City Council Candidate Highlight: John Zambrano, Position 7

Today we are highlighting incumbent John Zambrnao, who is running for City Council Position 7 against Kim Michel and Seaun Richards in the August primary.

Here is what John wants you to know about him:

City Councilman John Zambrano, a retired 20 year Navy Veteran and 38 year resident of Mountlake Terrace, has announced he will run for re-election. Zambrano has been married to his bride Janice for 45 years and they have three grown children and eight grandchildren.

Presently, Zambrano is president of ESCA( Emergency Services Coordinating Agency), a past 5 year member of the Board of Directors for 911 known as SnoCom, served eight years as a member of Mountlake Terrace Parks and Recreation Commission, “helping to provide opportunities for family activities in Mountlake Terrace’s parks and recreation programs,” he said.

Zambrano is also one of the first graduates of the Mountlake Terrace Citizens Police Academy. Zambrano was the first councilmember in the history of Mountlake Terrace city council to earn the AWC (All Washington Cities) graduate certificate of Municipal Leadership Training award. Zambrano is on public record for attending more council meetings than any of the present sitting councilmembers. “You have to be present at the table where decisions are made if you are representing those who elected you”, said Zambrano.

Zambrano has focused on transparency of city government by publishing a weekly Z-Man Community News for the past ten years which he disseminates to over 600 hundred citizens in Mountlake Terrace. It is important to Zambrano, he said, that people be informed of key issues that will directly affect their properties and public safety. For the past eight years Zambrano has voted to balance the city budget, plan and maintain an aggressive street paving program, and supported revitalizing the downtown corridor.

Zambrano, 69, said he plans to doorbell as many Mountlake Terrace residents as possible by election day. I would like to finish one more project before I end my public service and that is to help plan and build a new downtown business district.

Zambrano is a graduate of Central Washington University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and has an Associates degree in Professional Management from Edmonds Community College.

After serving 20 years in the U.S. Navy, he retired and worked as a letter carrier in Mountlake Terrace for 22 years. While working for the Postal Service he became a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers and served five years as trustee in his local union NALC 791 of which he still is a member.

Zambrano said he still is connected to the U.S. Navy through the Fleet Reserve Association and Mountlake Terrace American Legion Post 234 where presently he holds the Finance Officer position as well as being their hall manager. Zambrano also serves as chaplain for VFW Post 1040. In the past Zambrano served as auditing trustee for the FRA of Seattle.

If re-elected, Zambrano says he will bring eight years of council experience, integrity, and accountability to the city government. Furthermore, he will keep the citizens of Mountlake Terrace informed and acquire the pertinent information required to make decisions for the city as a whole.

  1. Thankfully, with Zambrano, at least the citizens can count on one individual to speak up for them instead of being taken advantage of ‘yes’ men and women on the council who tend to bow to political pressure by almighty Mayor Smith. His challenges to the status quo is a necessary component of true leadership in stark contrast to the seeming puppet show of the others that make up the council. For my money, I want someone to put the cities residents first and not someones personal ‘agenda’ and by reelecting John Zambrano it is in keeping with the integrity, transparency and leadership we should all expect and demand from our leaders.

    As for communication, Mr. Zambrano is the ‘only’ council member that has ever responded to my concerns and provides a regular newsletter. Perhaps the question ought to be, why do the other council members hide behind the email screening done at the city rather than provide a direct email contact? Shouldn’t you demand accountability and accessibility from your elected leaders? After all they work for you.

  2. 1digger is spot on.  Zambrano is the ONLY member of the council that cares for the citizens of the community rather than their own self interests.  The Mayor only seems to have yes men and women one the council and he is now trying to outest Zambrano with a burger flipper, with no schooling who has bankrupt three businesses already.  I wonder what he would do with the finances of our city?

  3. it seems Mr. Zambrano has interest in certain members of the MLT community, but NOT the community as a whole. I will be looking to elect a council member who will look past his and his followers personal agendas. It is time for a change

    1. Lets see if I understand this rationalization that Richards is better than Zambrano? He has had 13 encounters with the law within the last five years and also court appearances.  One of the big charges that stands out to me is the fact that he was charged in King County District Court with obstructing  a law enforcement officer, and agreed to a $250 forfeiture of bail. I wonder if the police association that is endorseing him knows about these charges, especially the criminal charge.  Like I said in a prior post Richards will never have my vote, especially since he is a criminal now.

      1. Those are interesting allegations, and should the alleged incident of ‘obstructing a police officer’ be true, I would like to hear more about it myself.  However, be careful of making such statements unless you have undeniable proof that your information is correct and true.  You state ‘fact’, but are you absolutely certain?  If not, I wouldn’t even mention it for fear of a libel action.

        1. Mark, I got tired of you defending him, so I went over into Shoreline, to King County district court and looked up Seaun’s name and the case # associated with this.  I am not saying anything, You are a hard working Community Involved Citizen,  Go over there yourself.  Go down the hallway and go on thier Computer.  Anyone can do it!  I will say the case is sealed but you can get some of the papers.  It won’t cost you much!

          1. You asked for it Mark, I told you where to go.  Now prove what I have from the Courts is not true. 

          2. I didn’t ask for anything… I’ve already done my due diligence. Again, you made an assumption.  (you’re really good at that by the way). 

            I’m well aware of everything available, but frankly it means nothing.  I made my cautionary statements because many here, including yourself, are taking bits of information from various sources, making careless assumptions and translating those assumptions into libel statements in a written public forum.

            Regarding THIS particular incident that  disgustingmltresident posted, all I can say is that the RCW for this is very wide and could be nearly ANYTHING including preventing a building inspector onto a property.  Yet, all of you decide to immediately assume “police officer” and further assume he was guilty.  There is nothing in the public documents to indicate any of that.  Personally, if I was really worried about this incident, I’d ask Seaun about it before posting and making libel statements online.

            Oh, and RCW 9A.76.020 (Obstructing a law enforcement officer) is a misdemeanor.

      2. I don’t understand…if he had all of these charges the police officers association would not be supporting him. They have access to all of his records. Also, just because someone has a record doesn’t make them a bad person. If you look at my record you’ll see a domestic violence call on it. However, it was my exhusband who was actually charged and not me. I was the victim.  Also Seaun was awarded the Police Cheif’s citation in 2010. (See http://mltnews.wpengine.com/seaun-richards-red-onion-awarded-police-chiefs-citation/ for more details.) Also the Red Onion has a liquor license and it’s not easy to get one if you have a criminal record. (See WAC 314-07-040 – Criminal history, i.e. conviction of a felony, conviction of a gross or simple misdemeanor involving liquor or drugs, any series of violations that show a disregard for the law. http://liq.wa.gov/licensing/apply-liquor-license

  4. Oh, I’m well aware of what’s publicly available and have availed myself to several resources on different occasions, and even pushed O’Brien in his backing of a bill to block more ‘public’ documents that contained critical PII data.

    Be VERY cautious though about USSearch or any of those other third party ‘background’ utilities… and be even MORE cautious about publicly sharing what you find online unless you have ALL the facts.

    A filing in a court for whatever reason is only a filing… not evidence of guilt or even further information on the particulars of the case.

  5. I looked up his name on ussearch.com and also looked up his former alias Richard V. Foos, and all I can say is wow!  My question is why did he change his name and also his name Seaun is spelled two different ways.  I know many Law Enforcement officers and they even agreed that he is coming off as being really shady. Apparently Mark likes shady people and he is the minority in this instance.

    1. Run the name of any law abiding citizen through the Court web-site and you get maybe a couple traffic infractions, not some big laundry list you have to scroll through. Run the name of any law abiding citizen through US Search and you wont get a bunch of aliases, just their actual name because they are not trying to hide anything or from anything.
      I absolutely DO NOT want anyone representing us citizens that has a big laundry list and has used aliases, I believe the term is “Skeletons in the Closet”.
      Now about your wondering who likes shady people ?
      I believe its “BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER” !!!

  6.  When I ask Coucilman John Zambrano something he responds with an informed answer, not only via e-mail but face to face !   JOHN ZAMBRANO INVESTS HIS TIME IN THE CITIZENS OF MLT !!!
     

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