Schneider and Wildsmith battle for Central Ward seat

The newest member of the Bainbridge Island City Council is facing an election challenge from another relative newcomer on the island’s political scene.

Councilwoman Leslie Schneider is running to retain the District 4, Central Ward council seat that she was appointed to in April 2018.

Schneider, 59, is cofounder of OfficeXpats and has served on the boards of Sustainable Bainbridge and the Kitsap Regional Library Foundation. She is a graduate of UCLA. Her website is at www.schneider 4council.com.

Grayson William Wildsmith, 22, is a recent Gonzaga University graduate and political science major taking his first shot at elected office. He has interned in Washington, D.C. with USAID in the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance on the Military Liaison Team, and also with the city of Bainbridge Island. His campaign website is at wildsmith4council.com.

* Transcripts have been edited for length and clarity.

Leslie Schneider

BIR: You’ve been on the council for a while. Looking back, what was your most difficult decision. And describe how you came to reaching that ultimate decision.

LS: [Laughs.] There’s a couple different types of really hard decisions. One are just the things you’ve put a lot of work into and don’t feel like there is yet a good option, but you have to vote anyway. And Suzuki kind of fits in that category.

And there are others where new things pop up and you have to make a completely spur-of-the-moment decision. And you don’t really know whether what you did was the right thing. So there is hard and I guess there is unsure.

In the unsure category, it was the end stage, the last set of questions about the land-use, subdivision guidelines.

The whole thing about the ADUs (accessory dwelling units) came up as part of the homesite [restrictions]. There’s the homesite question, and then there’s the ADU question. It turns out that, I got satisfied with the homesite piece of it, and I was unsatisfied with the ADU, because I figured I agreed with [Councilwoman] Sarah [Blossom] that it was too restrictive. I wanted less restrictions on the ADUs, but I wanted the homesites to move forward.

I wanted all that heavy lifting to not stay in limbo land. I voted against restricting the ADUs; the three of us lost out on that. Then, like a couple seconds later, we’re on to, well, OK, do we move the whole thing forward with the restrictions on the ADUs.

I just wasn’t ready; I just sort of froze, and I didn’t vote.

I voted a couple of seconds later, going ‘OK, fine, I’m an aye.’ I voted to move the whole thing forward. Sarah was the only one who voted against it. My heart was really with Sarah, because I didn’t agree with that restriction. But I didn’t want to hold the whole thing back.

Suzuki was hard. Because I put so much work into it; meeting with people ahead of time, and creating a new solution that would work for more people. I really wanted us on council to at least get, not be a 4-3 vote. Something of that importance shouldn’t be a close vote.

BIR: And yet it was.

LS: I had voted with the group to move forward with the 100 [unit proposal] earlier, back in August, because I felt like we needed the option for feasibility. The other reason I voted for the 100, I lived in density like that and I loved it.

BIR: Did you expect Suzuki to become the political issue that it has in this election?

LS: It’s quite the new bridge issue.

BIR: That’s a good way of putting it. It’s become a political bludgeon. Some are using it as a catalyst for wholesale change on the council. Is that fair?

LS: Sure. There are people on the opposite side of me — and I’ll say ‘opposite side,’ in quotes. I would be very happy to create a middle ground solution. I’m not out there clawing tooth and nail to get 100 units on the property.

But it has to pencil out. So we agreed. If there are people who want to replace us on council because of that [voice trails off]. There have to be enough people on the island to do their homework to figure out whether that’s the right choice or not. I’m sorry, that’s just what we get as a democracy.

People need to be paying attention, and if they want to vote me off the council because I’m voting for affordable housing, then so be it.

BIR: Do you think it’s also easy to hitch that on to the other issue — which came up during earlier public comments — that some people have moved here and they just want to pull up the drawbridge on more development?

LS: This is an incredibly important issue. And there are good people on both sides of this issue. But I will agree with you that pulling up the drawbridge is something we need to talk about.

I don’t mean to say that anybody who says anything about our resources, our groundwater or whatever, that they are pulling up the drawbridge. That’s not fair. But if you look at it from a bigger picture perspective, we live in the liberal Pacific Northwest. And Seattle is very liberal. And our state government is very liberal. And we’ve been fighting the Trump administration on immigration.

Let’s just look at immigration. Putting up a wall at the border means we don’t want you people coming in and sucking up our resources, right? So in a huge, big picture humanitarian way, it’s not apples to apples, but it’s worth talking about. Yes, on a small island, we need to be careful about our resources and I believe we are being careful. We have been studying it; there’s always new science. We are doing a groundwater management plan.

And, if we are going to pull up the bridges, we better do so with enough diversity on the island. Because we will not want the result that we get if we have to pull up the bridges without diversity, and diversity writ large; diversity of income, socially, age-wise. We don’t want this to be an island of rich, old people. And that’s the direction we’re sort of headed, in a market-based way. So, I won’t want to be here. Changes are pretty slim for me to be one of the rich, old ones. But I did nail down my little piece of the island at a time when I could, based on a lot of help from the outside world.

BIR: Speaking of difficult decisions, it’s probably been tough to have some of the ethics discussions the council has had.

LS: Those ethics conversations were gritty; it was not fun being in those meetings.

But I think council did really good work in those meetings. And as an example, I think we came up with a really great compromise role for the ethics advisory committee to, for instance, weigh in on and help with the Article 1 [complaints].

My colleagues did a good job and I think we landed in a good place.

BIR: What’s been the biggest eye-opener for you since you’ve been on the council?

LS: What I was a little bit shocked by, is the …

BIR: You’re choosing your words very carefully.

LS: Not trying to be so careful here as I am trying to figure out. Here’s the thing: We get this huge packet of information and we’re supposed to study up on the packet and were supposed to show up at council and make decisions.

There is no way I am making good decisions by doing that. There’s no way; if that packet is the beginning and end of my understanding of the issue. I feel like I’m prepared for an issue when people show up and educate me, or I feel like I’m prepared for an issue when I’ve arranged some sort of a conversation ahead of time. And some of my best senses of preparedness are when I’ve had a chance to talk to another councilmember. And that’s the hardest one; we’re all so damn busy and we’re not allowed to get together [as a group].

People on council don’t really try to lobby each other. And I sort of don’t understand that. Because if I’m trying to lobby someone, I’m expecting them to lobby me. It’s called a conversation.

I just want to go on the record saying, you know, I have really reached out. Across the aisle, so to speak, and I did on Suzuki. For that second phase of the Suzuki decision, I completely did not talk to the people who voted with me. I only talked to people who had voted against it. And tried to come up with something that looked like a compromise.

And failed. But it was worth it.

BIR: Relax building heights in downtown to increase housing density?

LS:I think we should. We’re going to have to take our share of growth; we don’t want it to go out into the rural areas. The more density we get downtown, the more services like transportation, we can get downtown.

So, I don’t think council has any appetite for just doing a wholesale, “sure let’s upzone all these areas or whatever.” I think we’re going to pick a few zones and hopefully encourage inclusionary zoning to happen in those zones, which therefore means, we would be allowing more density.

BIR: RVs for year-round housing?

LS: Oh, boy, this is where I get into trouble. This is where I am going to get on my soapbox a little bit.

The world is changing. My brother is getting ready to move into a van. For him, it’s about freedom. It’s not that he has no resources and all he can do is go live in a van. He has all these bucket-list adventures he’s going to do; this is another one of his adventures.

My point, I guess, we need to rethink what shelter is. Redefine shelter. If we keep upping our standards, upping our standards, upping our standards until no one can afford it anymore, then we have solved one problem — which is we want to make sure that people are safe and cozy, and energy efficient and blah, blah, blah — but maybe we’re leaving other people out as a result.

This is an ongoing conversation. And as long I have colleagues who might go along with me, I’m willing to support some experiments. It seems to me that RVs are already happening. We just have to make them legal. And in legalizing them, we can make it so we can check in every couple of years and see if they are safe enough, insulated enough, whatever, and put some restrictions on them so that they are not offensive to the neighborhood.

BIR: Lightning round. Fireworks. Ban them?

LS: Maybe like the RVs, it’s time we rethink it. I’m OK with it going away.

BIR: Banning plastic straws, non-compostable to-go containers?

LS: I think we need to get away from single-use plastics. We need to do it in a way that’s not too hard for our restaurants and businesses.

Grayson William Wildsmith

BIR: Why are you running?

GWW: I’ve lived on Bainbridge my entire life. I’ve always been a very service-oriented individual. I have a long career of community service in our community and after graduating with a degree in political science, I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to serve a community that I care about; a community that helped shape me into the man I am today. I love Bainbridge Island because of our culture of social justice, care for natural beauty and service to others above self.

This just seems like the right, proper step. And it seems like there’s a lot of things going on in our council currently that could be fixed and could be amended. And I feel like I’m just the man to do the job.

BIR: With what you studied in college, I’m imagining at some point you always thought you’d be running for public office. Or no?

GWW: Not so much. No, I never wanted to be a politician.

BIR: What changed?

GWW: [Laughs.] Whenever people asked me in college what major was I, I’d said political science. And they said, ‘Oh, so you want to be a politician, huh?’ I always said, no. No. I am very much understanding of the effect that government can have on people’s lives and I understand local government is where you can create the most change on everyone’s day-to-day lives. So, being the service-oriented individual I am, I saw this as the opportunity it was. I didn’t see this as a sort of stepping stone to start a career in politics, but more just an opportunity to serve.

BIR: Relatively fresh out of college, then?

GWW: Yeah, I graduated in May.

BIR: How many elections have you voted in?

GWW: I turned 18 in 2015, so every year since then.

BIR: So you made this decision to run for office — what did your parents say?

GWW: They are very much supportive. I announced to my family I decided to run for council when we had my entire extended family together for my graduation celebration in Spokane, when I graduated from Gonzaga. My family has been so supportive of me the entire way, and I’m very grateful for their support.

BIR: What skills or attributes would you bring to the council, if elected?

GWW: One of the things that I believe sets me apart is, I’m giving this full time. I’m a full-time candidate at the moment. I’m giving all of my focus to city council. While other members may have jobs and other priorities and they may put things aside, I can promise all of the voters that I’m coming to every single situation fully prepared. I’m dedicated to every single task or paper that comes across my desk; I’ll read it. And I believe that while some members on council might have agendas here and there, to outside parties they might be beholden to, I am agenda-free. I am here to do the job of representative and represent the interests of the constituents of Bainbridge Island, ethically and responsibly.

BIR: What have you been doing to prepare yourself for a place on the council?

GWW: I’ve been attending council meetings; I’ve been reading all the council documents. I’ve also engaged in a listening tour, where I was sitting down with as many different individuals and groups as I could to hear their perspective; to hear what they would want from a potential representative. Every day I spend my time meeting with others; listening to what they have to say. One of my favorite quotes is a George Washington quote, it’s: ‘Listen, learn, and then lead.’ That’s sort of what I’ve been doing through my campaign here.

I love to just sit down with islanders and hear what they’re passionate about.

BIR: So what are folks passionate about, this election?

GWW: People are talking a lot about Suzuki every day. That seems to be a clear topic of conversation. But there’s plenty of other work that needs to happen around the island, as well. People are eager to see infrastructure improvements. We have a lot of roads on the island that don’t meet minimum safety standards. And I believe that the city could re-evaluate their budgetary spending. For instance, we’re spending a lot of money on these outside advisory groups. That’s $150,000 out the door for a new sustainable transportation plan that isn’t going to tell us a lot of new information we don’t already know.

I believe if our council is cutting down on some of that sort of fluffy spending for outside groups, then we can refocus that spending toward infrastructure improvements around the island.

The three big buzzwords that everyone likes to talk about whenever I meet with them, it’s climate change, affordable housing and transportation. Those are obviously focuses that I want to bring to the council to prioritize.

BIR: Stepping back to Suzuki, how would you have voted?

LS: I would not have voted for it. I think 100 units is far too high of a number. And while my opponent was one of the four that decided to move forward with it, I believe that more deliberation needed to happen. A conversation about something more financially feasible and sustainable.

When we look at the amount of non-motorized transportation spending that the city is doing currently, just the overhead for the Suzuki project… is more than that.

It’s interesting that we spend so much time discussing it and then, four of our councilmembers still came to the wrong decision at the end of the day.

Grayson William Wildsmith

BIR: Why are you running?

This just seems like the right,proper step. And it seems like there’s a lot of things going on in our council currently that could be fixed and could be amended. And I feel like I’m just the man to do the job.

BIR: With what you studied in college, I’m imagining at some point you always thought you’d be running for public office. Or no?

GWW: Not so much. No, I never wanted to be a politician.

BIR: What changed?

GWW: [Laughs.] Whenever people asked me in college what major was I, I’d said political science. And they said, ‘’Oh, so you want to be a politician, huh? I always said, no. No. I am very much understanding of the effect that government can have on people’s lives and I understand local government is where you can create the most change on everyone’s day-to-day lives. So, being the service-oriented individual I am, I saw this as the opportunity it was. I didn’t see this as a sort of stepping stone to start a career in politics, but more just an opportunity to serve.

BIR: Relatively fresh out of college, then?

GWW: Yeah, I graduated in May.

BIR: How many elections have you voted in?

GWW: I turned 18 in 2015, so every year since then.

BIR: So you made this decision to run for office — what did your parents say?

BIR: What skills or attributes would you bring to the council, if elected?

GWW: One of the things that I believe sets me apart is, I’m giving this full time. I’m a full-time candidate at the moment. I’m giving all of my focus to city council. While other members may have jobs and other priorities and they may put things aside, I can promise all of the voters that I’m coming to every single situation fully prepared. Ive dedicated to every single task or paper that comes across my desk, Ill read it. And I believe that while some members on council might have agendas here and there, to outside parties they might be behold to, I am agenda free. I am here to do the job of representative and represent the interests of the constituents of Bainbridge Island, ethically and responsibly.

BIR: What have you been doing to prepare yourself for a place on the council?

I love to just sit down with islanders and hear what they’re passionate about.

BIR: So what are folks passionate about, this election?

GWW: People are talking a lot about Suzuki every day. That seems to be a clear topic of conversation. But there’s plenty of other work that needs to happen around the island, as well. People are eager to see infrastructure improvements. We have a lot of roads on the island that don’t meet minimum safety standards. And I believe that the city could re-evaluate their budgetary spending. For instance, we’re spending a lot of money on these outside advisory groups. Thats $150,000 out the door for a new sustainable transportation plan that isn’t going to tell us a lot of new information we don’t already know. I believe if our council is cutting down on some of that sort of fluffy spending for outside groups, then we can refocus that spending toward infrastructure improvements around the island.

The three big buzzwords that everyone likes to talk about whenever I meet with them it’s climate change, affordable housing and transportation. Those are obviously focuses that I want to bring to the council to prioritize.

BIR: Stepping back to Suzuki, how would you have voted?

GWW: I would not have voted for it. I think 100 units is far too high of a number. And while my opponent was one of the four that decided to move forward with it, I believe that more deliberation needed to happen. A conversation about something more financially feasible and sustainable.

When we look at the amount of non-motorized transportation spending that the city is doing currently, just the overhead for the Suzuki project… is more than that.

It’s interesting that we spend so much time discussing it and then, four of our councilmembers still came to the wrong decision at the end of the day.

BIR: What do you think of the idea of relaxing some of the building heights downtown Winslow to increase the amount of housing?

GWW: I’m a big supporter of the comprehensive plan. The Winslow area being a designated development area for increased density, I would fully support that. I think it’s a good idea and it’s well within our comprehensive plan and I’d like to see more of a focus toward what the comprehensive plan has outlined as our priorities and goals.

BIR: You mentioned on your website that you view yourself as a uniter. Expand on that.

GWW: I’m a team-oriented guy. I’ve always been a member of teams. I feel like I work very well with others. Of all the candidates that are engaged in this race, I can’t say that there’s a single one of them that I haven’t been able to build a rapport with. I think that if I were elected to council I would do a very good job of working well with what Kol Medina called an arranged marriage of seven people.

BIR: What’s transparency mean to you?

GWW: Transparency to me is one of the most important qualities that a public servant can have. It means everything they do is made available to the public, because as I said, they are supposed to be representing them. So the public needs to understand why and what their representatives are doing.

BIR: At one of the forums, one candidate said there is a disconnect between city hall and residents. Do you agree? You’ve been an intern for the city, and you’ve lived here your whole life.

GWW: The average citizen, you know, can’t be bothered with some of this stuff. So obviously there’s some disconnect there. But I think that Bainbridge Island is a very unique community because we have a lot of passionate people on the island. And a lot of different varying opinions. You can put 20 Bainbridge Islanders in a room and there’s 50 different opinions in there.

I think there are some who are disconnected, but that’s because they choose to do so.

There’s quite a lot of people who choose to be very much involved in city government and they make their voices heard.

BIR: If you’re elected, how will you judge whether or not you’ve been a success?

GWW: I want to serve ethically on the council. And for me, ethics means knowing the difference between right and wrong, and doing what is right. At the end of the day, I want to be able to look in the mirror and like the guy I’m looking at.

BIR: What would you be looking for in a new city manager?

GWW: I would want someone who has the experience working with a city like Bainbridge Island. But Bainbridge Island is a very unique community, so that’s a tough find.

I would want a people person for sure, who is able to relate to our staff. Someone who aligns themselves with the same culture we have here. I’d want someone who is more than capable of handling our city staff and thus making the city council members not ever have to involve themselves with city employees…

At times, it seems like there may be some on the council who choose to sort of micromanage city staff. And that’s not what our job should be.

BIR: Lightning round. Ban fireworks. Good idea, bad idea?

GWW: I think it’s a good idea. My dog very much appreciates it.

BIR: Banning plastic straws?

GWW: I’m all for it. It’s detrimental to the environment and would be a good step forward.

BIR: Banning non-compostable food to-go containers?

GWW: That’s something I’d have to look into.

BIR: RVs as permanent, year-round housing?

GWW: I think that’s totally fine. It needs to be on private property, with the permission of the property owner.

BIR: What should be done with the police station downtown after the department moves to Madison Avenue?

GWW: I don’t know. There’s plenty of ideas out there.

BIR: A sale to a developer, or retain in public ownership?

GWW: I’m not making a solid decision that it needs to be sold. Or it could be kept for public ownership. I’m just saying there’s a lot of different possibilities out there for something beneficial to the community.

BIR: You’ve supported a new levy for non-motorized improvements for bikers and walkers. Should funding for the Sound to Olympic Trail be a part of that?

GWW: No. I don’t think so. We have plenty of transportation efforts that need to be completed here on the island first.