By Ruth Longoria

Local businesswoman Brenda Finkenbinder has declared her candidacy for a seat on the City Council.

Finkenbinder, who owns a Seattle pressure-washing business with her husband Mike, is running for position 6, which will be an open seat in the November elections since Mayor Alan Merkle announced last month he won’t run for re-election.

To date, no one has come forward to run against council members Dan Grausz for position 2 or Jim Pearman for position 4. Both Grausz and Pearman announced their candidacies within the last two weeks.

Islander Mike Grady, a senior policy analyst with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, announced his bid for Merkle’s seat earlier this month. Finkenbinder said she isn’t afraid of a little competition.

“I guess we’ll start the race then,” she said.

Running on a platform to provide a voice for the people, Finkenbinder has the motto: “Strategic choices require citizen voices.” And, though she thinks current councilmembers try to listen to their constituents, she doesn’t think the council hears or communicates all that well, especially when it comes to the issue that, she said, sparked her interest in becoming part of the Island’s voice: Interstate 90.

“I attended the Town Hall meeting and read everything I could on the topic, and still couldn’t get a sense how the actions taken by the council would benefit the citizens,” she said. “I don’t know that there’s a clear message on where we are going. I would like to make sure that what the citizens recommend is followed and that Mercer Island fully participates in what happens with I-90.”

Sound Transit is moving too fast, she said. “Sound Transit is moving forward without a clear plan on how it will affect us. We need to be able to get on and off the Island. Traffic is significant on the Island and I-90 is one issue that needs ongoing attention.”

Island green spaces also are an important issue, she said. “I think we need to monitor green spaces carefully as our population grows. We have wonderful resources in our parks and green spaces, we don’t want that to go away.”

She also hopes to be a voice for social issues. As a board member for Mercer Island Youth and Family Services, Finkenbinder said she sees positive ways to impact all segments of the population. “The Thrift Shop is a fine example of community involvement and how volunteers can work together and provide services for the Island’s youth and the elderly.”

She’s not ready to take a stand on issues relating to the city’s involvement with the Boys & Girls Club. “I don’t have school-age children (now), so I’m not ready to comment on the Boys & Girls Club situation, but I’ll look into it,” she said.

But, she has opinions on both sides of issues concerning downtown development. “The Town Center can be very exciting,” she said. “But there’s concern — and rightly so — over traffic and the impact new development will have on existing businesses. I guess the best case scenario is that there will be more services on the Island and we’ll have a vibrant downtown.”

She’s in favor of the mixed-use aspect of projects in the Town Center. “I think having apartments and businesses together makes sense. It creates a nice sense of community for the downtown and gets people watching out for the Town Center resources,” she said.

Finkenbinder and her husband moved to the Island three years ago from Mukilteo. They had lived in downtown Seattle for a year when they first moved to the Northwest in 1999. Prior to that, Mike Finkenbinder worked with his father for many years farming in Minnesota. When his dad retired, the couple decided it was time for a career change. So, from growing sugar beets, greens and edible beans, they moved on to owning their own Seattle business, Puget Sound Mobile Wash, a pressure washing service for commercial fleets of vehicles.

Finkenbinder was born in 1957 in Grand Forks, N.D. She later moved with her parents and three younger brothers to Grand Forks, Minn., where she graduated from East Grand Forks High School in 1976. Her parents encouraged her to become involved in the community and take on leadership roles, she explained. While in high school, she was involved in student government and president of her junior and senior classes. She wrote for the school newspaper, was a cheerleader and even played Dorothy in the school’s production of “The Wizard of Oz.”

After high school, she married Mike Finkenbinder. They have two daughters, Allison, now 28, a registered nurse in Denver, Colo., and Jordan Stow, now 25. Stow and her husband Jared have a 2-year-old daughter, Claudia.

“Having children brings you into community involvement,” Finkenbinder said. “When they go to church, you teach Sunday school, when they go to school, you do what you can to improve things.”

While her children were in elementary school, in Crookston Minn., she served as president of the PTA. She also taught piano and later owned her own consulting business, Concept Resolutions, which worked with school districts testing electronic curriculum for teachers.

Finkenbinder returned to school in the 1980s and earned a bachelor’s degree in business education. She earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Dakota in 1992. Now, in addition to working as finance officer for the family business, Finkenbinder is president-elect of the Rotary Club in the University District in Seattle and is involved with her church, Mercer Island Presbyterian Church.