After Bob Sternoff resigned from his Position 2 seat on the Kirkland City Council in March, the council was forced to make a quick decision to appoint a new council member by April 16.

John Smiley is one of 17 candidates vying for the seat.

Background: Smiley has lived in Kirkland for seven years. He has a Bachelor of Accountancy from the University of Mississippi.

Smiley also ran against Councilwoman Penny Sweet for Position 3 in 2009, but later withdrew from the race.

Experience: Smiley is a former member of the city of Kirkland’s Parks and Community Services Board.

He also served as an area governor for Toastmasters International, District 2, and is the immediate past president of the Gone Wilde Toastmasters in Kirkland.

He is currently a consultant for Online B2B in Kirkland, focusing on website design and development for small business clients.

He was also a rooms division manager for Kirkland’s Heathman Hotel in 2006-2008 and managed the pre-opening operations of the hotel.

Reason for running: Smiley said he had the privilege of serving on the Parks Board for two years and “it was a positive experience for me and furthered my desire to be active and serve the city.”

He said he moved to Kirkland shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans.

“What I experienced through Katrina taught me a valuable lesson – there’s more to living in a community than just voting,” he said on his application. “There is a duty, a moral imperative, to be involved in the community. I made a promise to myself to become involved in the community I called home.”

Top issues facing the city: He said economic development and bringing new businesses to Kirkland is an important issue for the city.

He said the council needs to know how to attract and encourage new businesses, help them grow by supporting strategies that will ensure the city’s preparedness as the economy improves, and help local businesses get started.

Another issue for the city he said is ensuring the city has a well-maintained and sustainable infrastructure that meets the community’s needs.

He said an even greater challenge is engineering integrated transportation systems, making individual vehicle travel, mass transit, bicycling, and walking all as easy and efficient as possible.

He also noted the city’s primary duty is providing public safety services.

“Kirkland is a safe community, but we must be vigilant in ensuring the community remains safe,” said Smiley. “This means providing the necessary support to our police, fire and emergency-medical services.”

He said he would work with other council members to ensure high levels of public safety are maintained and to build on the existing focus of preventing problems before they occur.