Qualifications and Experience
Brad graduated with Honors from the University of Illinois, with a B.A. in History, with emphasis in American government and political science. Brad has been a homeowner and resident of the Juanita neighborhood of Kirkland for 30 years. He is pleased that Kirkland still retains its character, parks, strong neighborhoods, lakefront downtown, and small-town appeal that bring thousands of visitors and their business here every year.
As a carpenter, Brad has spent a career building public and private projects of all sizes: schools, hospitals, public transportation, infrastructure, commercial and residential, for both large and small contractors. He was a manufacturing engineer on the design and roll-out of the Boeing 767 program. He has decades of practical experience building things on time and on budget, often under budget. He knows first-hand why projects succeed and why projects fail.
Brad also has over a decade of experience and service on executive boards, committees, and regional councils, with political, labor, and community organizations. He has over a decade of experience as officer, trustee, organizer, and delegate in these organizations. He has chaired and co-chaired area caucuses and neighborhood precinct caucuses. He has a long record of representing people well, fairly, and effectively. He has fought for open, transparent meetings with due process and printed minutes publicly available. He has stood up against secrecy, and against special interests and their high-paid lobbyists. He has been a long-time community, labor, and political organizer, activist, and leader.
He has a long record of advocating for working families and ordinary citizens. He has made dozens of trips to the State Capitol and around the region on a wide variety of issues that affect our citizens and families, but are decided at the state and regional levels, where most of us cannot attend.
He has many years experience reviewing and voting on large multi-million dollar regional council budgets. He has been a leader in setting up accountability procedures to assure that budgets and financial reports received thorough and adequate review, and to assure that department directors and managers presented detailed reports at every meeting.
Brad has the depth of fiscal experience we need to responsibly balance the budget at a time of a projected $8 million deficit, working line by line to find balanced savings without making drastic or harmful cuts to public safety and other essential services, as some have suggested. Brad has the unique combination of practical, political, board, council, and committee experience to be an effective city councilmember from the start.