(Photos by Jason Grotelueschen for WSB)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

One more time, the two candidates for Seattle City Council District 1 are side by side tonight answering questions, with two more weeks of voting ahead.

This district has the highest number of ballots received so far – more than a thousand – according to brand-new numbers from King County Elections.

But 67,000+ ballots are still out there. So right now, Phil Tavel and Lisa Herbold are at Arrowhead Gardens, the fourth forum/debate event in West Seattle in eight days.

We’re there, for coverage we’ll bring you tomorrow. First – this story is about the third event, presented by the West Seattle Junction Association on Saturday morning, moderated by your WSB co-publishers. Here’s the video:

Ahead – quick summaries of the hour-long Q&A:

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(WSB photo, November 2018)

ORIGINAL REPORT: In our coverage of Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s South Park walking tour last Tuesday, we mentioned she was expected to be in West Seattle for one this week. That’s now been confirmed; the West Seattle Junction Association says the mayoral visit on Friday afternoon will include a public meeting/conversation at Cupcake Royale (California/Alaska) at 4:30 pm. Durkan has been touring with Police Chief Carmen Best and Fire Chief Harold Scoggins to underscore the importance of public-safety spending while her budget plan is under City Council review; as noted in our daily highlights, councilmembers are looking at the Seattle Police budget this afternoon. Last fall, you’ll recall, the mayor and Chief Best held a community Q&A at Cupcake Royale (WSB coverage here).

TUESDAY: The community conversation is now expected to start at 5 pm.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The ballots are arriving, so the voting is beginning. But 2 1/2 weeks of campaigning remain for Phil Tavel and Lisa Herbold in the City Council District 1 race – including debates. Next one is at 11 am Saturday – more on that after our report on the one the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce presented last night.

First, our video:

The debate was held at Westside School (WSB sponsor) in Arbor Heights, whose head of school Steve de Beer had words of welcome. The Chamber’s government-affairs committee chair Rik Keller moderated. The format was “Lincoln-Douglas-ish.” They began with opening statements; see the video for those. Our toplines below are summaries/paraphrases unless quotation marks are used.

Q: Regulation and compliance cost businesses more than taxes. How will you be a voice of moderation before more are enacted?

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Missed the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce-presented City Council District 1 debate last night? Our coverage is coming up later today but in the meantime, you can also plan to spend an hour Saturday morning seeing the candidates answer questions side by side: The West Seattle Junction Association is presenting it, your WSB co-publishers are moderating it, 11 am Saturday at the Senior Center/Sisson Building (4217 SW Oregon). Everyone’s welcome – out with the kids? Bring them too.

Ballots, mailed Wednesday by King County Elections, started arriving today – the photo shows the two delivered by our postal-mail carrier. You can vote as soon as you get yours; once you do, you have two options for turning it in:

BALLOT DROP BOXES: They’re now open for dropoffs until 8 pm November 5th. We photographed that one outside the South Park Library while touring SP with the mayor Tuesday. It may be the closest one (8604 8th Ave. S.) if you’re in southeastern West Seattle. Others in our area: The Junction (south side of SW Alaska just west of California, with two reserved parking spots next to it), High Point Library (3411 SW Raymond), and White Center Library (1409 SW 107th). Here’s the full countywide list. (The county says they’re emptied at least once a day.)

POSTAL MAIL: No stamp needed. To ensure your ballot is postmarked by November 5th, don’t wait until the deadline!

Once you’ve turned yours in:

TRACKING YOUR BALLOT: You can do that here.

If you need assistance voting:

ACCESSIBLE VOTING: Online ballot-marking and in-person vote centers are two options, explained here.

P.S. Reminder of two more debates in the marquee race, City Council District 1 – 6 pm tonight in Arbor Heights and 11 am Saturday in The Junction

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

If you haven’t yet settled on a choice for City Council District 1, with ballots going out tomorrow, this is a big week for evaluating the candidates side by side.

The first of three forums/debates this week was last night at Our Lady of Guadalupe‘s Walmesley Center. The Westside Interfaith Network and League of Women Voters presented it. Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist (and West Seattleite) Brian Callanan served as volunteer moderator:

That’s Callanan at center in our pre-forum photo above, with candidates Lisa Herbold at left and Phil Tavel at right. We recorded the entire event on video:

No surprises this time, unlike last Thursday’s event in North Delridge. The questions for this one, some of which were from written suggestions made by members of the audience, largely trod familiar ground, though there were a few small clashes, most notably over something The Stranger (which has endorsed Herbold) said about Tavel; while answering a question about homelessness-related funding, he said that publication said he had “gotten it right,” while she said what The Stranger said he got right was that their biggest difference was on homelessness funding. (This appears to be the story in question.)

Both were given two minutes for opening statements; you can watch the video if you’re interested. Below, we summarize how the Q&A went from there; it’s all paraphrasing/summarizing unless we use quotation marks to signify a direct quote.

First question: What is the most pressing issue for District 1?

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Voting starts in two days, as King County Elections opens its vote centers Wednesday, the same day it mails ballots. Tonight we continue previews with a look at who else is on your ballot besides the City Council District 1 candidates (yes, we covered tonight’s forum; story and video tomorrow). Here are the contested races, with each link going to a page with info about the candidate (incumbents are marked by asterisks):

KING COUNTY ELECTIONS DIRECTOR – Julie Wise*, Mark Greene

KING COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 8 – Joe McDermott*, Michael Robert Neher

SEATTLE PORT COMMISSION POSITION 2 – Sam Cho, Grant Degginger

SEATTLE PORT COMMISSION POSITION 5 – Fred Felleman*, Garth Jacobson

Though Seattle School Board members represent geographic districts, they are elected by a citywide vote in the general election, so these three are on your ballot (District 6 is West Seattle and most of South Park):

SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 6 – Leslie Harris*, Molly Mitchell

SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 1 – Liza Rankin, Eric Blumhagen

SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 3 – Chandra Hampson, Rebeca Muniz

NOT REGISTERED YET? Our state now allows you to do it all the way through Election Day (November 5th) – but the deadline to do it online is two weeks away, and that’s the simplest way, so go here.

Wednesday is when King County Elections will open its voting centers, and when it’ll mail ballots. Election notes:

3 CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 DEBATES/FORUMS THIS WEEK: You have three chances in the next six days to see Lisa Herbold and Phil Tavel side by side:

-Monday (October 14th), 7 pm at Our Lady of Guadalupe‘s Walmesley Center (7000 35th SW), presented by Westside Interfaith Network and the League of Women Voters

-Thursday (October 17th), 6 pm at Westside School (10404 34th SW; WSB sponsor), presented by the
West Seattle Chamber of Commerce

–Saturday (October 19th), 11 am at the Senior Center/Sisson Building (4217 SW Oregon), presented by the
West Seattle Junction Association, with your WSB co-publishers moderating

CAMPAIGN CASH: While the only numbers that really matter are the vote totals, it’s interesting to occasionally check in on campaign cash. This information is available through the state Public Disclosure Commission, and includes who gave to who, and what campaign funding was spent on, among other things. Checking the D-1 race, Herbold is ahead in cash contributions, $174,000+ to $133,000+ for Tavel. But he is way ahead in what’s called “independent expenditure” spending – third parties spending on your behalf but out of your control. IE spending for Tavel is $169,000+ so far, most of that from the business group Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy. IE spending for Herbold is $14,000+, most from the Civic Alliance for a Progressive Economy. Half of the quarter-million dollars raised by CAPE (here’s that list) is from entrepreneur Nick Hanauer; more than a third of the $1.1 million raised by CASE (here’s that list) is from Amazon. (Both of those groups are spending in support of candidates in other races too.)

WHAT ELSE YOU’LL SEE ON YOUR BALLOT: We mentioned the two big state ballot measures in this report last week. You’ll also see 12 state advisory measures and a state constitutional amendment. No Seattle ballot measures, but there’s one for King County – Proposition 1 renews the Medic One emergency-services levy for six more years. You’ll also be voting for King County, Port of Seattle, and Seattle Public Schools races – we’ll take a closer look at those tomorrow.

VOTING DEADLINE: Election Night is Tuesday, November 5th; dropboxes will be open until 8 pm. If you’re voting by mail, make sure your ballot will be postmarked with that date (or sooner).

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The face-to-face politeness in the Seattle City Council District 1 race ended last night at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.

During the hourlong debate presented by Seattle CityClub, when the candidates were given the chance to ask each other a question, incumbent Lisa Herbold accused challenger Phil Tavel of mismanagement in his business dealings, and followed that up with an email sent to her campaign mailing list.

We’ve subsequently spent hours searching public records for corroboration of her allegations. So before we get to the rest of the debate, here’s what we found:

She listed 12 businesses with which Tavel was involved dating back to 2001, all LLCs or PLLCs “administratively dissolved” by the state for failure to file required reports and/or non-renewal. Secretary of State records confirm the administrative dissolutions. We also searched the state system for Herbold’s name and found one LLC formed in 2013 and administratively dissolved by the state in 2014 for the same reason..

Herbold’s allegations also included warrants for unpaid state taxes by one of Tavel’s companies and court action taken over a bounced $3,100 check. Records verify both cases, since closed.

When Herbold brought this up during the debate, Tavel was flustered, at first denying involvement, then when shown the list, acknowledging it and mentioning former business partners; records show others involved in most of the entities. After the debate, we emailed Tavel to request comment. A campaign representative sent this reply: “This is a desperate attack. I look forward to providing more information and am disappointed that this is the tone that Councilmember Herbold set after calling for civility and a clean campaign.” (Herbold had decried “divisive attack mailers” sent by third-party organizations opposing her and supporting Tavel before the August primary.) We also asked Herbold about her state-dissolved LLC; she replied by email, “Bob [her husband] and I were looking into doing a hobby distillery. We didn’t pursue it.”

The rest of the debate, moderated by Seattle Times reporter Heidi Groover and KUOW’s Ross Reynolds, was a lot like previous debates/forums. CityClub recorded it and will link the video here when ready (added 6:28 pm, here’s the video):

We took notes and our summaries (exact quotes only when denoted by quotation marks) are below:

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two statewide ballot measures on which you’re about to vote were considered Wednesday night by our area’s biggest political organization, the 34th District Democrats.

And they got suggestions on how to take action on the climate crisis.

First, the ballot measures. In Seattle, they’ve been overshadowed by the City Council races, so you might not have heard much about them.

Referendum 88 will ask you whether to approve or reject a measure that passed the state Legislature, Initiative 1000, which would restore affirmative action, 21 years after a ballot measure outlawed it. The 34th DDs voted to endorse approval of R-88.

Initiative 976 is the latest car-tab-limiting proposal from Tim Eyman. Two high-level 976 opponents spoke: State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon said it would lead to – in this area – ferry cuts, bus-service “impairment,” and transportation infrastructure maintenance challenges. He acknowledged it was likely to be popular outside Seattle, so, “Every vote we turn out in this community (matters extra) … the way we defeat a Tim Eyman initiative is to run up the score in districts like the 34th.”

Also speaking against 976, King County Executive Dow Constantine, who added that 976 could be a threat to West Seattle light-rail funding. The 34th DDs agreed with the electeds and voted to oppose 976. Voting starts late next week, once your ballot arrives; the deadline is Election Night, Tuesday, November 5th.

Before the endorsement votes, the 34th DDs heard from a climate activist: Read More

The latest faceoff between the two candidates for Seattle City Council District 1, like the previous one, didn’t yield any major points of disagreement. Both incumbent Lisa Herbold and challenger Phil Tavel said multiple times that they agreed with wht their opponent had just said. The two answered questions for more than an hour Saturday afternoon at Neighborhood House High Point, with an audience of ~20. We have it all on video you can watch above.

District 1 Community Network presented this event, as well as the one two weeks earlier (WSB coverage here); Aley Thompson of the South Park Neighborhood Association welcomed attendees. The questions asked by moderator Greg Kusumi dealt with, in order, transportation, homelessness, the mayor’s report on city-owned golf courses, keeping campaign promises, supporting small businesses, affordable housing, illegal dumping, neighborhood safety, school funding, adult education.

Highlights came in the audience-asked questions that comprised the final third or so of the event. The first one: With 40,000 district voters not casting ballots in the primary, what would the candidates do to change that, “besides doorknocking,” for the general election? Answering first, Herbold noted that primary turnout was better than four years ago, but said going door-to-door is effective. Tavel said he was particularly concerned about young voters’ extremely low turnout and said he was planning an “event” with spoken word, art, and music to encourage them. He also said he was working to meet voters in places such as bars and restaurants.

Other community-asked questions included one about this week’s big transportation controversy, the bus lane returned to NB 99. Herbold said she’d heard from dozens of constituents and is asking SDOT to review the situation, which she said also came up when SDOT presented its budget at a council meeting Friday; Tavel said he would like to see the data that preceded the bus lane’s return.

While the candidates are also appearing in multi-race forums outside D-1, four more are scheduled in West Seattle: October 10, October 14, October 17, and October 19.

West Seattle’s C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) has been the setting for countless conversations. This one had an audience, as 34th District State Sen. Joe Nguyen hosted State Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Saturday afternoon. Their half-hour chat was a fundraiser for the senator but it wasn’t a rally or pep talk – instead, he interviewed Ferguson, with many questions centered on the attorney general’s dozens of lawsuits against the Trump Administration, including what it was like to file the first one:

Taking on the White House landed Ferguson on TIME‘s 2017 most-influential list. He talked about that too.

They also discussed how the AG’s office interacts from the Legislature, and how there’s more bipartisan work in Olympia than you might think. (Both are Democrats.) We counted about 30 people in attendance:

Among those on hand: Sen. Nguyen’s mom, who prepared food for the occasion:

The senator joked that his mom’s cooking was probably a bigger draw than the chance to watch two elected officials chat.

A relatively quiet weekend ahead on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, with a few exceptions, including tomorrow’s City Council District 1 candidates’ debate. This one, like the one two weeks ago, is presented by the D-1 Community Network. This time, Phil Tavel and Lisa Herbold will be at Neighborhood House High Point (6400 Sylvan Way SW), starting at 4:30 pm Saturday. Here’s our coverage of their D1CN-presented debate two weeks ago; after this, at least four more in-district forums are ahead – October 10, October 14, October 17, and October 19.

Three days after Mayor Jenny Durkan presented her 2020 budget proposal, the City Council’s review and revisions start today. How can you be part of the process? The District 1 Community Network got a briefing from the city budget boss last night. Here’s what you need to know:

CITY COUNCIL REVIEW: The council’s first meeting as the Select Budget Committee starts at 2 pm today; here’s the agenda. They’ll start with an overview – here’s the slide deck for that:

Then they will launch into initial overview presentations, department by department. First up is Seattle Public Utilities (see its budget here), with this slide deck:

Then Seattle City Light (see its budget here), with this slide deck:

All this is just the first round. You can watch live via the Seattle Channel; see future agendas here. (SDOT and SPD, among others, present on Friday.)

DISTRICT 1 COMMUNITY NETWORK: The city budget director, Ben Noble, who will brief councilmembers this afternoon, gave a “Budget 101” to D1CN at its meeting last night. We recorded it on video:

City Councilmember Lisa Herbold was there too, as you’ll see in the video, commenting from the gallery (she was not a presenter). The council’s budget review and revision timeline (see it here) stretches over the next two months. If there is something you feel passionately about, speaking at the first major public hearing is an option – it’s on Thursday, October 3rd, 5:30 pm at City Hall downtown. In the meantime, you can email council@seattle.gov, and/or individual councilmembers – as was noted at the D1CN meeting, the more they hear about something in particular, the more it breaks through the noise. And sooner is better than later – while changes will be made throughout the two-month review, there are deadlines and cutoffs (as the timeline shows), especially for additions whose impact/funding has to be studied.

“Cities are becoming the safety net for America.”

That was part of the reason Mayor Jenny Durkan cited for a sweeping new proposal to change compensation for Uber and Lyft drivers and raise per-ride taxes.

Durkan and Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan discussed it with reporters in a briefing at midday today, embargoed until tonight, to be further discussed at an event tomorrow. We were among the roomful of journalists invited to City Hall for today’s briefing, told in advance only that it would be about a proposal involving “a new proposal for workers, housing, and transit,” so we went downtown to find out more.

One big component: The city currently taxes the companies 24 cents a ride. That would be tripled to 75 cents, with the revenues mostly going to three things:

-Cover the $56 million funding gap for the Center City Connector streetcar (which District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold refers to as the “shopping shuttle”)

-Raise $52 million to help build 500 units of affordable-to-workers (defined as people making $15-$25/hour) housing “near transit” (within a 10-minute walk of what the city defines as “frequent”) in the next five years

-Raise $17 million to open and run a “resolution center” for Uber/Lyft drivers, who the city says are often “deactivated” without explanation

The mayor also contended it’s fair to get more out of ride-share companies because they’re using the city’s public right-of-way and curbspace to run their businesses.

It should be noted, while Uber and Lyft are the only ride-share companies affected by the proposal, others could be affected too if they crossed the baseline of one million rides per quarter that start and/or end in Seattle.

Might the increased tax be passed on to ride-share users? Maybe, allowed the mayor, but in other places (such as New York) where costs went up, ridership didn’t go down, she said.

What will be the minimum wage for drivers, who are currently treated as independent contractors? A study, to launch shortly, will sort that out, in time to launch it in July 2020. Currently, Ranganathan said, drivers’ pay averages out to less than $11/hour, while the city’s current minimum wage is $16/hour. Drivers are only compensated for the time passengers are in their vehicles, but studies show, she said, that they spend more than a third of each hour waiting for their next assignment. The mayor declared, “No business should benefit by not treating its workers fairly.”

This will all be part of the mayor’s budget proposal, which goes public in its entirety next Monday. That means it’ll have to go through council hearings and votes before becoming official. First public hearing on the budget is set for 5:30 pm October 3 at City Hall.

–Tracy Record, WSB editor

(WSB photos/video)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The general-election campaign for Seattle City Council District 1 officially kicked into higher gear tonight, with the first of at least five post-primary forums/debates.

The District 1 Community Network organized this one, attended by more than 25 people at the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse. Phil Tavel and Lisa Herbold spent an hour and a half answering questions posed by Chris Porter, drawn up in advance by organizers.

It was a polite event, no major disagreements, no attacks. We didn’t transcribe the full responses – you can watch our video (update: added below):

If something is in quote marks, it’s a quote; otherwise it’s a summary/paraphrase and the words are those of your reporter. After 1-minute introductions that each candidate gave. here’s how it went:

1ST Q: South Delridge has become overwhelmed with nuisance houses. Councilmember Herbold has worked with the community but it’s still a problem. What more will you do?

LH: A new monitoring law has been passed but community help is needed to identify these buildings and report them to SDCI. (On followup, what more will she do?) Property owners can get monitoring fee waived if they allow the vacant building to be used as housing for a caretaker – work toward that being utilized.

PT: The city is moving in the right direction. (On followup, what more will he do?) Empowering community groups, having police talk with community members about reporting problems when they see them.

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This month’s meeting of our area’s largest political organization, the 34th District Democrats. That’s where our report on Wednesday night’s meeting begins:

LOW-INCOME HOUSING: Introducing the presenters, second vice chair Sofia Aragon said the inspiration for the presentation was that, to say the least, it’s a “hot topic.” State/local government is deeply involved – one example she cited, the Legislature has $175 million in the Housing Trust Fund – something many states don’t have – and local jurisdictions are allowed to “carve out” part of the already-charged sales tax to use for housing. (The city announced a plan in July.) Another key part of addressing the problem, she said, was expanding the amount of time renters are given to find somewhere new if they’re evicted – they used to have as little as three days; now they have 14. Aragon talked about her mom’s career as a nurse and said there’s almost nowhere her mom could live in King County on a nurse’s pay.

First presenter: Robin Koskey of the city Office of Housing:

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Tomorrow night, you can see the two finalists for City Council District 1, incumbent Lisa Herbold and challenger Phil Tavel, in their first side-by-side local appearance since the August primary. The District 1 Community Network is presenting the forum starting at 6:30 pm Saturday at the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse (4705 W. Marginal Way SW) in West Seattle. If you need to bring your kid(s), an activity will be provided – but please RSVP ASAP to tamsenspengler@gmail.com. Also, if you’re driving, organizers have arranged for overflow parking, so you’ll be directed there. (This is the first of at least five local forums/debates in this race this month and next; D1CN is also presenting the next [announced] one, 4:30 pm September 28th at Neighborhood House High Point.)