If you want to vote in the November 6th election but aren’t registered, today is your absolute last chance. You’ll have to go to the King County Elections Annex downtown or the King County Elections office in Renton to register in person. Both are open until 4:30 pm (the annex is closed 1-2 pm for a break).

In two sessions today, scheduled to start at 9:30 am and 2 pm, the City Council continues the “issue identification” phase of reviewing and potentially changing the mayor’s proposed budget. Today’s reviews include the SDOT and Parks budgets, as well as a discussion of issues that “cross-cut” across multiple departments. Reading the documents, we found some excerpts of interest for potential changes, mostly to be brought up by West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold, though the first one is from north end Councilmember Rob Johnson. First ones are from the agenda documents for Parks, up first at 9:30 am.:

Funding for Daily Operation of Wading Pools (Councilmember Johnson) – This proposal would add $490,000 in ongoing funding to support the daily operation of 22 wading pools in the City. The Proposed 2019 and 2020 Budget includes funding for 15 pools to operate late June to early September, with four open daily (Green Lake, Lincoln, Van Asselt, and Volunteer Park) and 11 open between two and four days a week, for a total of 597 days of scheduled operation. Funding is not included in the Mayor’s Proposed 2019 and 2020 Budget to continue operation of seven wading pools funded by the Council in the 2018 budget. This proposal would restore funding to open the seven wading pools and provide funds for all 22 wading pools to open on a daily basis.

(WSB file photo)
This next proposed change to Parks’ budget is a followup to something we reported on recently:

Open Colman Pool for One Additional Month in Summertime (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would add $60,000 in ongoing funding to support opening Colman Pool for one more month in the summer. Currently the pool is budgeted to operate for approximately 14 weeks (between late May and early September).

The District 1 councilmember has two other proposed Parks changes involving West Seattle facilities:

Winterize Cabins at Camp Long (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would add one-time funding to winterize the cabins at Camp Long to facilitate year-round use. Central Staff will continue to work with CM Herbold to determine the level of resources required to implement this proposal.

Enhance Trail Access Points on SW Brandon Street (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would add $50,000 in one-time funding for a community planning process examining enhancements to trail access points along South West Brandon Street in West Seattle, as recommended in the North Delridge Action Plan. Central Staff will continue to work with CM Herbold to determine the level of resources required to implement this proposal.

After the Parks discussion, the council moves on to SDOT before the 9:30 am-starting session ends. Three pitches that Herbold will make:

Add the Highland Park Roundabout as a separate project in the 2019-2024 CIP (Councilmember Herbold) – This project was identified through the Neighborhood Street Fund process to enhance safety, improve traffic flow, and reduce cut through traffic. SDOT has allocated $200,000 for design of this project and is seeking a WSDOT’s City Safety Program grant to fully fund the project. SDOT’s financial plan reserves an additional $300,000 as a local match for the grant. This action would create a specific CIP project for this work.

Proviso the Arterial Asphalt and Concrete Program Phase II Project related to 35th Ave. SW (Councilmember Herbold) – As part of the Move Seattle reset, SDOT is proposing additions and deferrals of paving projects from the previous 2015 Arterial Asphalt & Concrete Paving Plan. Councilmember Herbold is considering a spending proviso on this program, or other budget actions related to this program, pending further review of SDOT’s paving plan proposal.

Add funding for Landslide Mitigation (Councilmember Herbold) – This action would add $1 million in 2019 and $1 million in 2020 to address high priority potential landslide locations identified in SDOT’s 2000 Landslide Risk Assessment Report. The 2018 Adopted Budget included $1 million of one-time funding for this work, above the baseline $400,000 for landslide response and remediation. This action = would restore funding for this program to 2018 levels.

And in the “cross-cutting” discussion, scheduled for today’s 2 pm session:

District 1 Community Planning (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would confirm that there is capacity within OPCD to begin planning with West Seattle communities in 2019. In July, OPCD published “Community Planning Practice + Prioritization,” its response to Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) 135-1-A-1, which asked for a report on priorities for community planning. In that report, OPCD identified three areas where planning is starting in 2018: (1) Crown Hill in District 6; (2) the NE 130th/145th light rail station area in District 5; and (3) Imagine Downtown – a long-range urban design plan for the Center City. The next three community planning priorities are: (1) Westwood/Highland Park in District 1; (2) Aurora/Licton Springs in District 5; and (3) Columbia City, Hillman City and the future Graham Street light rail station area in District 2. According to the SLI response, future light rail station areas along the West Seattle to Ballard alignment are also intended to be an area of focus of community planning beginning in 2019. This action would ensure that there are resources to begin work with communities in Westwood/Highland Park and the Delridge and Avalon/West Seattle Junction station areas in the 2019-20 biennium through reporting requirements, a budget proviso, or additional staffing.

Increase Pet License Fees to Support an Animal Control Officer (Councilmember Herbold)—This budget action would amend budget legislation to raise the price of pet license fees to the level that would support the costs on an additional animal control officer. FAS is still determining the necessary increase in pet license fees to achieve this goal. Current pet license fees range from $20 to $200, and $120,000 was provided for a similar position in the 2017 Adopted Budget.

The full review documents are linked to the agenda for today’s sessions.

P.S. Just getting pitched in these sessions is no guarantee that these changes will be made – councilmembers have to get support from others on the council, and money has to be moved from somewhere else in the budget. If you support or oppose any of these – or anything else in the budget – you can e-mail council@seattle.gov with feedback.

8:05 PM TUESDAY: We’ve been watching the city’s Ethics and Elections Commission website for first indication of who’ll be running next year in City Council District 1, West Seattle and South Park, and tonight the first name is on the Campaigns page: Phillip Tavel. He is a lawyer who finished third in the 2015 primary.

We have a request out to him for comment, as well as an inquiry to incumbent Councilmember Lisa Herbold as to whether she’s yet decided on running for re-election. (2015 WSB photo)

ADDED 9:39 AM WEDNESDAY: Councilmember Herbold’s response to our question: “I’ll be answering this question soon. In the meantime, because I sincerely enjoyed campaigning with Phillip in 2015, it’s fun to think about a campaign trail reunion in 2019.”

ADDED 4:44 PM WEDNESDAY: The newly announced candidate’s statement:

First of all, thanks to the West Seattle Blog for diligently looking out for the news impacting our District.

Secondly, everyone’s focus right now, should really be on the election in 2 weeks. Remember that every vote does matter. There is no better way to give power to your voice than casting your vote. Complete your ballot today and mail it or swing by a DropBox, but PLEASE make sure you vote.

Regarding my campaign, I will be having several kick-off events throughout District 1 in late January (stay tuned for that) and my website will launch in mid-November. In the interim, if you want to talk to me you can come find me before, during or after the Trivia Night that I’ve been hosting for the past 10 years at Talarico’s from 830 – 10:30 every Wednesday night.

After the election in two weeks, I will present a full vision for D1. Some key points are a focus on restoring trust and respect between the city and the people of Seattle, working with businesses (large and small) to cooperatively tackle our most significant issues, and ensuring accessibility to city government. It’s vital to have open and inclusive processes so D1 residents know their voice is truly being heard.

Phil Tavel

Got your ballot(s) yet? King County Elections mailed them Wednesday. Ours arrived on Friday. (If you don’t get yours by tomorrow, call KCE at 206-296-VOTE.) Meantime, we have one more look at the marquee race on ballots in this area – the 34th District State Senate race to fill the seat from which Sen. Sharon Nelson is retiring.

(WSB photo: Chamber board chair Pete Spalding, candidates Joe Nguyen and Shannon Braddock, Chamber CEO Lynn Dennis)

The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce hosted the last scheduled WS forum with Joe Nguyen and Shannon Braddock on Thursday night at the DAV Hall in North Delridge. Here’s our unedited video:

The Chamber billed this as a “modified Lincoln-Douglas format.” No audience questions. We did take topline notes (not full transcriptions nor direct quotes outside of anything in quotation marks), if you don’t have time to watch:

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The ballots are in the mail. The ballot dropboxes (including the brand-new one in The Junction) open today. What you’ll see on your ballot includes only one contested, open local seat: 34th District State Senator. Last night was the second-to-last West Seattle forum for the two candidates who survived the 11-candidate primary. Above, our video of the entire forum, presented by the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council (in place of its regular monthly meeting), at and with South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) on Puget Ridge; below, our notes with key points – NOT full transcriptions – from the candidates’ replies to the 14 questions asked at the forum (including some “different ones!” as they observed with some measure of delight).

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3 PM: Two years after getting its first permanent ballot dropbox from King County Elections, West Seattle is about to get a second one. Lora Radford of the West Seattle Junction Association has been working with KC Elections on a location for a dropbox in The Junction. She sends word that they expect “any day now” to install one on the south side of SW Alaska west of California SW: “I’m excited this box will be permanently located in the Junction.” The KCE website already shows it! West Seattle’s only dropbox until now has been along SW Raymond by the High Point Library, installed in 2016; that one will remain. General-election voting will start later this week, when ballots start showing up in voters’ mailboxes. If you’d rather drop your ballot in a mailbox, the new prepaid-postage program continues, too.

4:11 PM: Thanks to Angelo for noting in a comment that the box is now in place! Photo added above.

This past week, 34th District State Senate candidates Shannon Braddock and Joe Nguyen spoke with the Admiral Neighborhood Association at its regular every-other-month meeting. This time, the format wasn’t the usual side-by-side format; each candidate was given time to speak and to answer questions. Here’s our video – dimly lit because that’s the way it is at the venue, The Sanctuary at Admiral:

Before your ballot arrives in the mail around the end of this coming week, you have two more chances to see the candidates in West Seattle:

-Wednesday (October 17th), 7 pm Delridge Neighborhoods District Council forum in Olympic Hall at South Seattle College (6000 16th SW; WSB sponsor)

-Thursday (October 18th), 6:30 pm West Seattle Chamber of Commerce forum at the DAV Hall (4857 Delridge Way SW)

Both are open to all. Voting deadline is November 6th.

Voting for the general election starts in less than 2 weeks. The most hotly contested race on local ballots is for 34th District State Senator, with Joe Nguyen and Shannon Braddock emerging from an 11-candidate primary. The latest major appearance by both was at this past Thursday night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting in White Center; we recorded it on video and you can watch the unedited hour-and-a-half-long forum above. We’ve also noted key points in text below (after the jump if you are reading from the front page) – not full transcriptions, just excerpted points, but perhaps of interest if you don’t have time to watch the video or go see one of their upcoming appearances (listed below):

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Missed the 34th District State Senate candidates at last night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting? We’ll have video up this weekend – and also, we’ve just received word that candidates Shannon Braddock and Joe Nguyen are both expected at next Tuesday’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting, 6:30 pm at The Sanctuary at Admiral (42nd/Lander); details to come, says ANA president Larry Wymer. Voting starts when your ballot arrives in the mail in about two weeks.

The November election is just a month away, and voting starts in about two weeks. If you’re not registered yet, Monday is the deadline for registering online or by mail. You can do the former by going here; to print a form for mailing, go here – it’s available in 21 languages!

P.S. Here’s an incentive – the coffee shop Bird on a Wire (3509 SW Henderson) has voter-registration events both days this weekend, with forms printed and available: “Enjoy a free ‘bird drop’ cookie or small cup of joe with every filled-out application!” during these times – 9-11 am Saturday, 10 am-2 pm Sunday.

P.P.S. We are reminded that this is an important time to check to be sure your registration status is still active – that could have changed if, for example, you moved and ballots sent to your old address were returned as undeliverable. Go here to check your status.

(Seattle Channel video of mayor’s budget speech)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Mayor Jenny Durkan is announcing her budget proposal for the next two years. (Click the “play” button above for the live stream from Seattle Channel at Fire Station 10 downtown.) It’s almost $6 billion a year. Just before leaving City Hall to present the speech, she hosted reporters in the mayor’s office conference room to provide background on toplines. We were among those invited – so here are some notes of interest.

She was joined by the city’s budget director Ben Noble, who acknowledged that the budget includes a “significant increase,” but he and Durkan stressed that it is balanced and includes “sustainable” sources of funding for a variety of city programs as well as recognizing that revenue growth is slowing, while inflation is on the rise.

A few big-picture notes – close to half the budget, $2.6 billion, goes to utilities: Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities. That’s separate from the city’s General Fund spending, which Noble said is proposed to go up six percent next year. The budget has a “focus on basic city services … that our taxpayers expect,” promised the mayor.

Some specific areas:

PUBLIC SAFETY: 40 new police officers – above attrition – are proposed, 10 next year and 30 in 2020. In the Fire Department, the mayor wants to add 120 new fire recruits. Noble said the added personnel are needed because maintaining required staffing levels is currently leading to lots of overtime. Durkan said that Chief Harold Scoggins found savings in other areas to cover the cost of adding personnel. We asked for specifics; fuel savings was mentioned, and they promised to provide details of others.

Back to police, the mayor does include money for 12 Community Service Officers – as originally called for by the City Council – and says they will be part of a new Collaborative Policing Bureau.

UTILITIES: 24 people will be added in the Customer Call Centers to reduce wait times. The mayor said City Light in particular needs a lot of “re-tuning” and she expects to spend a lot of time with new GM Debra Smith – assuming the council confirms her – doing that.

TRANSPORTATION: The city wants to pay the county to add yet more bus service – 100,000 more hours. In all, more than $600 million is budgeted for transit/transportation, including $101 million for “maintenance and replacement of key roads, trails, bike paths, bridges.” No specific projects mentioned for our area, but there was talk about dealing with the upcoming Period of Maximum Constraint downtown, including signal adjustments to keep transit and other traffic flowing. The mayor also mentioned going to Olympia to try to get approval for transit-lane-blocking enforcement cameras. (This would be a repeat try.) She promised they’ll be working “block by block” to figure out how to keep people moving.

HOMELESSNESS: Next year’s budget includes $89 million total in all areas in which the city deals with this, up a bit from this year’s $86 million. The spending includes “increased case management” for tiny-house villages (sanctioned encampments); we asked what that might mean for a specific encampment such as Camp Second Chance in West Seattle, and were promised details on that too. (Currently the city’s contracted camp operator. LIHI, provides a case manager, paid from what it gets annually to run the camp.)

The city’s going to try a “safe parking” program again for people who live in vehicles, with $250,000 allotted for that. No specifics of where/when, yet. And the Navigation Team will be increased.

NEIGHBORHOODS: $4 million is included to continue the Matching Fund program that funds many programs and projects around the city.

IF YOU REALLY LIKE NUMBERS: Noble explained that city revenues are “highly dependent on the local economy.” Sales, business/occupation, and utility taxes comprise more than 56 percent of what goes into the city’s General Fund. They’re continuing to grow but more slowly – this year sales tax was expected to go up 8.7%, but next year 3.5% and 2% in 2020; B&O is expected to grow 7.4% this year, 5.1% next year, 3.3% in 2020. The city expects construction activity to drop more than 10 percent over the next two years, while inflation is “creeping up,” in the three percent vicinity. But Noble stressed, “this is not a recession forecast – it’s a slowing of growth.” And new revenue streams are helping – $22 million a year from the “soda tax,” which at one point was expected to drop dramatically as the years went on, but, Noble said, other cities that have it are NOT seeing those drops so it “provides an opportunity to use these monies to fund more sustainable activities.”

THERE’S MORE: What’s above is just part of what was discussed at the briefing and a small part of what’s in the budget. The full document is due out now (update: find it here) and we’ll be reviewing it for other notes of interest that we’ll add to this report later.

WHAT HAPPENS FROM HERE: The City Council spends the next ~2 months reviewing the budget. District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold outlined the process – and how you can get involved – in her newest online update.

Five weeks from tonight, you’ll likely have your ballot for the November election. The marquee local race is for State Senate in the 34th District, which includes West Seattle, White Center, Vashon and Maury Islands, and part of Burien. The two West Seattleites who finished the primary atop a field of 11 – Joe Nguyen and Shannon Braddock – went head to head last night at the monthly meeting of the 34th District Democrats, who endorsed both before the primary.

The format, billed as Lincoln-Douglas-style debating, meandered a bit, so you’re just going to have to watch. It started with a topic both tackled in the WSB interviews we published earlier this week (Braddock here, Nguyen here), taxes. Moderator Chris Porter also asked about gun laws and about the candidates’ respective 34th Districts-specific priorities, should they get sent to Olympia.

The debate had its moments. Before it was all over, each candidate had used the f-word once (no, it’s not bleeped out, we run event video unedited); and each had gotten in at least one direct dig at their opponent. Nguyen also complimented Braddock at one point for a “fantastic” answer to a particular question. If you missed this, there’ll be other opportunities to see the two side by side, including the October North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting and a date-TBA West Seattle Chamber of Commerce forum.

ALSO AT THE MEETING: A standing-room-only turnout had gathered by debate time. The 34th DDs voted to endorse three state initiatives – 940, 1631, and 1639 – plus the city Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy, though the latter was not without some pre-vote controversy, as Leslie Harris, the longtime local activist who currently leads the Seattle Public Schools Board, said Mayor Jenny Durkan had yet to respond to requests for information on whether any of that levy’s money would go to charter schools. … The 34th DDs also heard pitches for help with the November vote in swing areas outside the 34th.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A month has passed since the August primary, and general-election voting is a little more than a month away. Our election coverage continues with a closeup look at both candidates running for the open 34th District State Senate seat. We interviewed Shannon Braddock and Joe Nguyen separately before Labor Day; after featuring our conversation with her last night, tonight we’re reporting on our conversation with him.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Joe Nguyen‘s 34th District State Senate campaign is his first try for public office – and while he says that “I knew we worked harder than anyone else” in the primary field of 11 contenders, he was still “shocked” to have ended up with the most votes.

Though he hasn’t run for office before, Nguyen says he has “been involved with politics for a long time … I actually paged for (now County Executive) Dow Constantine when he was in the Legislature.”

Our opening question in our conversation (which you can see above, in its entirety, in unedited video): Why do you want this job?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: A month has passed since the August primary, and general-election voting is a little more than a month away. Our election coverage continues with a closeup look at both candidates running for the open 34th District State Senate seat. We interviewed Shannon Braddock and Joe Nguyen separately before Labor Day, and are presenting the stories tonight and tomorrow.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Of the 11 candidates who were on the primary-election ballot for the 34th District State Senate seat, Shannon Braddock was the only one who had run for office before.

Three years ago, she finished a very close second in the first-ever District 1 City Council election, losing to Lisa Herbold by just 39 votes.

Now, Braddock is campaigning again, this time to represent a larger area – the 34th Legislative District, which includes West Seattle (where she lives), Vashon and Maury Islands, White Center and part of the rest of North Highline, and part of Burien. Its senator is one of three legislators for the district; the two State House Reps., Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon, both ran for re-election this year, both unopposed. Sen. Sharon Nelson, the outgoing Senate Majority Leader, chose to retire.

Why does Braddock want the job? was our opening question when we sat down to talk at Fauntleroy Schoolhouse. (You can see and hear our entire conversation, unedited, in the video above.)

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The hottest local race on the November ballot, 34th District State Senator, is revving up. Tomorrow night (Wednesday, September 12th), candidates Joe Nguyen and Shannon Braddock will debate at the monthly meeting of the 34th District Democrats, who endorsed both before the 11-candidate August primary. According to an advisory from the Nguyen campaign, it will be a “Lincoln-Douglas style debate,” not the standard Q&A forum; the advisory explains, “Lincoln Douglas style debates are similar to the format used in high school debate competitions. Candidates will have the opportunity to cross examine one another and respond to claims made during the debate.” The 34th DDs’ meeting starts at 7 pm Wednesday at The Hall at Fauntleroy (9131 California SW).

P.S. We recently interviewed both candidates, recording a half-hour conversation with each one, and will be publishing those stories – text with video – here on WSB tonight and tomorrow.

A problem that’s been before the City Council off and on for more than 10 years is back in the spotlight at a council-committee discussion tomorrow (Wednesday).

The problem: Vacant buildings. It’s been 9 1/2 years since the issue gained some attention when a Delridge community advocate invited councilmembers, department heads, and others on a tour of problem properties in eastern West Seattle.

The vacant-building problem has been addressed with incremental legislation over the years. But it’s still a problem. Stats prepared by Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s staff for tomorrow’s meeting of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee show that West Seattle/South Park District 1 had the most vacant-building-related complaints last year of any of the city’s seven council districts – 95.

95 complaints – but only 2 properties in D-1 were enrolled in the city’s vacant-building-monitoring program. Beyond that, Herbold’s staff found that 44 District 1 addresses accounted for 284 Seattle Police responses last year alone, while 66 houses in West Seattle are signed up for SPD’s criminal trespass program. The slide deck (48 MB PDF) to be presented by Herbold assistant Alex Clardy also shows multiple examples of vacant, deteriorating properties in West Seattle and South Park.

The point of tomorrow’s briefing is to look at what might make the vacant-building-monitoring program more effective; this report from the Department of Construction and Inspections looks at a variety of possibilities, including changing the standards for enrolling properties in the program. For example, the report notes that properties slated for redevelopment usually aren’t enrolled because they’ll be demolished before long. (The report does not address the length of time that can elapse between the initiation of a redevelopment plan and demolition – sometimes years.) Another possibility addressed by the report is a “temporary caretaker” program in which good-quality vacant properties could be made available through nonprofits/social-service agencies identifying people who could live there until demolition is imminent.

You can see how the discussion goes by going to City Hall, or watching Seattle Channel, for tomorrow’s 9:30 am PLUZ committee meeting.