Decade of public safety experience among Goodman’s laurels

Published 8:45 am Thursday, July 28, 2016

Public safety has been a cornerstone for Roger Goodman for the better part of a decade, but the political career of the Kirkland Democrat didn’t start out that way.

Goodman is the House incumbent in the 45th District, Position 1, a position he’s held since 2007. His opponent is Sammamish Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama-Aramayo.

“I wanted to be an environmental champion when I arrived… but there were a lot of environmental champions there already,” Goodman said.

Instead, Goodman found he was one of few legislators then who was an expert on criminal justice. He has served as vice-chair of the Judiciary Committee and on the Public Safety Committee.

The major issue of drunk driving saw a 36 percent decline in alcohol-related deaths and injury accidents in the two years following passage of a Washington State Patrol enforcement expansion in 2012.

The battle against domestic violence has been a success, as well, Goodman said, with intimate-partner homicides reduced by half.

His “signature issue” is to reduce harm, he said, by making communities more safe.

He took part in the Cascadia Rising drills in June, and pushed the need for a better communication system between essential services in the area, which would help groups like first responders, hospitals and schools communicate in real time.

Looking forward, Goodman said his top priority if re-elected is to finish funding public schools following the McCleary decision in 2012, in which the Supreme Court of Washington required the legislature to properly fund public education .

“We have not come close to meeting the responsibility,” he said. “We have at least $3.5 billion left to fund public schools, and that’s in addition to the current budget.”

Goodman said the need could climb, depending on how much the state wished to reduce class sizes and provide additional funding for teacher salaries.

Affordable housing in the 45th District, which represents most of Kirkland, Redmond, Woodinville, Sammamish and Duvall, is another issue for Goodman. The abundance of high-paying jobs on the Eastside makes affordable housing difficult to find, he said.

Mental health, the final of Goodman’s big three, requires additional funding or infrastructure to adequately serve the area. The industry needs more trained professionals to help curb the growing mental health and homelessness issues in King County.

Goodman said he was disappointed in the last budget session, which ended without action on homelessness.

“We can’t wait on the crisis of homelessness and mental illness,” he said. “We needed to put our money where our mouth is and not wait until the next budget cycle, but we didn’t and now we’ll have to spend more because (the crisis) will have gotten worse.”

Learn more at http://rogergoodman.org.