Written by Dear Beloved Renton Community,
After more than 27 years of serving you on Renton City Council, I’ve decided not to seek an eighth term in this coming election season. A shifting situation in my extended family has caused me to reassess where I want to focus my time and energy in the next few years. Additionally, I was going to run another term to help the city recover from the pandemic, and now I’m increasingly confident that we can get the COVID-19 crisis behind us, resolve our financial challenges, and restart our businesses before the end of this term.
I am enthusiastically endorsing long-time Renton Chamber of Commerce Board Member James Alberson for my vacant position. James has served as President of the Chamber Board for six years, and is a business owner and business development consultant who is very active in our Renton community. I endorsed him during his run for City Council position 3 in 2019 and he came within 2 percent of winning the seat. A few months later I nominated him as a finalist for the vacant Council 2 position and during his Council interview he demonstrated excellent preparation and readiness for a council position. He will be an outstanding council member. Please join me in supporting James.
I will be returning all contributions I have received in my campaign, and I ask donors to please consider donating them to James’ campaign.
Making the decision to step away has led me to take stock of many of my accomplishments, including the following: I’ve served six times as Council President, chaired all council committees, and represented Renton in many state and regional forums. I’ve been instrumental in bringing the Landing, Piazza, Farmers’ Market, Southport, I-405/167 improvements, Seahawks Headquarters, Aquatic Center, Benson Hill Community Center, expanded local arts, salmon habitat restoration, new parks and trails, two new fire stations, and hundreds of new units of affordable housing. I helped replace the highlands library and helped preserve and rebuild the downtown library over the Cedar River. I helped create the Mayor’s Inclusion Task Force to ensure we include perspectives from all members of our community and worked with our council to add racial equity and justice goals to our city business plan. We’ve made many excellent improvements in our hiring and contracting policies and will soon be creating a new equity commission. Drawing on my professional aviation background, I’ve also helped oversee Renton’s airport ensuring it’s success and compatibility with neighborhoods. I’ve always worked to keep taxes and utility rates as low as possible by seeking state and federal revenue sources whenever possible and nurturing new business development. Our population has grown by 250% during my years on city council.
It continues to be an honor to serve as your 2021 City Council President, and I will continue to work diligently for you until my term ends on New Year’s Eve. Thank you for the confidence and trust you have bestowed me during my seven terms of service to our amazing city.
(Randy Corman and James Alberson during RTC Candidates Forum 2019)
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