Adib Altallal (Auburn City Council Position 2, Washington, candidate 2025)
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Adib Altallal is running for election to the Auburn City Council Position 2 in Washington. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Altallal completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Adib Altallal provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on July 19, 2025:
- Birth date: January 27, 1991
- High school: Charlottesville High
- Bachelor's: Washington State University, 2015
- Graduate: Georgia Southern University
- Gender: Male
- Profession: Civil Engineer
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: A Future We Can Build Together
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
Elections
General election
The general election will occur on November 4, 2025.
General election for Auburn City Council Position 2
Adib Altallal and Kate Baldwin are running in the general election for Auburn City Council Position 2 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
Adib Altallal (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Kate Baldwin (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
To view Altallal's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Adib Altallal completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Altallal's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I'm a public servant, engineer, and community advocate running for Auburn City Council Position 2. I work full-time as a water and sewer engineer for a neighboring city, and I’m earning a Master of Public Administration to strengthen my impact in local government. I’m proud to call Auburn home and believe in building a city rooted in fairness, resilience, and accountability. I’ve seen how strong infrastructure and responsive leadership can transform a community, and I’m ready to bring that experience to our council.
- Auburn deserves infrastructure that reflects our values: safe, reliable, and built to last. I’ll prioritize fixing aging systems and preparing for the future, whether that means upgrading water lines, improving stormwater systems, or ensuring our roads and public buildings are resilient and accessible.
- I believe in open, responsive government that treats people with respect. Whether it’s showing up to community events or returning calls and emails, I’ll work to make City Hall feel more connected and accountable to the people it serves.
- I’m not here to climb the political ladder, I’m here to serve my neighbors. This campaign is about the community we live in every day: our parks, our sidewalks, our water, and how we treat each other. I’ll bring practical experience, a collaborative approach, and a focus on results.
I'm passionate about strong infrastructure, housing, safety, and transportation, but also about making sure they work together to support real people. I want to see Auburn invest in its infrastructure with a future-ready mindset, while also addressing homelessness with compassion and proven strategies. Public safety should focus on both prevention and accountability, and transportation should connect neighborhoods, not divide them. I also care deeply about revitalizing downtown Auburn. We can't allow long-term vacancies to drag down the heart of our city, and I support tools like vacancy taxes to encourage property owners to activate those spaces. Above all, I believe in making local government more transparent and accessible.
City Council is where policy meets people. It's one of the few places in government where residents can speak directly to the people making decisions... and be heard. Councilmembers help shape zoning, infrastructure, policing, and housing policy. The decisions may look small on paper, but they add up to the character and livability of the city. Councilmembers also play a vital role in setting the tone for how local government interacts with the public, whether it’s reactive and bureaucratic, or proactive and people-centered.
I don’t look up to just one person, I take inspiration from many people for different reasons. I admire Bernie Sanders for his consistency and commitment to fighting for working people, even when it's not popular. I respect Cristiano Ronaldo’s relentless drive and work ethic. He wasn’t born the best, but he made himself one of the best. And I’ve always appreciated how Barack Obama communicates complex ideas with clarity and calm. I try to learn from all kinds of leadership, especially people who stay grounded, work hard, and don’t lose sight of who they’re fighting for.
Evicted by Matthew Desmond is a book I often recommend because it powerfully illustrates how housing instability affects everything else in a person’s life such as health, employment, education, and dignity. It also shows how policy decisions can either trap people in cycles of poverty or create pathways out. As someone running for local office, I think it’s critical to approach homelessness and housing with both compassion and data. This book helped reinforce my belief that local government can and should play a leading role in creating stable, affordable, and fair housing systems.
The most important qualities for an elected official are humility, consistency, and a genuine respect for the public. An official should listen before reacting, stay grounded in facts, and be willing to change their mind when the evidence changes. They should be accessible to the people they represent and transparent in how and why they make decisions. Good leadership also means putting in the work, showing up, reading the materials, understanding the consequences of a vote, and taking responsibility for the outcome. You don’t need to have all the answers on day one, but you do need the integrity to keep learning and the backbone to stand up for your community’s values.
I am steady, detail-oriented, and focused on results, not headlines. I have spent my career in public service, working on the essential systems that keep cities running. That experience has taught me how to solve problems, navigate bureaucracy, and follow through. I take pride in showing up prepared, asking good questions, and listening to people, especially when they disagree with me. I am not in this to climb a ladder or score points. I am running because I care about the city I live in, and I believe in doing the work that makes life better for the people around me.
Auburn City Councilmembers are responsible for shaping policies that directly impact residents’ daily lives, everything from land use and public safety to utility rates and long-term planning. The job is part policymaker, part budget steward, and part listener. A Councilmember should be a consistent and thoughtful voice in public meetings, a bridge between residents and City Hall, and a watchdog for how public funds are used. It also means being willing to push back when systems aren’t working or when bureaucracy gets in the way of good outcomes. At its core, this role is about service.
I want to leave a legacy of trust, competence, and follow-through. I hope people will remember me as someone who showed up, listened, and got things done without needing attention for it. I want to help build a city where people feel safe, where infrastructure works the way it should, and where the public feels connected to the decisions being made. If I can help make Auburn more resilient, more transparent, and more inclusive, that would be a legacy I would be proud of.
The aftermath of the first Iraq War, also known as the Gulf War, is the earliest historical period I remember. I was very young, too young to remember the echo of missiles or the sound of sirens, but I do remember what came after. I remember standing in line to help my parents collect our weekly food rations. I remember my mom being creative in the kitchen when we didn’t get our sugar, flour, or other basics. I remember thinking we were going on a picnic when we were actually visiting my father in jail. He had been taken by the dictatorship without any due process. One of my earliest memories is trying to comfort my mother when I was just four years old, and she was missing my father. Those years left a mark, and I haven’t been back, even to visit, in over 30 years. But that experience made me more grounded, more thankful for what I have, and more determined to serve the community I’m part of now.
My first job was helping manage my dad’s small grocery store and pool hall. When he went out to restock inventory, I’d keep things running, such as handling sales, helping customers, and sometimes organizing little pool tournaments to keep people engaged. I did that for a few years until school became too demanding. It taught me a lot about working with people, understanding different perspectives, staying sharp with numbers, and being creative when it came to making a small business feel like a community space.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus really stuck with me. It’s about a brilliant woman navigating a field that constantly underestimates her, and it mixes humor, science, and social commentary in a powerful way. I liked how it showed someone pushing through obstacles without losing their sense of purpose. That kind of perseverance and quiet strength is something I value, especially in public service.
Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. He stood up for what was right, even when it wasn’t popular, and treated people with fairness, patience, and dignity. I admire that kind of quiet strength and moral clarity.
“Titanium” by David Guetta and Sia. It has this energy that sticks with you and makes you feel like you can handle anything. Between work, grad school, running for office, and a few other commitments, that kind of boost has been pretty useful lately.
One of the biggest struggles in my life has been balancing responsibilities while building a stable future. Like many people, I’ve had to juggle work, school, and family, often all at once. I’ve faced challenges that required me to grow up quickly and take on a lot of responsibility at a young age. More recently, working full-time while earning a graduate degree and running for office has tested my limits. But those experiences have made me more disciplined, more focused, and more grateful. They’ve also deepened my commitment to making systems more supportive and less punishing for people who are trying to move forward in life.
Most people don’t realize how much influence the City Council has over land use, zoning, and long-term infrastructure planning. These decisions shape the future of our city, such as what kind of housing gets built, how businesses grow, how we plan for stormwater or public transit, and how neighborhoods evolve. Councilmembers also set utility rates, approve budgets, and oversee how departments respond to community needs. These aren’t flashy responsibilities, but they’re critical to keeping a city running well and preparing it for the future.
Experience can help, but what matters more is a willingness to do the homework, ask questions, and serve with integrity. I’ve worked in local government for years as a utility engineer, not a politician, and that has given me insight into how cities actually function. I understand how budgets get built, how decisions are implemented, and where things can break down between policy and reality. That experience is valuable, especially when combined with humility, clear communication, and a strong connection to the community you serve.
City Councilmembers should be able to read a budget, understand how city services are delivered, and think critically about policy trade-offs. But they also need to be accessible, communicative, and collaborative. Skills like active listening, clear writing, and the ability to work through disagreement respectfully are just as important as technical knowledge. Having a background in public infrastructure or city operations can be a big plus, but so can experience working directly with people in the community.
The City Council is the policymaking body closest to the people. It's where residents can show up, speak up, and expect to be heard. Council decisions affect daily life in very real ways, such as housing, public safety, parks, roads, utilities, small business growth, and more. Unlike higher levels of government, this office requires practical, hands-on problem-solving and real collaboration with staff and residents alike. That closeness to the community is what makes it both powerful and deeply important.
I told my wife she should embrace her mistakes... So, she gave me a hug.
King County Democrats, 47th District Democrats, Washington State Progressive Caucus, City of Tukwila Mayor, City of Auburn Mayor, Auburn Councilmembers Rakes, Taylor-Turner, Stirgus, and Amer.
Government has a responsibility to spend public money responsibly and openly. Budgets are moral documents, and they should reflect the priorities of the community. That means creating processes the public can actually access and understand, not just posting 300-page PDFs online. As someone who works in municipal utilities, I’ve seen how transparency builds trust. I believe in open budgeting, clear performance measures, and being upfront when something isn’t working.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Altallal completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
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Candidate Auburn City Council Position 2 |
Footnotes
