Mayor Murray has just concluded his annual State of the City speech, which made history, for starters, simply by the choice of location – Idris Mosque in North Seattle.

The speech concluded as does the Pledge of Allegiance: Vowing “justice for all.”

There were two West Seattle shoutouts – talking about the city’s vibrancy, he mentioned the “bustling evening sidewalks” of The Junction (scripted as “Alaska Way Junction”). And while talking about education and youth programs, he noted the expansion of the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) 13th-Year Promise program, which offers a free first year of community college for students from certain high schools (in West Seattle, Chief Sealth International High School [added] and soon WSHS).

The big headlines from the speech will no doubt include the two new taxes Murray proposed:

-A $55 million property tax to double the annual spending on homelessness, likely to go to voters in August

-A two-cents-per-ounce tax on “sugar-sweetened beverages” to raise money for education/youth programs – here’s the city-provided infographic on that:

[More info here.]

The proposed property tax was far from everything he said about homelessness. Murray also announced he will be opening the city’s Emergency Operations Center to deal with what he described as the “homelessness disaster.” [More info here.] And he promised to “dramatically increase the clean-up of discarded debris on our sidewalks and streets.”

In his discussion of the HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability rezoning proposals, Murray echoed City Councilmember Rob Johnson‘s recent suggestion that opposing the upzoning is more in line with supporting the President’s policies: “We cannot be a city where people protest the exclusionary agenda coming from Washington, D.C., while at the same time keeping a zoning code in place that does not allow us to build the affordable housing we need.” [More info here.]

We’re adding a few more toplines shortly, and will add the video when it’s ready.

ADDED 3:34 PM: We’ve added some links above, identified with the phrase “more info here,” with additional details about some of the programs/initiatives the mayor anounced. Here’s another one: He announced “Our Best: Seattle’s Commitment to Young Black Men,” described as “the City of Seattle’s first ever initiative focusing specifically on improving life outcomes for young Black men.” [More info here.] He also talked about ongoing efforts to increase police accountability [more info here],

(back to original report) After the jump, the full text of the mayor’s speech, as sent by his office: Read More

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

New 34th District Democrats chair David Ginsberg opened his first full meeting – before a standing-room-only-and-spillover-room crowd at The Hall of Fauntleroy – saying, “This gives me hope.”

Ginsberg explained that he ran for chair because, after the presidential election, he wondered what he could do, what he should do. He decided “to stand up and fight. … If we stand together, I have no doubt we will win.” The first thing he and his new executive committee did was organize tonight’s meeting, titled “How To Resist Trump And Protect What We Hold Dear.” (Not only did it bring in new attendees – with the crowd estimated at ~500 – it brought in 85 new members.)

The Pledge of Allegiance, said after the vow, grew in volume on the closing words “… indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” and was followed by applause.

Centerpiece of the meeting, a five-woman panel representing advocacy groups both new and not-so-new (see their bios here):

Read More

After last year’s uproar over proposed encampment-removal rules that some interpreted as allowing camping in parks and on sidewalks, a new set of rules was promised. Today, the proposal has gone public, and a comment period is open. It’s in four documents, all here as PDFs. The main ones you’ll want to review are these two – first, the proposed removal rules:

Second, these are the proposed Multi-Departmental Administrative Rules:

Click the plus sign to expand the “for public comment: encampment rules” section of this page for commenting info.

It’s been three and a half months since the set of rules that the City Council was working on was basically shelved. The cover page for what’s now on the city website includes this summary:

Compared to the existing rules, the new rules:

*Identify specific criteria for prioritizing the removal of encampments.

*Require the offer of a shelter alternative in order to remove many encampments.

*Require the City to deliver materials it stores from encampments to their owners.

*Streamline the process for removing encampments that obstruct the intended use of public facilities like sidewalks and parks.

We’ll be taking a closer look later but are publishing the documents now so you can read for yourself if interested.

SIDE NOTE: While these rules apply to unauthorized camping, we’re taking this opportunity to remind you about tomorrow night’s West Seattle meeting related to the plan to authorize an existing camp on Myers Way. The meeting is at 7 pm Wednesday (February 1st) at the Joint Training Facility (9401 Myers Way S.)

The City Council usually starts Mondays with a morning briefing, and then gets down to business in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning’s briefing has three topics of interest – not to mention the likelihood they’ll be talking about some of what’s developed since the agenda came out. But just in case you’re interested, the agenda includes a Port of Seattle presentation (the slide deck includes a mention of the Terminal 5 project), an update on the city’s surplus-property disposition process, and the annual report on the Transportation Benefit District (fee/tax to raise money so the city can buy extra Metro service – you’ll see some C Line stats in the slide deck). You can watch live on Seattle Channel (online, or cable 21) starting at 9:30 am.

Trying to get a meeting with City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, like the person who started this WSB Forums thread? If you haven’t already heard via e-mail or via her blog-format website, next Friday brings Herbold’s next “district office hours” event. She’ll be at the Southwest Neighborhood Center (same building as SW Pool), 2801 SW Thistle, on Friday (January 27th), 2-7 pm. “Drop-in friendly” as usual, she says, but if you want to make an appointment, she says you can do that by e-mailing alex.clardy@seattle.gov.

(Photo by @34dems via Twitter)

Our area’s biggest political organization elected new leadership tonight, at its every-two-years reorganization meeting. The 34th District Democrats‘ new chair is David Ginsberg, shown above with Marcee Stone-Vekich, who declined to run for re-election after two 2-year terms. Per prescribed party process, the meeting was convened by the King County Democrats, and then Ginsberg took over after his election.

Two positions were contested: The first to be voted on was state committeeman – incumbent Chris Porter, challenged by Patrick Wicklund; Porter won 43-24.

(Voting in most races involved Precinct Committee Officers – the rules empower them to vote for all positions, while members who aren’t PCOs can only vote for secretary and treasurer.)

Also contested, county committeeman: Les Treall won over David Toledo, 55-12.

The rest of the slate of newly elected officers (asterisk denotes incumbent):

First Vice Chair – Treina Aronson
Second Vice Chair – Michael Taylor-Judd
State Committeewoman – Lisa Plymate*
County Committeewoman – Carrie Alexander
Alternate County Committeewoman – Martha Koester
Alternate County Committeeman – Ted Barker
Secretary – Jason Cheung
Treasurer – Gina Topp

The 34th Dems’ website has bios on those who had declared their candidacy pre-meeting – you can see them here. The group’s next meeting will be 7 pm February 8th at The Hall at Fauntleroy.

ADDED 9:29 PM: One more note from the meeting:

THANKS … to King County Council Chair Joe McDermott and the official @34Dems Twitter feed for info from tonight’s meeting.

(WSB photo, April 2016: Councilmember Herbold during brief break between appointments at a ‘district office hours’ session)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

This week marked the start of Lisa Herbold‘s second year as the first City Councilmember for District 1, West Seattle and South Park – one year since her swearing-in ceremony on January 4, 2016.

As we had done just before she took office, we invited her to sit down with us for an interview.

At the time we talked in December 2015, she had just been declared the winner of a race that had nine candidates on the primary ballot – with even more in the running before that lineup was finalized – and ended with her winning the seat by a 39-vote margin over Shannon Braddock.

Herbold won’t be up for re-election for three years. But we couldn’t resist asking, at the start of our conversation, if she is considering running for the biggest gig on this year’s city ballot.

Read More

We mentioned them a month ago – and now the “Democracy Vouchers” created by voter-approved Seattle Initiative 122 are arriving in the postal mail, if you’re a registered voter, or if you requested them. They’re a type of public campaign financing, property-tax-funded, that you’ll be able to use in three races that will be on this year’s city ballots – the two at-large City Council positions 8 and 9, and City Attorney. So far, two candidates have qualified for them, but others have until early June to qualify too. So how do you use them? The city website explains it all here. Answer to a particularly popular question: No, you can’t give yours to someone else.

West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold has “in-district office hours” today – 3:30-7 pm at the SP Community Center (8319 8th Ave. S.), “walk-in friendly” as described in her newest online update, just published/e-mailed. Also in that update is her report on this week’s council vote on capping move-in fees for renters. Since we hadn’t made note of the vote previously, we’re republishing what she wrote today:

On Monday, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to pass the Renters’ move-in fee cap legislation. This legislation will require property owners who rent to work with tenants needing an installment plan to help renters better afford the high upfront costs required to rent. Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve announced that 46% of adults could not cover an emergency expense costing $400 without selling something or borrowing money. Seattle’s high housing costs make it increasingly difficult to live in Seattle. Even middle-income households, especially families with children, struggle to meet the high prices of housing in most areas of the city.

I also understand property owners need to collect move-in fees to mitigate the risks arising from tenant damage to units and moving out without proper advanced notice. Some suggested an exemption from this legislation for property-owners who rent 4 or fewer units. In lieu of exempting small landlords, the Council did the following: (1) Exempted move-in fees that total 25% or less than one month’s full rent; (2) Exempted owner-occupied units; (3) Adopted language that allows the tenant and property owner to negotiate a different payment plan then the one required by legislation; and (4) Requires that reservation fees, also known as holding fees, be subtracted from the total move-in costs, thus reducing the total subject to an installment plan.

This legislation will be evaluated over the next 18 months and I have asked that the evaluation of this legislation include an analysis of how small and large landlords are impacted by the legislation.

The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections is charged with implementing the move-in fee legislation. If you have any questions, please contact Geoff Tallent by email at Geoff.Tallent@seattle.gov or by phone at 206-684-8452.

Councilmember Herbold’s full online update tackles a few other topics, too – read it in its entirety here.

Posters under the West Seattle Bridge aren’t unusual. This one is. Found out about it from a WSB reader’s text this morning – a poster along the Avalon/Admiral onramp, touting the white-nationalist group Identity Evropa with the exhortation, “Protect Your Heritage.” Though the poster appears new, the group has had a poster campaign under way in cities since mid-summer, according to online reports including this one and this one (the latter site also has a post specifically mentioning Seattle-area sightings in October, and the group’s own Twitter account showed a Seattle poster last month). The group rallied in San Francisco in October to protest its sanctuary-city policies, similar to those that Seattle’s mayor reinforced recently.

One year ago, Seattle voters approved Initiative 122, 63 percent yes, 37 percent no. A major component: A tax levy to pay for “democracy vouchers,” a step toward campaign-finance reform. Starting tomorrow, you can apply for your share of the vouchers, to be spent on qualifying city campaigns next year. If you’re already registered to vote, you will get them automatically – if you’re not a registered voter, today’s city announcement explains, you’ll have to apply:

Democracy Vouchers are a new way for Seattle residents to become more active in city government by donating to candidate campaigns and/or running for elected positions themselves. Beginning December 1, Seattle residents may apply to receive four $25 Democracy Vouchers to give to candidates running in the 2017 City of Seattle elections.

Registered voters in Seattle will automatically receive $100 in Democracy Vouchers by mail after January 3, 2017. Seattle residents do not have to be registered voters to receive Democracy Vouchers.

To be eligible to use the $100 in Democracy Vouchers, residents must:
Live in Seattle;
Be at least 18 years of age; and
Be either a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or lawful permanent resident “green card holder”.

If residents meet the eligibility requirements, they are encouraged to apply for Democracy Vouchers. The application is available in 15 languages [Amharic, Cambodian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Lao, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Thai, Tigrigna, Vietnamese, English] at www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher.

Seattle residents may only give Democracy Vouchers to participating candidates running for City Council or City Attorney. The program will expand to include the Mayor’s race in 2021. Residents may give participating candidates one ($25), two ($50), three ($75), or all four ($100) of their Democracy Vouchers.

Next year, two City Council seats will be on the ballot citywide, the “at-large” positions, currently held by Councilmembers Tim Burgess (P. 8) and Lorena González (P. 9). The other seven, elected by district, will not be on the ballot until 2019.

P.S. The city says it’s sending an “informational mailer” about this to every household in Seattle in about a week. Meantime, if you want to read the full initiative that created this – it’s here.

Earlier this week, we noted the West Seattle/South Park-specific items that City Councilmember Lisa Herbold still had in play as the council approached its close-to-final budget votes.

The council’s votes on more than 150 changes to the mayor’s budget played out over a long day, with some items debated separately, most considered in groups. We lost track along the way. But in her newest online update, Councilmember Herbold provides this recap, in this order, of what made it through. (For the items that were voted on this week, we’ve linked the titles below to the download links from the budget meeting.)

Fauntleroy Boulevard Project – City Light has revised the description of the project to allocate $1.5 million for the street light improvements and utility pole relocations recommended by community members as integral to the revised design.

West Seattle Bridge studies – This will continue work the work begun by former Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, by adding $100,000 to complete the two studies called for in a budget action last year to carry out the evaluations called for in the West Seattle Bridge/Duwamish Corridor Whitepaper to improve safety, incident management, and traffic flow.

Age-Friendly Community Innovation Fund – This funding will support a grant program for groups in each of the seven City Council districts to apply for up to $25,000 for programs and services based on improving the lives of an aging population.

South Park Family Service Center – This funding will support health and human services, a leadership program, and an education program in South Park.

T-5 Quiet Zone – Statement of Legislative Intent for SDOT that requests that they work with the Port of Seattle, the Federal Railway Administration, and the railway companies doing business at Terminal 5, to extend the quiet zone from Terminal 5 to the Delridge Way/W Marginal Way intersection.

A task force on South Park Public Safety – To formulate and report to Council recommendations regarding the public safety and vitality of that neighborhood. Including strategies that reflect the unique situations or dynamics of the neighborhood and are culturally and linguistically responsive data-driven approach to improving the City’s relations to and effectiveness with the South Park neighborhood. The report will go to Councilmember González’s Gender Equity, Safe Communities and New Americans Committee.

Herbold’s full online update includes her other budget proposals that made it through – including the $29 million housing proposal (here’s her statement after its passage) – and some that didn’t, including this one:

Community Planning Process for Myers Way Properties, Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) – a community planning process to determine the future uses of the Myers Way Properties. In the budget process I learned that there are 5 other District 1 land-banked properties that have pending requests for planning resources. Moving this one forward would have resulted in the Myers Way property “jumping the line.”

At least three of the sites awaiting planning are in West Seattle – the landbanked park sites north of Morgan Junction Park, on SW Charlestown, and on 40th SW (where the temporary Fire Station 32 is now).

Meantime, the amended budget is due to be finalized next week.

The City Council is close to making final decisions on the city budget. Some of the changes proposed in recent weeks have been scrapped, and some new ones have been added. Tomorrow morning at 9:30 am, the council will go through the newest list of changes still on the table. See the current full list here; ones of potential interest in our area include:

(WSB file photo by Christopher Boffoli)

WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE CORRIDOR STUDIES: Our area’s Councilmember Lisa Herbold proposes spending $100,000 on two studies:

This proposal would provide one-time funding for two traffic management studies: (1) evaluate the feasibility of traffic management modifications to improve the eastbound Spokane St Viaduct connection to I-5; and (2) initiate an SDOT/WSDOT Peer Review Team to review traffic operational and safety improvement opportunities on upper and lower roadways and make recommendations.

These were originally proposed in last year’s West Seattle Bridge Corridor “whitepaper.”

SOUTH SEATTLE COLLEGE’S 13TH-YEAR PROMISE PROGRAM: This proposal from Councilmember Bruce Harrell would allot a quarter-million city dollars to support the SSC program that provides a year of free tuition to any interested graduating senior from designated high schools:

The 13th Year Promise Scholarship program provides all graduating seniors from Cleveland, Chief Sealth International, Rainier Beach, and soon West Seattle high schools with one year of free in-state tuition at South Seattle College. Additionally, the program offers students a variety of workshops during their senior year to prepare for college enrollment and to improve math and English skills if necessary.

The funding provided in this green sheet is intended to assist South Seattle College in expanding the reach of the 13th Year Promise Scholarship program by funding non-tuition components of the program, freeing up existing resources to be used for the tuition expenses. This funding may be used for the Readiness Academy, COMPASS Improvement Workshops, and the 13th Year Bridge Program

TERMINAL 5 QUIET ZONE: Also from Councilmember Herbold:

The Port of Seattle is considering improvements to Terminal 5 to modernize the facility. As part of this project, the Port is considering implementation of shore power, a Terminal 5 quiet zone, and broadband back-up alarms to reduce the noise emitted from Terminal 5.

This Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) requests that SDOT work with the Port of Seattle, the Federal Railway Administration, and the railway companies doing business at Terminal 5, to extend the quiet zone from Terminal 5 to the Delridge Way/W Marginal Way intersection.

The SLI requests that SDOT provide quarterly reports on this work to the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee.

SOUTH PARK PUBLIC-SAFETY TASK FORCE: Proposed by at-large (and WS-residing) Councilmember Lorena González:

The Council requests that the Executive convene a Special Task Force of South Park residents to formulate and report to Council recommendations regarding the public safety and vitality of that neighborhood. It is the Council’s understanding that the written report of the Special Task Force would, as a general matter, accomplish the following:

1. Identify strategies for a new model of neighborhood policing, which will build on the micropolicing plans and community policing plans initiated by Chief Katherine O’Toole. The strategies should be replicable in other neighborhoods throughout the City, while flexible enough to reflect the unique situations or dynamics of other diverse neighborhoods; and

2. Identify strategies for a culturally and linguistically responsive data-driven approach to improving the City’s relations to and effectiveness with the South Park neighborhood, which will also inform the City’s engagement with all other neighborhoods.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT COMMISSION: The final step toward creating the mayor’s proposed Community Involvement Commission – to be a liaison group instead of maintaining ties to neighborhood district councils in that role – is spelled out in this item (PDF), which also redefines the Department of Neighborhoods’ role. It strikes out the word “neighborhood” in many cases, although one amendment is proposed: ” Subsection G would add support for neighborhood-based community-building to the list of functions of the Director of the Department of Neighborhoods.” Each City Council district will have one representative on the group; 7 other members would be appointed by the mayor.

The list of proposed changes will itself change before tomorrow’s meeting – while we were writing this story, it grew to 143 items – but you can review the titles and brief descriptions and look at others that might interest you by going here. If you have strong feelings, pro or con, about any of them, contact councilmembers ASAP – the info is all here (our area’s rep is at lisa.herbold@seattle.gov, and she’s been providing budget-process explainers on her website).

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The night after the Democratic Party lost the White House, you might have guessed a local party meeting would be funereal.

Sadness, however, was only one of the sentiments and emotions displayed at last night’s 34th District Democrats meeting. Also: Resolve, fury, pragmatism, and optimism, among others.

It started early. The Pledge of Allegiance always opens 34th DDs meetings, and this time, at the end, someone added: “HOPEFULLY, justice for all.”

Shortly thereafter, chair Marcee Stone-Vekich, after saying, “I can’t give you any kind of speech right now… I’ve got nothing to say,” managed to offer her thoughts: “I never in a million years thought it was possible for this particular person to become the president-elect. So what I do know is that we need to gather, we need to organize, and if we need to, we need to take to the streets like the hundreds who did so in our city tonight, New York, Chicago, all over the country, and that may be what it takes. This has an impact on people’s daily lives. My daughter .. is a Type 1 diabetic. She is 28 years old. If Obamacare goes out the window, what do you do? … I am comforted that you are here and hopeful that we can move forward.” Read More

From Mayor Ed Murray via e-mail:

Regardless of tonight’s national results, tomorrow Seattle will remain a city guided by the values of equality, inclusion and openness. Tomorrow we will continue to support women, we will welcome as neighbors our Muslim brothers and sisters, and tomorrow Black Lives will still matter. Our City will remain strong because of our diversity, not in spite of it.

In Seattle, our results show a city ready to lead in building a more equitable and progressive future.

As we look forward, we will challenge our people to live up to our values, to ensure we build on the foundation that was laid tonight and that we foster the equitable, inclusive world we envision.

Just in case you heard them and wondered – we have heard reports of apparent fireworks set off in multiple neighborhoods, from Arbor Heights to North Delridge, just as the presidential election was called for Donald Trump, who has just given his first speech as President-elect.