This is the seventh in a series of eight posts about the eight folks who want to take Doug Mah's old seat on the Olympia city council.

Amy Tousley is a resume candidate along the lines of James Reddick, Jim Boyde and Danielle Westbrook. With ten years on the planning commission and with professional experience as a planner, in addition to a handful of other community organizations, she is very qualified to be on the council.

But, in Tousley's case, she is lacking something that all three of the above candidates seem to have, a level of passion. The only other bad thing you can say about her is that she didn't get past the primary in her run for city council last fall. Voice of the people and all that.

Tousley has a very good understanding of the city council and how it operates. She gave detailed and multi-layered answers to the questions on the application that deserve the most details.

For example, her answer on the budget question was good:

The Town Hall meeting held this past January asked the community about which facilities and services were most important... While there was some consensus about particular City services... it also became clear that each of us has our own perspective, preference and priority. Prior to any action, the Council must again reach out to the community to obtain feedback on the potential outcome of the proposal whether to reduce services or to increase funds to provide services.

I agree that the city needs to do a much better job creating a dialog on the budget. While we might all be tired of talking about downtown, the budget should be an ongoing and participatory process, because it is the heart of what the city does.

Did I say she seem to lack passion? Here's her answer to "what you would want to accomplish:

...I will work with and support my fellow councilmembers.

...

My accomplishments during the next 23 months would be the successful implementation of hte Council's mission for Olympia.

So, whatever you guys want to do is cool with me. I know its great to be a team player, but this was an opportunity for her to speak for herself, like a candidate and she punted.