Kicking off the year 2010, the Redmond City Council unanimously elected Richard Cole as its new president and re-elected John P. (“Pat”) Vache as its vice-president on Tuesday evening at Redmond City Hall.

Cole, who occupies Position 5, is currently serving his sixth term on the council, first elected in 1988. A Certified Public Accountant who retired from Boeing, he has served as the council president three times before and remarked, “as this will likely be my last two years on the council, I did want another opportunity to serve as council president.”

A Redmond resident for more than 30 years, Cole has also served on and chaired the city’s Planning Commission and is active in several non-profit organizations in the community.

Vache has also lived in Redmond more than 30 years and first served on City Council from 1981-1989, appointed again in 2003 and elected to Position 2 in 2005. He also served on the Planning Commission from 1979-1980. Vache also is an active participant in community organizations.

Cole said the council will hold a retreat this weekend at Emerald Heights, the retirement community on Education Hill, beginning at 1 p.m. Friday and concluding on Saturday afternoon.

All meetings, including the retreat, are open to the public, said Cole, and interested parties can contact him for details if they would like to attend.

“Friday will primarily be just the Council and Mayor talking in an informal setting about the future of the city as we see it,” Cole explained. “On Saturday, the department heads will join us and we will discuss the upcoming budget process and update and refine Redmond’s long-range financial strategy. The last document was prepared in 2005 and five of the council members have not had an opportunity to provide their input on the financial future direction. We have hired a facilitator to help guide the meeting, but other than that, there is little cost to the taxpayers.”

Asked about priorities for leading the City Council, Cole stated, “Much of the council president’s job is administrative. I do serve as Mayor pro tempore and become the mayor when Mayor (John) Marchione is out of town. Other duties are agenda setting, scheduling and managing study sessions and representing the council. Pat Vache and I are going to share the duties. We want to be actively involved in the next phase of our Budgeting by Priorities process. Pat has been concentrating on developing an economic development plan and will continue to provide direction as that plan is finalized. Other priorities will be determined by the entire council. We have an excellent council and we are all looking forward to a great two years.”

Vache added, “I have been working on the Economic Development strategy and see this as the year to begin implementation. The Council will get the ED Strategy final draft report soon and we will hold a study session in February. From that point on, we will be in the implementation stage. Aside from Economic Development, my highest priorities include continuing to improve the budget process and working with the council to develop and work on council priorities.”

For information about this weekend’s retreat, contact Councilmember Cole at rgcole@verizon.net or (425) 881-2129.