Mercer Island City Councilmember Benson Wong (position 6), announced that he will run for a second term, according to a press release.

“I have had the great honor and privilege of serving Mercer Island and its residents since 2014 as a member of the City Council,” Wong said in a statement.

During his first term, the City Council accomplished a number of things, including amending the city’s Comprehensive Plan and the Town Center Development Code, enacting impact fees to help address the impact on schools, parks and transportation facilities due to new development, responding to the Island’s water contamination crisis and hiring a new permanent city manager.

“I am eager to continue working for the community to address the many important issues that lie ahead,” he stated.

Resolving the city’s dispute with Sound Transit and the Washington State Department of Transportation, trying to identify how to best mitigate against the city’s loss of mobility due to the closure of the center roadway and reviewing and enacting possible changes to the city’s residential development code are some of the pressing issues right now, Wong stated, and he believes his “legal background and temperament will be of value to the city in these efforts.”

He also stated that depending upon the resolution of the dispute with Sound Transit and WSDOT, there could be different opportunities and ways of making the Town Center a more commercially important area that better serves Islanders than it does today. Exploring those opportunities with the community would be of interest during the next four years for Wong.

Wong and his wife, Terry Mark, have called Mercer Island home for over 33 years and have raised two children on the Island. Wong is an attorney with the Seattle law firm of Keller Rohrback L.L.P.

Learn more about Wong’s re-election campaign by going to his campaign website at www.electbensonwong.com.