At the age of 36, Mark Mullet has already been through the kind of career realization that typically comes only later in life.
Traveling the world at the very pinnacle of the financial services industry, as a top executive of Bank of America and a foreign exchange trader with Swiss banks in New York and London, for Mullet the fiscal rewards were handsome.
But they came at a cost.
“A lot of the people I worked with, at the level where I was, I started to see that they often didn’t have much of a relationship with their families or their communities, because of the travel and the time that was demanded,” he said.
Three years ago, with two young daughters, and another one not far away, Mullet took control of his future and moved back to the state that he had loved as a young man growing up in south Seattle.
With his career in finance behind him, Mullet set up home in the Issaquah Highlands.
And though it was a sea change of sorts, the driven young man always had a plan in mind.
Mullet enrolled in the University of Washington and earned his Master’s Degree in Public Affairs.
It was the first step toward what he had long envisioned – a new career in politics and public service.
Mullet recently took another firm step in that direction, announcing his candidacy for a seat on the City of Issaquah Council.
As a resident of the Issaquah Highlands, Mullet sees a need to unite the various neighborhoods of Issaquah with a common energy.
“Some of the people who were born and raised in the downtown Issaquah area see the highlands as being a whole different city,” he said. “Whether it be downtown, or the highlands, or Squak Mountain, or any of a number of the neighborhoods, it would be great if we could see it all as one city, to be more integrated.”
If he is successful in the November council elections, Mullet will be the first resident of the Issaquah Highlands to have a seat on the city council.
“It seems to me that because of the younger, working demographic in the highlands, residents up here are not well represented on the many boards and commissions around the city,” he said. “In the downtown area there is a larger retired population, and those are the people that typically get involved.”
But Mullet is working to change that, and in the past few years has worked his way onto the board of directors for the Issaquah Food Bank and the Issaquah Highlands Homeowners Association, as well as becoming active in the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce.
As a candidate, his background as a top level business executive will no doubt be one of his strengths, and already he has began to appraise the commercial aspects of the city that he believes need addressing.
“I’ve found that often people are divided into one of two camps – they’re either for the chamber, and for business, or they’re for the environment,” he said. “It’s unfair that people have allowed themselves to be pigeonholed like this, and I think we need to look at combining the two ideas. There is no doubt that the beauty of our region is the environment – it is what attracts people to the area and what defines it.”
“But at the same time we need a level of economic growth – you can’t stop it. It reminds me of being at the beach with my daughter – she’s afraid that the tide will come in and ruin the sand castles that she’s built. But she knows you can’t stop it from coming.”
And Mullet has already tied the fortunes of he and his family to the commercial growth of Issaquah – he has purchased a Zeeks Pizza franchise, and will open a store in the highlands in June.
Issaquah Council elections
The Issaquah City Council will have four council positions and the mayor position open for the general election of November.
The positions up for election are:
Position 1: John Rittenhouse, incumbent
Position 3: Eileen Barber, incumbent
Position 5: Maureen McCarry, incumbent
Position 7: David Kappler, incumbent
Mayor: Ava Frisinger, incumbent
Positions are four-year terms, effective January 1, 2010.
The current council salary is $8,400 a year, and the Mayoral salary is $95,112 a year.
Anyone interested in running for one of the open positions will need to file the appropriate documents with the King County Elections office during the filing period, which begins at 8:30 a.m. June 1, 2009, and ends at 4:30 p.m. June 5, 2009.
Members of the public, candidates, campaign managers, treasurers and staff are invited to attend the King County Elections 2009 Candidate Workshop.
The free workshop will be held at the King County Election’s office, 919 SW Grady Way, Renton, between 6 and 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 12.
More information about elections can be obtained by calling King County Elections office at 206-296-1565 or by visiting their Web site at: www.kingcounty.gov/elections.
