Tim Burgess, who served for 10 years at Seattle City Hall as a member of the city council and as the city’s 55th mayor, will speak at the Rotary Club of Mercer Island virtual meeting on Jan. 5. The meeting will begin at 12:45 p.m. at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4096976967 .

During his time at City Hall, he was a consistent and staunch advocate for criminal justice and police reform, economic growth policies and tourism promotion.

He was the lead architect of the Seattle Preschool Program for the city’s 3- and 4-year old children, one of only three municipal government facilitated preschool programs in the United States to meet all 10 national quality standards.

Burgess also developed the Seattle Retirement Savings Plan for workers without an employer-offered plan, making Seattle the first city in the nation to create a such a mandatory plan.

Under his leadership, Seattle became the fourth major U.S. city to fully fund the Nurse Family Partnership, a home visitation program for low-income families that The New York Times calls America’s best anti-poverty program.

He also persuaded his colleagues to adopt an excise tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition with the revenues dedicated to gun violence prevention and research.

Rotary plans to honor its students of the month prior to Burgess’ presentation.