RHAWA Speaks with Mayor Jim Ferrell of Federal Way

Mayor Ferrell is currently running for his third term in the top job for the city of Federal Way. Ferrell helped oversee the city’s change from a “weak mayor” system — where the mayor is appointed by the city council and serves more as a council chair role with shared authority and powers with the city council — to a “strong mayor” city, where the mayor functions much more like a governor or president. In this system, they have certain executive powers and authorities and possess veto powers for anything the city council chooses to pass.

Mayor Ferrell helped usher in the change of government in 2009 before being elected the second “strong mayor” of Federal Way in 2013.

Mayor Ferrell has always been a big supporter of RHAWA membership and working to craft policies that help our members in his city. He attended the University of Washington for his undergraduate degree before heading off to Spokane to attend Gonzaga School of Law, after which he spent some time working in the prosecutor’s office for King County. Ferrell and his wife, Wendy, have been a part of the Federal Way community for thirty years and raised their son, who is now heading off to college.

What do you view as your major accomplishments during your time as mayor?

"Our downtown was a donut hole. It was empty, it was blighted. Where Town Square Park is now, when I was first running, the old movie theater — the AMC North movie theater — was abandoned. And not just that, there was a cyclone fence around those four acres around the parking lot and the old building, and there was a pile of rubble and steel, rebar, and knocked-down cement about 20 feet tall in the middle of this acre,” Farrel says.“So now if you go there, anybody you know that goes through right away, you know that movie theater site we built, Town Square Park. We've got a Splash Park on a place where we gather, a huge grass field, a covered area for picnics, a playground, and now a $32 million performing arts and event center that's nearly completely paid for.”

If you attended the recent RHAWA Housing Provider Workshop in Federal Way, you enjoyed the event center that the mayor was talking about. Additionally, this area will soon have a light rail station available and an upcoming multi-purpose transit-oriented development.

What are some of your plans for housing and commercial infrastructure if re-elected?

“So, light rail is going to be finished in the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of next year. We're in negotiations with Sound Transit for a development agreement for what looks like housing, maybe a public market, maybe some public spaces immediately contiguous to where the station is, the former out of the ground, hopefully in the very first part of my next term. Where we're going to have the mixed use, retail down below, residential above — those are more market — the housing units that are going to be associated with the train are probably going to be more affordable units.”

Speaking of the light rail and transit, Ferrell spoke about the tremendous impact that next year’s upcoming FIFA World Cup will have on the City of Federal Way as avid soccer fans look for alternatives to traffic and high-cost parking for all of next summer’s matches.

“They keep talking about the FIFA World Cup and it's gotta be done by then. I've taken a lot of tours and Sound Transit's done a really good job. The station's built, the infrastructure is being built there. This is really, I gotta tell you, we're ready. I think this is going to add about 25,000 cars per day to our downtown.”

What are some improvements you have made to public safety?

"I think we've really changed the direction and the staffing, and the priority of law enforcement and public safety. When I was first elected mayor, we had about 124 officers. We had stumbled back because of the Great Recession, you know, and we had been up to 136 at one point during those years. Now we're up to 154 budgeted officers.We've added 17 new officers just in the past two years,new officers’ positions that are fully budgeted,and we did that without raising a dollar in taxes."

Last question, are you concerned about the recent passage of the rent control bill at the state legislature?

“Well, I'm looking at it. I'm thinking it's something that I need to be, you know, cognizant of. I think that, unfortunately, things like this — you know, there was the ADU bill that got passed a few years ago — I think that there's not a lot of awareness out in the community about some of these things that are coming in, and that we're certainly, you know, mindful of that.”

Check out JimFerrell.org for more information about Mayor Ferrell and some of his other goals if elected to another term.