By Matt Wendland

Justin West is now the newest member of the Burien City Council’s Business and Economic Development Partnership (BEDP) advisory board, after being appointed by the Council with a unanimous vote on January 6th.

The BEDP is a 14 member board established to provide guidance and direction to the Burien City Council on the City’s future economic development programs and priorities. Each member of the advisory board was appointed by the City Council to fulfill four year terms. In 2011 the City Council enacted a new policy that established term limits for their advisory boards which limited advisors to two consecutive four year terms. As nearly every member of the BEDP at the time had been serving on the advisory board for well over two term limits, a large number of new members have been appointed since then.

Appointed to a vacant seat, West will be seated on the board through March of 2015 when he will have the option to leave the board or apply to be reappointed by the Council to a full term. Because Justin has been appointed to a seat with less than 50% of its term remaining, he is likely to be given the option to apply to stay on the board for two full terms following the completion of this partial term.

The BEDP is one of the Burien City Council’s four advisory boards. The BEDP meets the second and fourth Friday of every month at 7:30 am at Burien City Hall at 400 S.W. 152nd Street in downtown Burien. To learn more about the BEDP or any of the other City Council advisory boards, visit the City of Burien website at “www.burienwa.gov"