To the editor:

For the past three years I, along with my fellow members on the Planning Commission, have devoted untold hours to ensure the new comprehensive plan provides coherent guidelines to preserve the special character of our island.

During the next four years the council will codify the comprehensive plan into development laws. The present laws are ambiguous, and allow for some development that is ordinary and results in the slow and steady deterioration of our community. This task will test the convictions and strength of every member of our council.

Rasham as a women and young mother understands that change and growth are inevitable, but she believes that this growth must be directed to protect Bainbridge’s unique qualities. She wants her children to experience its wonders. If you value the protections in the comprehensive plan, please join me in voting for Rasham.

Rasham Nassar is young, strong, and smart, she brings a new set of ideals to the decision-making process. Her values are rooted in the future, and not in the past. There are new ways to approach our transportation infrastructure, housing affordability, and natural resource retention and management. In her campaign, Rasham has already introduced interesting and solid solutions. Past councils though good intentioned, have often wasted money on studies that have provided no answers.

Going forward, we need a diverse council made up of men and women, old and young who are willing to work together to make rational, fiscally prudent, and environmentally sound decisions with an eye to the future. I believe that Rasham has these qualities and that is why I support Rasham Nassar’s candidacy in the Central Ward.

MACK PEARL

Bainbridge Island