Schneider embodies respect, collaboration | Letter to the editor

Published 10:30 am Tuesday, October 29, 2019

To the editor:

Leslie Schneider (Central Ward city councilmember) is authentic, engaged, and informed. I encourage you to vote for her. Let’s continue the constructive leadership she has embodied from the minute she was selected by the council to fill Mike Scott’s unexpired term.

As I have experienced and observed, Leslie is unusually skilled at listening to the thoughts we bring to her. For her, this is an active and respectful process. She listens for facts, opinions, and how we feel about them. She asks clarifying questions to be sure she understands what we intend.

Leslie also works hard to identify additional information and partners needed to get to best actions. For example, she just participated in the international EcoCity Summit in Vancouver, B.C. with worldwide scientists and policy leaders on the most effective actions to make our cities’ ecological footprints sustainable and improve livability. She engaged some with particularly relevant skills for Bainbridge.

But it doesn’t stop there. She also shares her own knowledge, questions, and experiences in the process. She collaborates to identify actions she and her conversational partners can take to achieve desired outcomes. The same is true for everyone: including citizens she represents, fellow councilmembers, and staff. And she takes action!

For example, Leslie is leading council on the current Sustainable Transportation Initiative — acting on our community’s sense of urgency to reduce our 60 percent carbon impact on climate from transportation, while retaining our natural surroundings. This initiative builds on the city’s impressive (though unheralded) success being awarded a series of extremely competitive multi-modal transportation grants — such as those which have produced the nearly completed Olympic Drive project. But, it moves us to the next level, through broader community engagement.

Please join me in voting for Leslie Schneider!

DON WILLOTT

Bainbridge Island