New year, new faces on City Council
Published 11:43 am Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Bruce Bassett, Debbie Bertlin, Dave Wisenteiner and Wendy Weiker were sworn in to their City Council seats on Jan. 4, and will serve until December 2019.
Bassett and Bertlin, incumbents who were re-elected to the Council in the November general election, were chosen from among the councilmembers to serve as mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, for a two year term. Bertlin is the first female deputy mayor in at least 20 years.
Bassett was elected to the Council in 2007 and became mayor in 2012. Longtime councilmember Dan Grausz, first elected in 1999, had previously served as deputy mayor.
Jeff Sanderson, who ran essentially unopposed in November, was sworn in on Dec. 7 to fill vacant position and will serve until December 2017.
Wisenteiner lives on First Hill with his wife and son, along with Greta the Rottweiler and Lilac the cat. His background is in business strategy and leadership, and he works at Microsoft, managing “a portion of the global strategy, which takes him to every corner of the world and helps him see what some of the most unique and innovative communities in the world are doing with their own challenges,” according to the city website.
Weiker served on the Mercer Island Utility Board for five years, was a member of the Town Center Visioning Group and has been active in the PTAs at Island Park Elementary, Islander Middle School and Mercer Island High School. She works at Puget Sound Energy, holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the UW Evans School of Public Policy and recently completed the two-year Leadership Eastside program. She and her husband, Aric, have lived on the Island for more than 10 years and have two teenagers attending Mercer Island High School.
