Candidate forum in Lake Forest Park with nine candidates for city council

Nine candidates for LFP city council participated in the candidate forum on October 7, 2025
Photo by Mike Remarcke

By Mike Remarcke

The League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County presented a public forum featuring candidates for the Lake Forest Park City Council on Tuesday October 7, 2025.

Each candidate appearing on the November 2025 ballot attended the event. In addition to the regularly scheduled election for positions 1,3,5, and 7, candidates for Position 2 will also be on the ballot because of the untimely passing of Deputy Mayor Lorri Bodi. The successful candidate will fulfill the remainder of Ms. Bodi’s term on the City Council.

The event was held at the Third Place Commons in the LFP Town Center and was sponsored and moderated by the League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County.

Below are the candidates for each position along with their web site explaining their views on a variety of issues important to the city of Lake Forest Park.

Council Position No. 1

• Semra Riddle
• Bryce James

Council Position No. 2

• Fred Grant
• Matt Muilenburg

Council Position No. 3

• Josh Rosenau
• Jon Lebo

Council Position No. 5

• Reid Olsen 
• Tracy Furutani

Council Position No. 7

• Larry Goldman

In addition to the nine candidates at the forum, there is a write-in candidate for Position 2, Ashton McCartney. She currently sits on the council as the interim filling in the unexpired term of Lorri Bodi until the November election. The League of Women Voters excluded her from their candidate forum. Her campaign page is here.

The event started with a one minute opening statement, then on to pre-set questions followed by questions from the audience, once again with one minute responses.

The first question had to do with the city budget, how it comes about and who is involved. Most of the candidates say they have had experience with budgets, from small nonprofits to large operations like Sound Transit. Jon Lebo, the chair of the council Budget & Finance Committee has experience with budgeting at several large organizations and has led the process in LFP. Bryce James feels the budget lacks a process where citizens participate. Others discussed how budgeting represents the values of the community.

The next question had to do with how the city interacts with the larger community and the state to improve LFP's sense of community. Most candidates felt it was in the best interests of LFP to step out and be involved in larger issues. Several members of the council today sit on boards for a variety of operations in the region and at the state level.

A citizen’s question asked about housing density and candidates' thoughts were all over the place on this, but there was not enough time to fully discuss the issue. There were thoughts on building affordable housing, ADU’s, condos and apartments in the Town Center area. 

Another issue is tree cover and how to keep it. It is a very complex issue, with those who want to keep LFP as it is and those who see that some change has to occur, both by law and attitude. An example of the complexity are seniors who would like to downsize yet stay in LFP. Today that is not easy to accomplish.

The above goes hand in hand with the next questions, “what policies are needed for low income and working class housing and opportunity?” This is also a very tough question to answer. Most homes are over a $1 million, so creating low income housing is difficult. Matt Muilenburg thought more transportation services were needed to bus folks in to work; and more stores paying living wages was suggested by Semra Riddle. James thought that large apartment complexes would completely change LFP. Josh Rosenau would like to have a community his kids could afford to buy into. Creating low income housing in LFP will be an uphill economic battle.

There was a question on support of Prop 1. The property tax increase for public safety is on the ballot this year and citizens want to know how the candidates stand on this issue. Most were for the increase and felt this is needed for keeping the city safer. Reid Olsen, Bryce James, and Jon Lebo were against for a variety of reasons, mostly that reserves can cover the costs.

What should the city do for climate change? Views ranged from home improvements by citizens, to reducing traffic and speaking with citizens. The city has a climate plan and is working with neighboring towns and has plans to hire a climate manager to ensure climate issues are a priority for the city. Muilenburg felt we were being overwhelmed by mosquitoes and action needs to take place to alleviate the issue.

Another issue the city has dealt with over the past few years is the disagreements with Sound Transit, particularly with the widening of Bothell Way. Several incumbents voiced their opposition, but the fight is over and Sound Transit won. Now all they can do is mitigate on key issues the best they can. The city negotiated a change in the plan where homeowners were allowed five more feet in their side yards, a victory. A couple of candidates had issues, but the debate is over, Sound Transit has the power to override and the changes will happen for the future public transportation needs of the region.

The final question, what is your vision of the future of LFP. This was interestingly very much the answer across the board: They would like it to be much like it is today. They saw more parks, more bike lanes, more children playing in safe streets and neighborhoods with garage coffee shops!

There were many areas of concern covered in this gathering. As a reporter, it was difficult to keep up with so many questions thrown at nine candidates who did their best to cover the topic in the time allowed. We have included the web page of each candidate that spells out more completely their thoughts and ideas and why they are running for the LFP city council.