First, allow me to thank the Chase Youth Commission for honoring me with an award back in March 2004 for the role I played in the design and construction of the Hillyard skate park. Here we are seven years later, and the Hillyard skate park is still being recognized in our community, most recently by Mayor Verner who last year had occasion to bestow a “shrinking Lilac” award on the Hillyard community for the skate park’s design. Even during inclimate weather, the Hillyard skate park is used by the youth of Spokane and it remains as one of my most memorable accomplishments.

I grew up in a US Navy family and spent a lot of years in Japan. I am of Japanese descent and am proud of the multi-culturalism that was promoted in the household. I have impressed the importance of this culturalism with my three children and our family has been a longtime supporter of the foreign exchange student program.

Over the last decade, I have contributed to our community operating in the capacity of a PTA Legislator at Bemiss elementary school, President of the ESD 101 school boundary and tax liability board, President of the Spokane Sister Cities Associations, and as President of the Hillyard Neighborhood council & Steering Committee. In each of those endeavors, the youth component in Spokane has been invited to sit with me in the capacity as an advisory, or through a change in organization by-laws, as an actual full-fledged voting member.

I have always believed that one of the traits of any successful civic organization is to be all-inclusive to the demograph, which it serves. Additionally, I have always made it a point to involve the youth component and their perspective, fully recognizing that the students of today are the taxpayers and the leaders of tomorrow.

Recently, Washington State has been identified as having the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the nation, of teens between the ages of 16 and 19. This is very troubling and should serve as a walk up call to those who teach our children, as well as, to the legislature who controls the state’s regulatory process. The state mandatory minimum wage increases have also been a curse upon teens because when you take all of this into consideration, what employer out there would give a teen a chance of gaining job experience, when the vast majority of teens who graduate from high school can not perform simple functions using math and english that employers require. I do not say this to insult, but I am being realistic, based upon available statistical data.

As a city council member I would not be able to directly address the issue with schools, colleges, as well as, address the onerous regulations that the federal & state government impose on us, but I can and will do my best to influence and lobby those entities who are empowered to make those changes. A great example of what I am talking about is as follows; All three of my children graduated from SD 81 yet, had to take remedial courses before they were permitted full access to community college courses. I believe that if SD 81 and Spokane community colleges coordinated efforts on what each other’s minimum standard expectations are, there would be a lot less wasted time and money by students and parents alike.