Interview by Ted Katauskas

In your senior year playing football at the University of Washington in 1988, your Husky teammates voted you the most inspirational walk-on player.
I have that award on my desk. I’m looking at it right now in my office.

What else is on your desk?
A book called The Thursday Speeches by Peter Tormey, a former player for [College Football Hall of Fame coach] Don James. I have had the tremendous good fortune to have great mentors, and playing under Don James was a life-changing experience. It taught me a great deal about leadership.

And the book?
The reason they called it The Thursday Speeches is because Don did something as coach that was unique at the time. On Thursday, 48 hours before the game, he would start us envisioning success on Saturday with a speech in the locker room. It was kind of groundbreaking, inspirational.

After graduating from UW and earning a law degree from Gonzaga, you interned at the George H.W. Bush White House.
One thing led to another, and I’m literally sitting in the office of the vice president—my desk was between the chief of staff and Dan Quayle himself. It was amazing.

What did you learn there?
How important it was to pay attention to details. I spent a lot of time with the speechwriters, and that really made me think a great deal about: how do you message leadership, and how do you stay true to your ideals, but also make sure that you’re really reaching out to folks in a meaningful way?

Being an executive leader is trying to see around corners and trying to predict the future a bit. But it's also about making a future and doing so in a manner that brings people together.

From the White House, you started your career as a prosecutor for the City of Renton, which led to a job at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
I worked for the legendary Norm Maleng for nine years, from 1998 until his passing in 2007. Norm was a great leader. He understood that as a prosecutor, most of your power doesn’t come from just throwing people in prison for as long as possible. Sometimes the greatest power is reflected in the mercy that you show.

In 2003, you won a seat on Federal Way’s city council, and a decade later you left the county prosecutor’s office when you were elected mayor, then re-elected in 2017. What have been your signature accomplishments?
When I became mayor, we moved really fast—what I referred to as “hair on fire”—because the city had been in sort of a stasis for quite some time. My whole focus was on economic development and creating a true downtown core. In 2014, we created Town Square Park, on four acres that had been an old movie theater. And in 2017, we built a beautiful performing arts center. We were making some pretty good moves financially for the city, and then Covid hit.

How did that shift the city’s priorities?
I was very concerned about the wholesale collapse of the business community, especially the mom-and-pop operations, the smaller restaurants. We were able to get CARES Act dollars and deploy $4.4 million in funding. We also set aside money for rent protection and tens of thousands of dollars for our local food bank to address food insecurity.

What’s something you’ve learned about leadership during this crisis?
Being an executive leader is trying to see around corners and trying to predict the future a bit. But it’s also about making a future and doing so in a manner that brings people together.

Like the way Federal Way responded to Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
We had hundreds of people peacefully demonstrating for weeks, and on June 19 we had over 100 as we raised the Juneteenth Flag over city hall.

In January, Federal Way issued a proclamation declaring solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, inspired by one of the quarterly meetings you’ve been hosting with the local African American community.
It’s been a great opportunity to meet with our neighbors and our friends and talk about ways we can recognize the historic injustices and address ways in which we can come together. I believe the way forward is with as much unity as possible, but also with as much honesty as possible. I call it the courtesy of candor. People can tell when you’re not being sincere.

What’s your top priority if voters give you a third term later this year?
To redevelop the former Target property that the city has acquired in our Town Center into a mixed-use development, because soon we’ll have light rail coming right into our downtown—and that’ll be transformative. The next term is really about making sure that we come out of Covid stronger.