On Friday, May 8, 14-year Island resident Kol Medina issued a news release announcing his candidacy for the Bainbridge Island North Ward Council seat to be vacated by Mayor Anne Blair at the conclusion of her term of office in December of this year.
In his announcement, Medina praised the outgoing Blair: “Bainbridge Island needs strong and thoughtful leaders who come to the table with ideas, flexible thinking, and appropriate experience. I believe Anne Blair brought these qualities to the position, along with a strong commitment to maintaining a non-divisive City Council. I look forward to following her example.”
Medina is the Executive Director of the Kitsap Community Foundation. Before that for nearly nine years he was ED of the West Sound Wildlife Shelter. He has also served on the boards of directors of One Call for All; Community Energy Solutions; Health, Housing, and Human Services Council; Great Peninsula Conservancy; and Association of Bainbridge Communities (ABC). He has continued to maintain the Nonprofit Law Group, a sole-proprietor law firm focused on working with nonprofit organizations.
Medina said he and his wife Elsa Watson chose to live on Bainbridge because of its environmental values, community spirit, and quality of life. Medina said, “Rather than moving to my wife’s hometown of West Seattle, we chose Bainbridge because of the Island’s amazing natural environment and strong sense of community identity and involvement. This place is phenomenal, and I see my job on City Council as protecting and improving it.”
Medina described serving on the City Council as a natural extension of his ongoing service to the nonprofit sector: “Eleven years ago I chose to give up a big Seattle law firm salary to follow my passion of serving my community by growing the West Sound Wildlife Shelter. Aside from my three years at the law firm, I have focused all of my adult life on strengthening my community by strengthening our nonprofit sector. I am a community servant, pure and simple.”
He described the skills developed during his nonprofit service: “I truly have a proven track record of working collectively with people to find common ground and solutions that are often innovative and unexpected.” He added, “I think those skills translate perfectly to service on the City Council of a small city.”
He has also honed knowledge and experience in land use and environmental law and policy, through his undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and his studies at Stanford Law School and employment at Foster Pepper. Medina wrote that he believes his background will serve the City particularly well during the next four years when the City Council “will need to approve a new comprehensive plan and a water plan, possibly revisit the shoreline master plan, find innovative ways to improve non-motorized transportation, and amend our current land-use code so that development on the Island does a better job of meeting the needs and desires of our citizens.” He said, “I have studied and worked with environmental planning, hydrogeology, land use planning, and the host of local and state laws in this area. That knowledge and experience will allow me to serve the City well.”
Medina also referred to “the connections and relationships” built during his service at KCF. He said current and past Council members see his connection to the rest of Kitsap County as potentially “very beneficial for Bainbridge. It seems that Bainbridge Island could benefit from a stronger voice in the rest of the County.”
Medina has not served as an elected official before, but he spent six years on the 23rd Legislative District Democrats Executive Board and two of those as Chair of the local Democratic Party. Medina said, “I think local politics can be ugly and dysfunctional. I’ve seen it first-hand, and I don’t like it. But because of my time leading our local Democratic Party, I understand what I’m getting into and think I can be successful at building positive working relationships on our City Council.”
Medina and his wife have a three-and-a-half year old son, two cats, and 13 chickens.
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