Ridge.
My wife and I believe that, with everything we do, we should serve the community in some way. Over the years, Rooster Valley Farm School has done exactly that. Well over 1,500 students have come through their barn doors. Some of the earliest students have even graduated from Mt. Si High School at this point. It has been a joy to serve the hundreds of area families who have entrusted their children to RVFS. And as small-business owners in Snoqualmie, it is our intention to continue to be a value to our community for years to come.
With Serve Snoqualmie Sports, I saw a need for adults in Snoqualmie to be active and to form relationships with other folks in their community. Loneliness is an epidemic in America, and I felt driven to help fight it. The seeds of Serve Snoqualmie Sports were planted in 2012 with a pick-up basketball night at Swenson Park on Tuesday evenings that attracted about 15 guys. Since then, the organization has grown to over a dozen different leagues with close to 500 participants every year. If you like being active, we probably have a league for you, and whether you vote for me or not, I hope you’ll check out Serve Snoqualmie Sports. We’d be blessed to have you.
Ethan Benson, City Council
Contact
vote4benson@gmail.com
310-621-4021
Address
38950 SE Alpha Street, Downtown Snoqualmie