City of Renton

There are two dedicated candidates running for Renton City Council, Position 3. Incumbent and current council president Valerie O'Halloran was first elected in 2019. Like many city council members across the state, she found the position challenging but rewarding during the pandemic and is running to continue her work on climate change, community health, and more.

In our interview with O'Halloran, she stated that she first ran to bring climate action plans to the council, which she is proud to have accomplished with a 240-page plan for the city to reduce greenhouse emissions and prepare for potential climate disasters. 

Challenging O'Halloran this year is Erica Conway, who is running to bring her lived experience to city hall. Conway is a supervisor with King County Superior Court's criminal division. In our interview, she said she was motivated to run because she had begun to attend council meetings and felt that the city was not doing enough on affordable housing, gun safety, and more. Conway is serving her second term as elected vice president 2 for the Seattle King County NAACP and also sits on the Renton Police Chief's Community Council. 

While both candidates have spoken about the need for the city to continue addressing homelessness, one difference between their positions is the handling of the shelter opened in the former Red Lion Motel during the pandemic. The shelter was open from April 2020 to June 2022 and housed nearly 200 individuals. O'Halloran stated that she vote to close the facility because of extreme fire safety issues, a lack of safe evacuation for mobility-challenged residents, and a shortage of staff. Conway said that she would not have voted to close the shelter and that it was a shame that the building sits vacant today, while O'Halloran said that the building is uninhabitable from smoke and water damage. 

Moving forward, O'Halloran points to projects like the shelter at the Extended Stay as the way forward on transitional housing, which she says is successful because of a joint partnership with the county. If re-elected, she wants to continue expanding needed shelters that offer wraparound services as well as low-income housing.

Though we appreciate that Conway would bring a new perspective to city hall, her policy proposals weren't convincing enough for us to recommend her over the incumbent. For example, Conway wants to tackle police accountability by introducing children to their local police early in life, which wouldn't go far enough to ensure community safety. In addition, she was unsure about her positions on some critical policies, like how much additional housing the city needs or how the city might bring down the cost of housing.

O'Halloran has made some controversial choices in the past with which we disagree, including an endorsement of conservative King County Council member Reagan Dunn. However, we lean toward O'Halloran because of her track record as a highly engaged and detail-oriented member of the council. 
 

Incumbent Ryan McIrvin is running for re-election to Renton City Council, Position 4. McIrvin, who is serving his second term, works for the University of Washington in government relations. He has been a leader in bringing affordable housing options to East King County, serving on the King County Regional Affordable Housing Task Force and voting in favor of Renton’s five-year affordable housing action plan. Prior to being elected, he served as the vice-chair of the city of Renton's Human Services Advisory Committee. The culmination of McIrvin's experience has resulted in a council member who has been enthusiastic about improving rapid bus transit, making housing more affordable, conservation, and more.

Challenging McIrvin is Sanjeev Yonzon, a civil service commissioner of the Renton Regional Fire Authority, on his second run for Renton City Council. A former civil contractor with the U.S. military in Iraq, Yonzon states that his harrowing journey escaping civil war in Nepal has led him to a life of assisting others. He wants to represent those who are less fluent in English to show that they can improve the community, expand affordable housing, and improve traffic. 

McIrvin is the best choice for Renton City Council, Position 4.  

Ed Prince is running for re-election to Renton City Council, Position 5. Prince is executive director of the WA State Commission on African American Affairs, and is currently serving his third term on the council after a term as council president in 2019. Prince also serves on a multitude of other positions, including as president of the Sound Cities Association, on the board of directors for Sound Transit, and as vice-chair of the Growth Management Policy Board. 

Prince joined fellow councilmembers Carmen Rivera and Ryan McIrvin last year, along with local leaders across the region, in signing an open letter to end the reliance on the endless cycle of prosecution and incarceration, noting that public safety issues stem from long-term causes like lack of educational opportunity, behavioral health crises, and financial inequities. Some of the policies that Prince is proud to have worked on in his time on the council include an ordinance to prevent income discrimination for renters and the healthy housing ordinance. 

Prince's opponent is Marvin Rosete, who serves on the city's Municipal Arts Commission. Rosete is running again for a position on the council after a run in 2021. 

In his previous run, Rosete's campaign priorities, while not detailed, included funding parks, police, and roads. He stated that he would also focus on more responsive human services, but he was shown in the Spokane Spokesman-Review collecting signatures for an initiative to cut taxes on multi-billion-dollar corporations in 2018, the funds of which would have been used to help fund affordable housing programs. 

Rosete's website was recently updated to include campaign priorities, though a large portion of these issues seem to be pointing fingers of blame at Seattle or the state legislature for the city's issues. His Facebook page and campaign announcement say that he will support law enforcement, protect the Cedar River, and be proactive about community engagement, though he has no further policy details available at this time. 

Prince has been a solid council member and is the best choice in this race.  

Kim-Khanh Van is running for re-election to Renton City Council, Position 7, where she has served since 2020. After her family escaped Vietnam as refugees and settled in King County, she went on to earn her law degree and become an attorney. Van is now an active member of the community, volunteering with groups that serve veterans, protect the local environment, and provide legal aid to immigrants. She also is a board member of the PTA at Kennydale, where her child attends school, and is the co-founder of AAPI Against Hate.

Van has been a relatively progressive voice during her time on the city council. She supported allocating pandemic funding to homeownership programs, human services, and small businesses. She also advocated testing for toxic "forever chemicals" in our water systems and denounced the construction of an asphalt plant on the Cedar River. She was also one of only two members of the Renton City Council who voted to maintain the Red Lion Hotel as a source of housing for residents experiencing homelessness.

Van has been an outspoken advocate for immigrants and communities of color and has earned impressive support from our partners in this race. 

Former Renton City Council member and Boeing engineer Randy Corman is challenging Kim-Khanh Van for Position 7. Corman retired from the council in 2021 after 24 years in office. Corman's platform has a few progressive goals, like building more affordable housing for people with middle incomes, supporting sustainable development, and expanding public transportation.

However, he also has concerning stances on some of the top issues affecting Renton today. Corman blames crime on the commonsense police accountability laws, despite evidence they make our community safer. He supports criminalizing homelessness and addiction in Renton rather than supporting proven solutions to our community's challenges. 

Kim-Khanh Van's strong endorsements and more progressive platform make her the clear choice for Renton City Council, Position 7.