Island native Salim Nice announced his candidacy for Dan Grausz’s vacating seat on the Mercer Island City Council this week.

“The Island is wrestling with such complex issues including I-90, residential code development, a stretched budget and an aging infrastructure. I couldn’t sit by and not be part of the solution,” Nice said in a statement.

As the CTO and managing partner of one of the largest tax advisory firms in the U.S., Nice’s skill set focuses on critical analysis, complex negotiations and multi-dimensional budget management, making him uniquely qualified to help with some of the problems the Island will be grappling with over the next five to 10 years, according to a press release.

“Raising a young family on Mercer Island has given me a much different perspective on how fragile our future is compared with my relatively carefree life growing up here.” Nice stated. “I recognize that we need to take some immediate action in order to ensure that property values are maintained, citizen safety is addressed and the impacts from Sound Transit are well managed.”

Nice’s bid is supported by some of the most well-known Mercer Island City Council members. Nice ran for a council seat in 2015 against Wendy Weiker.

“Salim will be an outstanding addition to the City Council with his depth of knowledge and excellent analytical skill set. I want to see him fill my seat on the council because we need more people that can really dig in to the complexity of the issues that the city is facing. Salim has my full support,” Grausz said in a statement.

Former Councilmember Mike Cero said Nice “will be an outstanding addition to the Mercer Island City Council.”

“His ability to deeply understand the facts and make a genuinely balanced judgment about issues that are often different than they appear at face value is a rare and remarkable skill. I really want to encourage people to support Salim as he is one of the few candidates that will make a genuine difference over the next several years,” Cero stated.

Current Councilmember Dave Wisenteiner stated that Nice helped him “understand the nuances of issues in Town Center, with Sound Transit and residential code that I might have missed otherwise.”

“I can’t say enough about how well-informed Salim has been on a myriad of issues facing the city,” Wisenteiner stated. “I think what we have is a citizen that deeply wants to contribute to the community and has the skill set to make a big difference with some of our critical outcomes. I’m joined by others on the council that echo my sentiments. We all feel he would make a significant positive impact.”

For more, see www.votenice.com.