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Biography
Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago is the most senior member of the Council, having served since January 1994. Her tenure includes four years as Council President and four years as chair of the Finance and Budget Committee from 1999-2003, successfully steering the Council through four difficult budget cycles.
Drago currently chairs the Council’s Transportation Committee which has jurisdiction over city-wide and regional transportation policies, planning and coordination of transportation issues. Her committee oversees major projects such as the Spokane Street Viaduct, Mercer Corridor, and the infrastructure maintenance and repairs work to be done under the City’s “Bridging the Gap” transportation levy. She chairs the Special Viaduct Committee of the Whole which oversees the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project. And she co-chairs the Council’s Special Committee on Pedestrian Safety which during 2007 and 2008 will be concerned with the analysis and recommendations regarding the full range of policy issues that arise concerning pedestrian safety in the City of Seattle.
Drago vice chairs the Parks, Education, Libraries and Labor Committee, and is a member of the Economic Development & Neighborhoods Committee, and the Special Committee on Annexation. She represents the Council on the Puget Sound Regional Council and its Transportation Policy Board, the Trade Development Alliance, the Seattle Convention and Visitors’ Board, PortJobs Board, Seattle-Chongqing Sister Association, Seattle-Taejon Sister City Council, the Sister Cities Coordinating Council, and the Sister City Association.
For eight years, she has been a Council representative on the Civic Center Client Group, which has overseen the design and construction of City Hall and the Justice Center, and the remodeling of the former Key Tower into a more pedestrian-accessible Seattle Municipal Tower. The Client Group has just selected the plan to develop the old Public Safety Block just across the 4th Avenue from City Hall. This development, designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Sir Norman Foster, will feature a mixed use office and residential tower of approximately 28 floors located on the northern portion of the site and a public civic plaza on the southern portion of the site, underground parking and approximately 36,000 square feet of retail.
As a Councilmember, Drago has focused on business and economic development issues and job creation, and for eight years chaired Council committees concerned with business and economic development issues. She led Council action on Downtown Seattle’s revitalization, helping to dramatically reverse the economic downturn of the early 1990’s. Councilmember Drago is a staunch supporter of Seattle’s regional and international connectivity, ranging from economic development to cultural tourism and the arts.
In 1995, as chair of the Labor Relations Policy Committee, Drago brought labor and management together in an effort that resulted in the signing of an historic Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the Coalition of City Labor Unions (CCLU). Soon after, she became a founding member of the City’s Labor-Management Leadership Committee. Drago was the only Council President to hold monthly labor breakfasts with leaders of the CCLU to allow for more frequent and less formal exchange of ideas.
Insuring the stability of the City employee’s pension plans has been a major area of concentration for Councilmember Drago during her tenure on the Council. She has served as a member of the Fire Pension Board for nearly 14 years, twelve as chair; the Police Pension Board for ten years, including five as chair, and Seattle City Employees Retirement Systems for four years as both member and chair.
Councilmember Drago is also a board member of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, and is a present or past member of the Seattle Art Museum Executive Board, Downtown Seattle Association, Washington Council on Crime and Delinquency, Denny Regrade Business Association and the Denny Regrade Crime Prevention Council (former president), the Women’s Political Caucus, and Washington State Democratic Party. Prior to her election to the City Council, she served as chairperson to Mayor Charles Royer’s Homeless Task Force and vice-chair of Governor Booth Gardner’s Task Force on Homelessness. More than 16 years ago, Drago organized the City’s Downtown District Council, the first acknowledgment by the City that Downtown Seattle was composed of several residential neighborhoods, a fact no one would dispute today.
She is a recipient of numerous awards both before and during her service on the Council, including:
- 1989 - Seattle “First Citizen” Award
- 1989 - St. Matthew Award from EMM/Northwest Harvest
- 1990 - Neighborhood Partnership Award
- 1990 - Mayor’s Small Business Award
- 1996 - Bark Magazine - Legislator of the Decade
- 2003 - Seattle Food Committee/Meals Partnership Coalition - Certificate of Appreciation
- 2003 - Community Psychiatric Clinic - Community Achievement Award
- 2003 - Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Centers- For advocacy for community health
- 2004 - Arts Fund – “Unsung Hero of the Arts”
- 2005 - Homesight - For support of housing for homeless and low-income
Prior to her election, she was a small business owner (Haagen Dazs Ice Cream Shoppes franchise owner, 1980-1991) and a schoolteacher (1973-1978). She is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University (B.A., Psychology). She and her husband Noel are the parents of four sons and two grandsons.
Councilmember Drago’s personal staff includes Legislative Aides Barbara Clemons and Katherine Fountain Mackinnon, and Jodie Vice. All may be reached at 206-684-8801; fax 206-233-0040; or by e-mail by clicking on any of the names in this paragraph.
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