The Mercer Island Rotary hosted the first of three forums ahead of the November election to a full audience. The event featured candidates for both City Council and School Board, with three contested and three uncontested positions. All candidates voiced support for Proposition 1 and the February school levy renewal. Each candidate had seven minutes total time for self introduction and answering questions from the facilitator and audience.

City Council Position 6: Lisa Anderl (incumbent) vs. Johana Beresky

Lisa Anderl, a seven-year councilmember, highlighted her accomplishments in creating park and open-space zoning, strengthening police and fire response, and maintaining balanced budgets. Her priorities will remain in public safety, parks, infrastructure, and fiscal discipline.

Challenger Johana Beresky, a resident since 2009, has a background in operations management and extensive community services. Her priorities are public safety, parks, fiscal responsibility, compliance with state housing mandates while addressing the island’s environmental and geographic limits, closing budget gaps in Youth and Family Services, and meeting climate goals.

Density: Anderl supports limiting growth to Town Center near transit, warning higher “density creates pressures on water and sewer systems, on our emergency responders.”

Emergency response: Beresky called for the need for a “central location” to house emergency supplies and equipment — “they need a place in order to have the appropriate response” in an emergency.

City Council Position 7: Julie Hsieh vs. Adam Ragheb

Julie Hsieh, a family physician, gallery owner, and longtime volunteer in Rotary, the Mercer Island Schools Foundation (MISF), the Mercer Island Farmers Market and the Fine Arts Advisory. She highlighted her endorsements from former mayors, city council members, planning commissioners and residents. Her priorities are public safety, emergency readiness, supporting middle housing in Town Center, funding Youth and Family Services, attracting young families and seniors who are downsizing.

Adam Ragheb, a senior systems engineer with a PhD in aerospace engineering, is a former city planning commissioner who highlighted his precision in data analysis and found two code errors that could have allowed island-wide shelters and residential developments without parking. His priorities are protecting single-family neighborhoods, public safety, converting post-COVID ordinances into permanent code, resolving Futurewise lawsuits, and “keep city council boring.”

Density and infrastructure: Hsieh called density a “one-size-fits-all state mandate” and emphasized collaborating with legislators, Futurewise, and King County Council to “come up with a solution that our community can stand behind.” Ragheb opposed duplex/fourplex expansion, favoring current compliance and design standards, stating, “we do not have to loosen them and open the door.”

Uncontested City Council Positions 2 and 4

Daniel Becker, appointed in June 2025, is a lifelong Islander and a business owner with 150 employees. His priorities are “excellent public services, strong public safety, and a lower political temperature.”

Ted Weinberg, a 44-year resident and four-year councilmember, highlighted his work updating the comprehensive plan, adopting the first Climate Action Plan (2023), revitalizing parks, passing e-motorcycle rules, and modernizing utility infrastructure. His priorities are public safety, park protection, affordable-housing compliance, and supporting local businesses.

ICE and officer recruitment: Weinberg stressed a “very competitive market for experienced police officers” and said Mercer Island has not lost officers and remains attractive due to community safety. He also emphasized that “immigration enforcement belongs to the federal government” and MIPD is not “authorized to do it.”

Police working in trailers: Weinberg said City Hall (built 1957) contained asbestos sealed in floor tiles and when a tile broke and asbestos spread through HVAC, it forced closure in 2023, “so that’s how we got here,” he said.

School Board Position 4: Stephanie Burnett vs. Robert O’Callahan

Stephanie Burnett, an MIHS 1998 alumna with a background in systems engineering and aviation law, is skilled in complex negotiations, and has one child in college, one at IMS, and one at Hamlin Robinson. She’s a former PTA president at Lakeridge Elementary and IMS. Her priorities are restoring trust and civility, strengthening student safety protocols, maintaining fiscal stability, expanding dyslexia and special-ed services, re-evaluating curriculum and screen-time use.

Robert O’Callahan is an AI engineer, startup CTO, after-school enrichment teacher and tutor for his kids, with two children in Island Park Elementary. He’s multilingual and engages immigrant families. His priorities are improving student safety, strengthening math instruction with hands-on book-based learning over screens, enhancing fiscal transparency, prioritizing students facing staff and services, and rebuilding community trust to boost enrollment.

Levy: Burnett and O’Callahan both support the levy. Burnett stressed, “we can’t really be Mercer Island without that levy in our school.”

Superintendent accountability in light of sexual abuse allegations: O’Callahan said he called for the resignation of those responsible for the settlement agreement of the alleged abuser at the board meeting, then added he “might be willing to soften the tone if the independent investigation from a trusted law firm concurred that the superintendent was acting correctly.”

Who should handle sexual-assault allegations: O’Callahan said an independent law firm should handle it, “but I think that we need to make sure that they are acting responsibly with, and towards having transparency where it doesn’t violate victim privacy and have parents consent and knowledge of events.”

Screen addiction and mental health: O’Callahan shared, “Everyone who has a kid in the COVID Zoom-kindergarten cohort is very keenly aware of it, and I would want to limit screen time in school as much as possible.”

School Board Position 2: Julian Bradley (uncontested)

Julian Bradley, a 10-year resident, a U.S. Navy veteran with a career in finance, and with extensive volunteer experience, is a former Island Park PTA president and later PTA Council President. He highlighted his accomplishments in cellphone policy, the dyslexia pilot program, and e-bike safety. His priorities are fiscal responsibility, passing the levy to support music and advanced programs while partnering with MISF, academic rigor, hosting the SAT, transparency, and stronger parent partnerships to hold students accountable.