Smith and Rheaume step into their positions

When Brent Smith attended Kenmore City Council meetings as an outsider, he didn’t always see things running smoothly. From his spot in the crowd, the longtime resident often witnessed a lack of communication between the elected officials and bits of dysfunction creeping into the gatherings.

So Smith ran for council, hoping to inject some unity into the system.

Over in Bothell, Andy Rheaume (pictured) saw running for city council as a way to become involved with his hometown, the place where as a child he played in the woods and rode motorbikes and bicycles. When he heard about the city’s downtown revitalization plan, he started keeping an eye on what was transpiring at council meetings.

Since he wanted to dig into city government even deeper, Rheaume threw his proverbial hat into the ring and ran for a council position.

Both Smith, 48, and Rheaume, 36, snagged council seats last November and have since begun their governmental careers. Here’s a look at each Kenmore and Bothell councilmember:

FROM BALLFIELDS TO CITY HALL

Twenty-five years ago this week, Smith and his wife, Brenda, moved to Kenmore. The University of Washington economics major got into mortgage banking, and about a decade later started his own real-estate-appraisal business. In 2004, Smith moved his office from Seattle to Kenmore, and community involvement soon became his calling card. He started coaching his kids’ (Carlie and Cooper’s) sports teams, helped out with parks and recreation issues and now he’s a councilmember.

Smith first got a taste of city matters when his group Families for Active Parks in Kenmore worked with the city of Kenmore and Bastyr University to land a 10-year lease to secure and renovate a pair of ballfields at the natural-health-education institution next to St. Edward State Park.

“It’s funny how things work out. After (the initial plan) was declined by the state parks, it would have been easy to throw in the towel, but good people came together to make this work and I think it’s a fantastic partnership now,” Smith said of the Kenmore-Bastyr bond. (Northlake Little League now has two fields at Bastyr, leases one at St. Edward State Park and has one at Moorland Park.)

As part of council now, Smith hopes that more partnerships develop with Kenmore and others.

“I think that when resources and revenues are so limited, you have to start really thinking outside the box a little bit, and that’s a great example of something (the Bastyr pairing) that was mutually beneficial,” he said.

Smith — who ran unopposed for Position 1 after incumbent John Hendrickson chose to run against Position 7’s Glenn Rogers and lost — hopes that he can help Kenmore improve its image in the region. He feels that although Kenmore possesses assets like Bastyr and Northshore district schools, parks, its close proximity to Lake Washington and more, some people still see the city as housing a cement plant and not much more.

“We have been a victim of circumstance on both the Kenmore Village site and on the LakePointe (housing) site — both of those, unfortunately, we had economic downturns that really hindered what could have happened,” said Smith, noting that people don’t understand that a lot of effort went into those plans. “But you can’t sometimes work against an economic difficulty like that; what you can do is try to set the stage for it to work better next time.”

Along with the help from state representatives, Smith and the council will keep selling Kenmore’s strengths to others. Smith got to know his fellow councilmembers at a two-day retreat in January at a Semiahmoo Park facility in Whatcom County.

“I learned a lot about them. I think the other six on the council are phenomenal thinkers and I look forward to working with them, and I have no doubt that we’ll work well together,” said Smith, noting that although disagreements will most likely arise at meetings, the councilmembers respect each other and will work things out.

“10 years ago, I would have never guessed I would have been sitting here today,” Smith continued. “I didn’t set out on that course. I enjoy my business and running my business, but as my kids get older in college and in high school, I’ve got that energy and I like to have diversity in my life, and so that energy is going to go into the city council at this time.”

When he’s not working or fulfilling his council duties, Smith spends a lot of time hiking the trails at St. Edward State Park, playing Ultimate Frisbee, gardening, cooking and brewing beer.

Hiking is “one of my best thinking times. I can spend an hour on the trail there and that just rejuvenates me immensely.”

‘I’VE SEEN THIS PLACE REALLY GROW’

Bothell’s Westhill area was Rheaume’s first home. At age 36, he’s back in Bothell — now living with his wife and three kids near William Penn Park — after living in different cities over the years.

“I’ve seen this place really grow. Obviously since 1975, it’s gotten a lot more populated than it was back then. I remember riding my motor bike down to Bigfoot Tavern to get candy,” said Rheaume, who attended St. Brendan’s for grade school, Kenmore Junior High and Bothell High. For college, he studied at Shoreline Community College, Western Washington University, the University of Washington, Bothell and UW’s Seattle campus. He earned a bachelor of science degree in environmental sciences from the UW.

He’s worked for the city of Redmond for the last 11 years, and he’s now the stormwater utility senior planner and mainly studies the ecological function of freshwater streams.

“With my 11 years of experience working for (Redmond), I can easily say I’ve hit the ground running,” said Rheaume, noting that he knows how municipalities operate from the inside and is familiar with capital and operating budgets. “It’s been going pretty well. I’m getting up to speed on all the policies, plans and documents. The toughest one for me to crack is the budget — it’s a very complicated, hard-to-understand document.” He also spent some time with the city’s purchase-and-sale agreement, getting a thorough understanding of the recent sale of two downtown lots.

“When people ask you a question about something, you really should have an answer. I’ll never stop learning doing this position,” said Rheaume, who is married to Jenia, and they have three children, Drew (age 2), Ayden (4) and Logan (13).

Rheaume, who defeated Adam Brauch for Position 2 last November, is focused on improving quality of life for Bothell residents, including helping beautify the downtown center with highly maintained streets and sidewalks and adding flower planters. He said all those things add up when you’re trying to get people to recognize Bothell.

He’s also pleased to be on council during a time when the city’s downtown revitalization is aiming to get under way with business and residential additions, Main Street enhancements, a new city hall and more.

“To see that be rejuvenated into a vibrant urban center, it’s really exciting for me. We’ve really seen Kirkland do it, and we’ve really seen Redmond do it, and I really look forward to Bothell following suit with that,” said Rheaume, who not only attends council meetings, but represents Bothell at regional committee gatherings of the Eastside Transportation Partnership and Suburban Cities Association.

It’s there that he interacts with councilmembers from other cities and discusses how they go about their jobs, so everyone’s learning from each other. Rheaume would like to see the Bothell, Kenmore and Woodinville city councils hold joint meetings in the future, as well.

One of the city’s newest concerns is added traffic on State Route 522, a road that more drivers are taking to avoid paying tolls on the State Route 520 bridge. Rheaume said the Washington State Department of Transportation will soon meet with the cities involved to unveil increased-traffic statistics.

Rheaume laughed when he asked this Reporter how traffic was flowing through Bothell the last month since tolling began. He wouldn’t know since he commutes to his Redmond job by bike along the Burke-Gilman Trail.

“It’s almost as fast as driving,” he said of the 10-mile trip.