Politics & Government

Conrad Lee Elected Bellevue Mayor, First Asian-American in Post

Conrad Lee unanimously was chosen mayor by the Bellevue City Council, making him the first Asian-American and the first ethnic minority in the position, according to the city.

Deputy Mayor Conrad Lee was chosen to be the mayor of Bellevue for the next two years by a unanimous vote of the city council Tuesday night.

Lee, who has been on the council since 1994, was the deputy mayor under outgoing Mayor Don Davidson. Bellevue has a council-manager system of government, which means that the mayor and deputy mayor are chosen among the council members. In Bellevue, the positions are chosen every two years.

Lee's appointment is a historical one for Bellevue, , according to numbers generated by the U.S. Census Bureau.

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"It's important to note that Bellevue just chose our first Asian-American mayor in our history, and that is an important milestone," said Jennifer Robertson, who also was elected by the council unanimously Tuesday night to be the city's Deputy Mayor.

Lee, who moved to Bellevue with his wife Winnie in 1967, immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong in 1958, according to a 2007 Northwest Asian Weekly profile of Lee. They have two grown children.

Find out what's happening in Bellevuewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Robertson was elected by her fellow council members to serve as deputy mayor for the next two years. Robertson, who was been on the council since 2009, ran unopposed in the most recent election.

Tuesday night also saw the swearing in of , who won the seat vacated by former Councilman Grant Degginger after a mandatory manual recount. The recount was triggered by the closeness of the election.


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