LFP Council Corner - A Look Forward

Phillippa Kassover, Deputy Mayor
City of Lake Forest Park

By LFP Deputy Mayor Phillippa Kassover

As the current Council completes the mid-biennial budget process over the next few weeks, we will say farewell to our three retiring and valued councilmembers, John Wright, Mark Phillips and John Resha, and begin to welcome our incoming members, who are to be congratulated on their success in the November election.

We are pleased to welcome two scientists to Council – Dr. Tracy Furutani, a geologist who teaches climate science at North Seattle College, and Dr. Larry Goldman, who teaches organic chemistry at the University of Washington. 

We are also pleased to welcome long-time Planning Commission member and architect, Jon Lebo. All three of these councilmembers-elect have strong backgrounds in city policymaking, as both Tracy Furutani and Larry Goldman have attended most of our council meetings over the past two years, and Jon Lebo’s service on the Planning Commission has given him great insight into our city and state land-use codes and regulations.

Early in 2022, the new Council will hold a retreat to discuss priorities and design a work plan for 2022. We have already committed to writing a climate action plan with the help of a citizen committee and will be working with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to discuss concepts for the lakefront park property. 

Following the loss of Proposition 1 on the November ballot, the Council will also need to work closely with the administration to find alternate funding sources for the development and maintenance of the new park, which will likely be a longer process than we had hoped.

As we close out 2022, I want to congratulate the citizens of Lake Forest Park, who have done a great job in handling the pandemic, with very few cases and almost no hospitalizations for the past few months. We sincerely hope that 2022 brings a better year for us all and allows a return to in-person city events and council-meetings. 

To manage the transition, the city is using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to upgrade the audio-visual system at City Hall to accommodate hybrid meetings, so that council- and community members who wish to participate remotely can still do so, while others attend in person. This is a big step forward after a long 21 months of the pandemic!

--Deputy Mayor Phillippa Kassover