The 2007 Civic Awards held on April 26th 2007 was a big success! The sold out event honored local leaders and civic minded citizens at The Space Needle in downtown Seattle. We congratulate our 2007 Civic Award Winners, and thank them for their wonderful acceptance speeches that made the evening so special.

2007 Civic Award Winners

• Walt Crowley, Citizen of the Year

  Walt has been a long time civic activist and gadfly. Beginning with his anti-war protests while a University student, he has continued to make his voice heard on a huge variety of issues important to citizens in our region. According to a recent Times article, he has “been a newspaperman, a television-news commentator, a speech writer for former Governor Mike Lowry, and a policy planner for the City of Seattle.” He was also policy director for the Municipal League for a time in the 80’s. He has written a many on local institutions, including the Rainier Club, the Blue Moon Tavern, the state Department of Transportation, and Seattle University. Most notably, in 1998 he co-founded HistoryLink.org, with his wife and Paul Dorpat, and has been its Executive Director since that time. This online encyclopedia of Washington History has approximately 4500 essays written by staff, contributing writers and volunteers, and has gotten many students and other individuals interested in local history.

• Fred Jarrett, Public Official of the Year

  Fred Jarrett is currently the state reprentative for the 41st District of Washington representing Mercer Island, Factoria, Newcastle, Newport Hills, and parts of Bellevue, Issaquah, and Renton. In his third term, he is recognized as a legislator that is willing to cross party lines to find real solutions to our regions problems. In the 1980’s, Mr. Jarrett was the president of the Suburban Cities of King County and Mayor of Mercer Island. He has also been a member of the Mercer Island City Council, and chaired the Metro Transit Committee as well as the Joint Regional Planning Committee. In 1999, he became the Director of the Mercer Island School Board before joining the state legislature. In the legislature he has been a leader on issues in transportation and education. He is the Ranking Minority Member of the House Transportation Committee, and on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education.

• William Ruckelshaus, Warren G. Magnuson Award

  William D. Ruckelshaus is currently a Strategic Director in the Madrona Venture Group, formed in 1999 and a principal in Madrona Investment Group, L.L.C. (MIG), a Seattle based investment company, formed in 1996. He was Chairman/CEO of Browning-Ferris Industries from 1988 to 1995 and Chairman from 1995 to 1999. With a well respected career in Indianapolis, IN in law the President appointed him for the years 1969 and 1970 as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division for the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Ruckelshaus became the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s first Administrator when the agency was formed in December 1970, where he served until April 1973. In April 1973 he was appointed acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and in the same year was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice.

  
  From 1974 through 1976, Mr. Ruckelshaus was a senior partner in the Washington, DC law firm of Ruckelshaus Beveridge & Fairbanks. He joined Weyerhaeuser Company in Tacoma, Washington as Senior Vice President for Law and Corporate Affairs from 1976 to 1983 and was responsible for policy setting and coordination of the company’s key external relationships and its legal service functions. In 1983, Mr. Ruckelshaus was appointed by President Reagan as the fifth EPA Administrator until 1985. He served until joining Perkins Coie in 1985, a Seattle based law firm. In the late eighties, he served on the World Commission on Environment and Development set up by the United Nations. From July 1997 to July 1998, President Clinton appointed him as the U.S. envoy in the implementing of the Pacific Salmon Treaty and in 1999 he was appointed by Governor Gary Locke and currently serving as the Chairman of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for the State of Washington and appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire as Chairman of Puget Sound Cleanup. In 2004 he was appointed Chairman of the UW and WSU Policy Consensus Center and is former Chairman, Board member of World Resources Institute in D.C, Chair of the Seattle Aquarium Society and serves on the Board of numerous other nonprofit organizations. On June, 2001, he was appointed by President Bush as a member of the Commission on Ocean Policy which was created by Congress in 2000. On August, 2003, he was appointed to serve on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Science Advisory Board. In December, 2005, he was appointed by Governor Gregoire to co-chair the Puget Sound Partnership to organize the cleanup of Puget Sound.

• Randy Revelle, James R. Ellis Regional Leadership Award

  Randy Revelle has a distinguished career as an association executive, a leader of health-care reform, an elected official, and a citizen volunteer. As Senior Vice President for Policy and Public Affairs, Randy manages policy development and government affairs for the 97 hospital members of the Washington State Hospital Association. From 1990 to 1995, he was a leader of comprehensive and pioneer-ing health-care reform in Washington State. From 1981 to 1985, Randy served as the elected executive of King County – one of the largest counties in the nation. From 1974 to 1981, he served two terms as a Seattle City Councilman. Randy is a knowledgeable and outspoken advocate on behalf of people living with a mental illness. Since 1981, he has told his personal story of recovery from mental illness to thousands of people in Washington State. Last year, he told his compelling story to four national audiences, including a conference sponsored in Rhode Island by Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

• John Okamoto, Public Employee of the Year

  John Okamoto joined the Port's executive staff as chief administrative officer in January 2003. Okamoto oversees key administrative departments including Public Affairs, Government Relations, Economic and Trade Development, Regional Transportation, Human Resources, Labor Relations and Facilities. He is active in community and public service organizations including the Seattle Aquarium Society, Japan America Society, Trade Development Alliance, enterpriseSeattle, Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau, Nikkei Concerns, American Public Works Association, the Intelligent Transportation Society of Washington, and Mountains to Sound Greenway. John has made great strides in improving the transparency and accountability of the Port of Seattle since he joined them in 2003, through better public outreach, public information, and more public involvement in decision-making. He has also been a tireless advocate for women and people of color, and has mentored and supported many people into leadership roles in civic life. As a public administrator, John has a track record of bringing innovation, professionalism, and accountability to each position he has held.

• Asian Counseling and Referral Service, Organization of the Year

  With offices in Seattle and Bellevue, Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) is a nationally recognized non-profit organization offering a broad array of human services and behavioral health programs to Asian Pacific Americans in King County. ACRS is the largest multi-service organization serving all the different Asian Pacific American communities - immigrants, refugees and American born - in the Pacific Northwest. ACRS offers the largest Naturalization Services Program in Washington State. The program helps immigrants and refugees become active U.S. citizens by providing high quality classes at convenient locations within King County.

• Erica C Barnett, Government News Reporting of the Year

  Erica C. Barnett is the senior news writer for Seattle’s alternative newsweekly, the Stranger, where she covers City Hall and transportation, writes a weekly politics column, and serves on the paper’s editorial board. Before she came to the Stranger in 2003, Barnett was a staff writer for Seattle Weekly, where she covered transportation, housing and city politics. She also has a blog: www.ericacbarnett.com. She moved to Seattle in 2001 from Austin, Texas, where she was a senior news editor and columnist for the weekly Austin Chronicle. She has also written for the Texas Observer, Dallas Observer, and the Oklahoma Gazette, among others. A native of Houston, Texas, Barnett graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. Her weekly coverage of local government issues helps to keep a pulse on city issues, and her writing style engages a wide audience into the topic and discussion.

• George Cheung, Doug Mason Memorial Award

  George Cheung is Founder and CEO of Lopez & Cheung, Inc., a public affairs consulting firm specializing in research, demography and civic engagement. George involvement in community service includes serving as a founding board member and first interim executive director of Equal Rights Washington, which played a critical role in passing an anti-discrimination bill inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity. He is also active in immigrant and refugee advocacy in coordinating From Hate to Hope, a network formed to defeat anti-immigrant ballot measures. Further, he spearheaded a pilot project in King County for APIAVote that sought to increase voter participation amongst low-propensity voters in the Asian Pacific Islander community. In both his professional and volunteer life, he has been dedicated to the empowerment of disenfranchised people in our community.

• Kathy Elias, Mary Skelton Memorial Volunteer Award

  Former board member and long-term volunteer, Kathy Elias has chaired the Ballot Issues Committee for the League. For each election, she leads the committee through a process of considering which of the items appearing on the ballot warrant attention by the Municipal League. Once the Trustees have selected the issues to be considered, Kathy secures speakers from all sides to meet with the committee, guides discussion of possible recommendations, and often accepts responsibility for drafting the position document for transmission to the board. Her persistence and care provide a firm foundation for the League's deservedly high reputation as a source of unbiased advice. Her skillful leadership makes it possible for the committee to navigate through some of the most complicated political questions with a spirit of exploration and respect. Kathy Elias executes her volunteer role in the highest tradition of civic responsibility which has characterized the Municipal League since its earliest days at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

2007 Civic Scholar Information

After reviewing more than 50 highly qualified applicants, the 2006 Civic Scholar has been chosen. This year's winner is Thuc-Chi Thi Nguyen, a senior at Evergreen High School in Seattle. Please join us at the Civic Awards event to congratulate her on her award! For more information contact civicawards@munileague.org

2007 Civic Award Sponsors

The Civic Awards depends on individual and corporate sponsorship. We would like to thank the following businesses for their sponsorship of our awards.