Citizen Oversight Panel Members

Josh Benaloh
Dr. Benaloh is Senior Cryptographer at Microsoft Research and an affiliate faculty member in Computer Science at the University of Washington.  In addition to his background in technology, Dr. Benaloh has a deep interest in urban planning and transportation.  He is a resident of Redmond where he serves on the Overlake Neighborhood Citizen Advisory Committee and the Bellevue-Redmond RapidRide Advisory Panel.  Dr. Benaloh holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

Richard U. Chapin
Mr. Chapin is a retired land use attorney residing in Bellevue where he is active in local and state affairs.  He served in the Washington Legislature from the 48th District from 1967-1973 and as Chair of the Washington State Land Planning Commission 1973-1975.  He was formerly on the boards of the Eastside YMCA, Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, Citizens School Advisory Committee, and King County Master Gardener Foundation, among other civic interests.  Mr. Chapin has worked as a mediator, chaired the King County Bar Association’s Dispute Resolutions Committee, served on numerous Bar Association committees and is now on its Drug Policy Committee.

Aubrey Davis
Mr. Davis has a distinguished record of public service on health care and transportation policy in the Puget Sound region.  He has served as Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation, as chair of the Washington Transportation Commission, on the executive committee of the TransLake study and on the Expert Review Panel for Sound Transit, among many other roles.  He was a founding Board member and CEO of Group Health Cooperative, Mayor of the City of Mercer Island and is the chair of two private companies.  Mr. Davis is a resident of Mercer Island and his other interests include the arts and baseball.

Chris Elwell
Mr. Elwell is a labor relations and contract administration specialist with King County government. He was formerly Executive Secretary of the Seattle-King County Building and Construction Trades Council where he managed day to day operations of the council which serves 26 local unions and 3 district councils, representing 20,000 members. Mr. Elwell, a resident of Burien, also serves as an elected fire commissioner in King County Fire District Two. In this capacity, Mr. Elwell develops budgets, negotiates agreements, and works with many jurisdictions to help shape policies and laws. He has also served on regional boards and committees, including the Public Stadium Authority, the Seattle/King County Workforce Development Council, the King County Emergency Management Committee and he served on a working group of the Governor’s Climate Advisory Team.

Robert Miguel Goldstein
Mr. Goldstein brings financial and budget expertise to the Panel, having served as a chief financial officer, capital finance manager, budget manager and budget and policy analyst for the Seattle Public Library System, the Seattle School District, the City of Seattle and the California Legislature.  Mr. Goldstein is also a published author and journalist having covered local, county and state government for the Bellevue Journal-American and the Walla-Walla Union-Bulletin.  His policy areas have included transportation, K-12 education, capital project financial management, financial reporting and long-range planning.  Mr. Goldstein is a resident of Seattle.  He earned a MPA at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs.

Miriam Helgeland
Ms. Helgeland is a retired teacher and long-time League of Women Voters board member and officer in the South King County area.  She has been active on the League’s regional transportation committee and participated in site visits to Portland and Vancouver to study their light rail systems.  Ms. Helgeland served on the King County Charter Review Commission in 1987-88 and on a later League King County governance study committee.  She has also served as president of the Star Lake Improvement Club.

Karen Miller
Ms. Miller, a resident of Mountlake Terrace, is a former member of the Snohomish County Council, which she chaired for two years.  Among numerous civic activities, she has served on the Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission and Library Board, on the Board of Directors for the Luther Child Center and the Snohomish County Public Defenders Association.  She also served on the Board of Trustees of Edmonds Community College for over 20 years, was President of the Community and Technical Colleges Association of the State of Washington, and was President of the Municipal Research Services Corporation.  Ms. Miller currently serves as Chair of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. 

Michael W. Murphy
Mr. Murphy is an intellectual property specialist with the Seed IP Law Group. He relocated to the Puget Sound area several years ago from upstate New York where he served as an elected village board member and as a planning board member as well as chairperson of the town’s strategic plan and comprehensive plan committees. By profession an electrical engineer, Mr. Murphy previously served as senior project engineer at General Motors Hydrogen Fuel Cell R&D Center. He also worked as an engineering consultant in Ireland and Norway and in various U.S. positions involving manufacturing and testing of hybrid circuits. Mr. Murphy resides in North Seattle.

David A. Russell, Ph.D.
Mr. Russell is a retired professor and chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington.  He earned his Ph.D. at Caltech, worked in aircraft, energy and medical engineering, and co-founded a successful engineering research firm before his retirement in 2000.  Mr. Russell is a former elected official, having served as mayor and council member of the City of Kirkland and as president of the Puget Sound Regional Council.  He also served on the Sound Transit Board in its early years.  Mr. Russell was named Public Official of the Year by the Municipal League of King County in 1996.  His current civic involvement includes Futurewise and the Cascade Land Conservancy. 

Stuart L. Scheuerman, COP Vice Chair
Mr. Scheuerman is a resident of Sumner where he previously served six years as a city councilmember; he served on the city’s Regional Transit Authority Task Force and Design Review Commission, along with serving as president of the Rainier Communication Commission and is currently on the Sumner Arts Festival Board of Directors.  Mr. Scheuerman is a civil engineering project manager, a licensed engineering geologist who worked with ESM Consulting Engineers in Federal Way for 19 years and is the president of BRS Development Company.  Mr. Scheuerman has also served on Washington State’s Joint Task Force on Green Buildings and is a current member of the APWA Stormwater Managers Committee.  Mr. Scheuerman has degrees from Franklin Pierce University and Utah Technical College at Salt Lake.

Bruce W. Seiber
Mr. Seiber is a senior program manager with 25 years of experience in cost, schedule, and performance execution; logistical support; requirements analysis; and programming and budgeting, with the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense and most recently Northrop Grumman Corporation.  Mr. Seiber is also a certified middle school teacher and taught algebra in the University Place School District.  Mr. Seiber resides in University Place and works in Lakewood.  He has degrees from the University of Puget Sound and the University of Southern California.

Virendra (Vic) K. Sood
Mr. Sood, a resident of Mountlake Terrace, has been involved with public transit services for thirty-two years.  In Washington, he initiated the Public Transportation Benefit Area enabling legislation and served as first Executive Director of Community Transit in Snohomish County.  He subsequently served as the first general manager of the newly formed Livermore/Amador Valley Transit Authority in the San Francisco Bay area.  In retirement, Mr. Sood is active with the Board of Directors of the Snohomish County Committee for Improved Transportation, and the City of Mountlake Terrace’s Planning Commission and Civic Facilities Task Force.

JD Wessling
Mr. Wessling retired in July 2005 as chief financial officer at Cascade Natural Gas Corp. where he served for over 11 years.  Following retirement, Mr. Wessling and his wife volunteered with the Peace Corps and were assigned to the Republic of Moldova where they worked in community and organizational development.  Prior to Cascade Natural Gas, Mr. Wessling held senior level executive positions with a number of large public and private companies.  His experience includes structuring major equity and debt offerings, interacting with Wall Street bankers and analysts, planning, budgeting, information technology, and policy development.  He began his 40-year financial management career with Arthur Andersen where he earned his CPA certification.  Mr. Wessling is a long time resident of downtown Seattle and, among other activities, is a past board member and Treasurer of the Pike Place Market Foundation, and an avid tennis player.

Paul J. Wiesner, MD, COP Chair
Dr. Wiesner is a semi-retired public health physician and first chair of the Roosevelt Sustainability Group. He is a clinical associate professor at the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice of the School of Public Health, University of Washington and is the author of more than 70 articles in scientific journals. During his public health career, he directed several national programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, served as state health officer and local health officer in a major metropolitan area and held leader roles in various national associations of public health officials. In 2002, he was honored as Local Health Officer of the Year by the National Association of Local Boards of Health.

Former Panel Members