Talk:John Ladenburg

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An editor decided to overwrite the article with what appears to be a sort of resume of Ladenburg. I'm restoring the article to its condition before that addition. What follows is the text that I removed (reverted), some of which (in a more narrative form) was already in the article. I invite other editors to add back, very selectively, any important information, ideally only after finding a reliable source for that information. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:00, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

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Born September 19, 1949 in Leavenworth, Washington

Married October 1969 to Connie Chapman (Aquinas 1968)

Children: John Jr., Erik, Shannon, Kristen, and Mark.

Education:

1967 Graduate Stadium High School, Tacoma, Washington

1971 Graduate Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, Degree: Political Science B.A. (Honors)

1974 Graduate Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, Degree: Juris Doctor

Career:

1974-1976 Binns, Petrich Hester and Robson, Associate Lawyer 1976-1986 Ladenburg and Haselman, Partner

1974 Admitted to Washington Supreme Court

1975 Admitted to U.S. District Court of Western Washington

1976 Admitted to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

1977 Admitted to United States Supreme Court

1982-1986 Tacoma City Councilman

1986-2000 Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney

2001-present Pierce County Executive

John is the third of 16 children. John’s father was an outdoor high wire electrician who was a lifelong member of IBEW 77. Although the family moved many times while John was young, they settled in Tacoma for good when John was six. John’s mother’s family was Pierce County pioneers, having homesteaded there in the 1880’s.

In turn, John has been a trial attorney owning his own law firm, a Tacoma City Council member, the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney, and now, Pierce County Executive.

For ten years, John was senior partner in his own law firm, representing victims and small business clients. He was involved in several highprofile cases ranging from the federal Salmon-scam to the Pierce County Racketeering trials. John represented tribal members in Washington and Oregon attempting to recover their treaty fishing rights. He was often appointed to represent criminal defendants because of his high trial skills. Several times John was appointed by the courts to defend defendants facing the death penalty.

As a Tacoma City Councilman, John was a leader in protecting the environment and in establishing clean drinking water standards. John led the fight to force the Federal EPA to clean up polluted water wells owned by Tacoma’s water utility. He became an environmental leader, fighting to bring the first secondary treatment plant to Tacoma’s sewer utility and forcing Tacoma to withdrawn from the W.P.P.S.S. (Whoops).

Later, John was selected by the community and business leaders to be the chair and lead negotiator in the Puyallup Indian Tribe land settlement. This historic settlement of land claims took five years to settle, but brought about the tremendous growth of both the Port of Tacoma and the Puyallup Nation.

After being encouraged to run by members of law enforcement, John was elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1986, defeating an incumbent Prosecutor. As Prosecuting Attorney, John was recognized nationally for innovation and positive changes in the laws. He was instrumental in writing the State’s laws against drug dealers and gang violence, as the Legislative Chair of the State Prosecutor’s Association.

After a brutal crime in Pierce County, John created the nation’s first “Sex Predator Notification Law”, later approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. He also was a major player in the rewriting of Washington‘s sex predator laws, receiving special recognition from the Tennis Shoe Brigade. Later, John’s office wrote the nation’s first sex predator Civil Commitment law. After John helped lobby the passage of that law, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law.

John was one of the founding members of Safe Streets of Pierce County, a nationally recognized neighborhood watch program. He served 10 years on the Board of Directors. Recognizing the danger of Meth addiction, John organized the first “Meth Summit” in the State to try to bring the issue to the forefront of law enforcement in the area. He then helped organize the first “Drug Court” in the State, in an effort to treat the addiction as a disease.

After the first attempt to pass a 'Three Strikes And You're Out' law in Washington failed, John and Norm Maleng, the King County Prosecutor, joined forces to write a better law. Their work produced the law citizens adopted later that year. It was the first such law in the nation and still serves a national model that does not result in over-incarceration.

In crime control, John is a nationally recognized figure also. After taking office as Executive, he used information from the “Meth Summit” he organized as Prosecutor to form the first law enforcement “Meth Task Force” in the State. The task force included Sheriffs, Police, Prosecutors and Health Department officials. This Task Force turned back the epidemic of meth labs in Pierce County reducing the total labs by over 70%.

In the area of Domestic Violence, John helped organize the State’s first completely integrated Domestic Violence Center, the Crystal Judson Center in Tacoma. This Center includes all the public and private nonprofits working in the field to give victims a true onestop shop.

As County Executive, John took the lead on a wide range of local and regional issues. Working with other counties and jurisdictions, John is helped to bring 21st Century transportation to the Puget Sound area; increase salmon populations by restoring natural habitat, improve economic development to create jobs, and clean up environmental pollution.

When he became Executive, John joined the Sound Transit Board just at the time that the agency had to announce they were far over budget and behind schedule. John wasted no time working to turn the troubled agency around. He chaired the selection committee that selected a new director, Joni Earl. He worked tirelessly to create a new culture within the agency of “under promise and over deliver.”

That new philosophy helped turn the agency around to the point that it was selected as having the best new project, the light rail to Husky Stadium. In addition, the agency passed its financial audits for the five years with flying colors. Further confirmation of the turnaround came from a State Performance Audit in 2007 that credited the agency with tremendous progress. Although it was tradition that members serve only two years as Chair of the Board, John was asked by his fellow members to serve an unprecedented four straight years, stepping down in January 2008. When John took over as Chair, the Link Light Rail line to the airport was less than 10% complete; today it is over 85% complete, on time and on budget.

http://www.soundtransit.org/

Working in the field of economic development, John joined the Central Puget Sound Economic Development Board and soon became its President. He also joined the Puget Sound Regional Council of Governments and a few years later was elected by his fellow elected representatives as President of that group. John noted that although the Economic Development Board was charged with economic development plans, a real plan had never been developed. He also was concerned that the Council of Governments was charged with land use planning and transportation planning, but neither was coordinated with economic planning.

http://www.psrc.org/

http://www.psrc.org/boards/cpsedd/index.htm

Those in the field told John the two agencies did not work together and prior attempts to merge the two had failed. With John as the President of both, things changed. John consolidated the agencies staff into one location and within a year had merged them into one, saving duplicate staff costs. That accomplished, John led the Economic Board to find grant funding and create the first real economic plan for the four county region. Then, to make sure the new plan was implemented, John helped create the Prosperity Partnership, a partnership of the public and private sectors that would work to make the new economic plan a reality. Over 250 organizations have signed on as a partner to help develop and implement the Prosperity Partnership's regional economic strategy. John is one of eight co-chairs of the group. http://www.prosperitypartnership.org/coalition/index.htm

John led the way in Pierce County, working to create new jobs and increase family income. In 2002 the unemployment rate for Pierce County 8.9%, by 2007 it dropped to 4.9% only slightly above the State average. From 2001 to 2007, average wages per job increased by 20.6%, going from $31,246 to $37,687.

Total personal income in Pierce County grew from $20,702,070,000 in 2001 to $24,440,169,000 in 2005 (the latest year data is available), for an increase of nearly $4 billion, or 18.1%. During the same period, total personal income for the State of Washington grew by 15.4%. Per-capita personal income in Pierce County grew by 12.6%, while in Washington State overall per-capita income grew by 9.9%. Pierce County’s higher-than-average income growth brought its percentage of State per-capita income up from 89.3% to 91.5%. As a result, John was recognized widely in the field of economic development, often asked to speak at different events, sometimes as far away as Stockholm!

John worked closely with the Puyallup Tribe since the historic land claims settlement on a variety of environmental issues and community issues. In addition, John has worked hand in hand with the Nisqually Tribe to increase salmon habitat in the sound end of Pierce County. In 2004, John was honored when the Nisqually Tribe asked that he present the closing argument for Chief Leschi in the “Historical Court of Inquiry and Justice”. Many there commented that John’s closing argument was one of the best they had ever heard. Local tribes post his argument in their high schools. Chief Leschi was exonerated by the court and over a hundred years of injustice corrected. A Pulitzer Prize winning author is writing a book about the trial now.

http://www.wshs.org/wshm/leschitrial.htm

Working to increase tourism in Pierce County for economic development was also a priority for John. In 2001 he visited a 930acre property on the shores of the Narrows that Pierce County Public Works had purchased for gray water recovery from a nearby treatment plant. At that time the County had a “fifty year plan” for development of the site, and was leasing the site as a gravel pit. The site had limited uses because it had to stay open space for the eventual gray water recovery, and the utility had no money to develop the parks and trails in the master plan. No one wanted to raise sewer rates to pay for improvements and so the site sat for more than 10 years with no progress. Seeing the huge property, with more than two miles of beach and hundreds of acres all closed to the public, John saw a different vision.

Within the master plan one of the “open space” uses allowed was a golf course. Potentially a golf course could pay it’s own way using the greens fees paid by the golfers. The County already had two golf courses in its inventory and there were five other public courses in the area. A standard old municipal course was simply not needed. John came up with a visionary plan, not to build just another golf course, but to build a golf course that could claim to be one of the best in the world. John believed that the site could produce such a course, that such a course could attract tourists from around the United States, and that such a course could attract major golf championships. John announced a bold plan to hire the best golf course architect in the world, Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and to build a course to attract a major championship.

Such a plan would cost more that three times a normal course and there were no guarantees that the golf world would pay attention to Pierce County. Opposition was immediate and heavy. The project became a flash point for antigovernment activists and considerable pressure was put on to abandon the idea. John stood firm and steadfast. He continued to push the project with the media, with the Chamber of Commerce, with the elected officials, with the Economic Development Board. John’s persistence paid off, the money was allocated, and Chambers Bay was built.

Immediately after opening in June of 2007, the course received outstanding press in the national media. While the high green fees reflected the course’s stature as one of the best in the United States, the players came as predicted. The green’s fees were immediately paying off the debt and no taxpayer’s money was needed to pay for the course. John’s plan essentially gave the County a destination for tourists at no cost to the taxpayer. In the first six months more than 15,000 players came, with 40% coming from more than 200 miles away! The final justification came in February of 2008, when the United States Golf Association announced that they had selected Chambers Bay as the site of the 2010 US Amateur and the 2015 United States Open. The US Open is the largest golf tournament in the world. It is expected to attract more that 65,000 people to the site for one week. It is estimated that the Open will generate some $225 to $250 million in economic benefit to the State! It will be the first Open ever played in Washington and will generate tourists for many years to come.

John has been recognized as a “visionary” and true leader for his determination to bring this project to completion. Along the way, John built 4 miles of paved trails in and around the golf course, along with 30 acres of public parks, all free to the public. In August of 2008, John will did the ground breaking for a pedestrian bridge over the train tracks to open those two miles of sandy beach to the public after over 100 years of closure! The Chambers property is now a regional gem because John saw the potential that others could not. http://www.chambersbaygolf.com/

When John was elected Executive, Pierce County had a reputation as a “gritty” place. John was concerned that there were numerous illegal dumpsites in the county along with sham recyclers who were polluting the environment. When told that the problem was that several different local and state agencies had the enforcement control over some of each site, he acted quickly. Pulling together staff from each agency, John named a staff coordinator who would report directly to him. Pushing the State and other agencies into action, they formed what would be known as Pierce County Responds. This new group was charged with getting the job done quickly. Moving to clean up the dumps, they created the “Dirty Dozen” list of the worst in the County and published the list.

Then they created a joint task force for each site, bringing together police, health workers, zoning and permitting staff and environmental staff. Filing court actions against the owners, the team pushed hard for cleanup. One owner was sent to jail after being found in contempt of court. The Dirty Dozen and more were cleaned up and the word was out that Pierce County was not going to allow illegal dumps again.

Along with this project, the team identified junk and abandoned cars as a problem. Again a team was formed and went on a mission to get rid of them. Working with landowners, they offered to remove the cars for free and working with owners, they provided a $50 recycling credit. Since then, over 10,000 junk and abandoned cars have been removed from the County. In 2006, John was given the highest award of the National Association of Counties, recognizing his work in this area. He is the only Washington State Executive to be so honored.

In the area of environmental issues, John has led the way in salmon recovery efforts, receiving two awards from the Puget Sound Partnership for his efforts to recreate habitat and enhance existing habit. Working closely with the Puyallup tribe, John helped fund important setback levies on the Puyallup River that have the dual effect of increasing habitat and controlling flooding by providing additional storage during flood events. This resulted in Pierce County having the best flood control rating from the Federal Government of any Washington county. Pierce County residents thereby get the best flood insurance rates in the State, saving thousands of dollars each year.

John’s environmental efforts also included starting the first true “low impact development” in the State. This project monitored conditions both before and after project completion to add needed science to the field data. John made low impact and “Green” development a priority for local development. In early 2008, John’s office put on a Low Impact Development seminar for Pierce County Elected officials to encourage low impact development in the cities of Pierce County.

A sample of just some of the awards that John has been given:

Washington State Department of Community Development: Outstanding Community Service Award for the Puyallup Land Claim Settlement.

Tennis Shoe Brigade’s Outstanding Victim Advocacy award

Department of Homeland Security’s Certificate of Appreciation Award 2003 for National Guard and Veterans policies.

The National Association of Counties “County Courthouse Award” for the Pierce County Responds program. (Highest award in the nation.) 2005

The Youth Workforce Development Leadership Award 2005

The Governor’s Award for Economic Development 2006 (highest State Award)

National Award for Outstanding Professional in Metropolitan Transportation Planning 2006

King County Municipal League: Public Official of the Year Award for 2006 (first ever award to a nonKing County elected official)