Saying she is proud of what she has been able to accomplish in the last four years and wants to make sure those efforts continue, Bainbridge Island City Council member Christine Nasser Rolfes has formally opened her bid for re-election from the island’s south-west ward.

“I care about the island and the quality of government, and want to remain as a positive, optimistic and balanced voice,” Rolfes said.

Both seats representing the south-west ward are up for election this year. To begin staggering those terms, one of the two seats this year will be a two-year term, and the other will be for four years.

Rolfes said she will file for the two-year seat, which represents all of the island south of Eagle Harbor, and areas west of Fletcher Bay/Miller Road and south of Koura Road, including all of the Battle Point peninsula.

In her first council term, Rolfes has been an advocate of open-space preservation, including the voter-passed open-space bond, the Non-motorized Transportation Plan and public acquisition of the Wyckoff property.

She has chaired the citizen committee appointed in 2001 by former Mayor Dwight Sutton to put the 50-acre Wyckoff site into public ownership. The group has persuaded the trustee that controls the property to give the city the first opportunity to acquire the land on the south shore of Eagle Harbor for roughly $8 million, and has begun the process of seeking federal, state and local grant money.

Rolfes said she has also been an advocate for cyclists and pedestrians, resulting in adoption last year of the “bike/ped” plan for bike lanes, sidewalks, trails and other amenities.

“We’ve done the planning. Now I’d like to advocate for its implementation,” she said.

A former land-use and open-space planner for Kitsap County, Rolfes said she wants to be part of “a community discussion about how to achieve environmental protection – the balance among regulation, incentives and education.”

Rolfes also points with pride to her ability to work with neighborhood groups on such projects as preserving the Fort Ward Parade Ground park and wetlands, and working with Murden Cove residents on a stream-restoration effort.

“This has been what you might call constituent service – working with people in the neighborhoods that have ideas, and helping them access city resources,” Rolfes said.

For the past two years, Rolfes has been a member of the city council’s high-profile Land Use Committee, which has come under fire most recently for an ongoing subdivision moratorium.

The moratorium was imposed after the state Supreme Court struck down percentage requirements for private open space in developments.

Part of the delay, Rolfes said, has been the difficulty the committee has experienced communicating with the city’s planning staff.

“We have tried to keep it general and ask the staff to come back with the details,” she said, “but frequently, the staff comes back to us and asks for those details. But since (interim planning director) Larry Frazier has started, that has gotten much better.”

In general, Rolfes said she views the shakeup in City Hall leadership stemming from resignations of the city administrator, planning director and police chief, among others, as an opportunity.

“I think this can be a transition time for positive change, and an opportunity to bring in fresh perspectives,” she said.

Rolfes said she wants to be involved in upcoming work on the city’s critical areas ordinance that covers wetland regulation; efforts at farmland preservation; and on a historic-preservation ordinance.

“I have a special interest in providing incentives to maintain and restore historic structures,” she said.

Rolfes, who has been council chair this year, said she believes relations among the council, mayor and staff can be improved through more effective communication, and that the groundwork for doing so was put in place in two recent retreats.

Rolfes holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington.

Between her stint with Kitsap County and her election to the council, she was a program manager for the United States Agency for International Development.

Rolfes and her husband Leonard, an international land-use consultant, have two young daughters.

Rolfes said family considerations prompted her to file for the two-year rather than the four-year council position.

“The oldest will start grade school in two years, and that will be a good time to step back,” she said.

“This will be my last run for office, at least for some time.”