4:17 PM: The business boom in medical-marijuana may be about to go bust. In Olympia today, the legislator who had been trying to get a state law passed to regulate medical-marijuana dispensaries announced the effort is officially dead, and King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg is quoted as saying that means the “gray area” that allowed dispensaries to proliferate is “gone.” Here are the details from our partners at the Seattle Times. The dispensary boom has brought at least two into West Seattle so far, with a third and possibly fourth on the way, in addition to a dispensary and a “lounge” that recently opened in White Center. Will a crackdown/shutdown campaign ensue? No word yet.

ADDED 5:09 PM: We asked for comment from City Attorney Pete Holmes, with whom we had a wide-ranging discussion about this issue 2 months ago. Here’s his statement:

“The Governor’s ill-advised veto not only further confuses the legal landscape for medical cannabis, it forces local governments to go it alone. We do not have the luxury of ignoring law enforcement’s need for guidance in regard to proliferating dispensaries and grow operations. I am committed to working with our County Prosecutor, the SPD, the Mayor and City Council to find a way for authorized medical cannabis users to obtain their medicine without sacrificing public safety. State and federal authorities have only further complicated this difficult goal, but Seattle will find a way to make a bad situation tolerable.

Holmes also “commended Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles for her doggedness and diligence” on the issue, according to his office.

(Photos by Katie Meyer for WSB)
Four city councilmembers were in West Seattle tonight – Councilmember Tom Rasmussen for the first of three Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee forums around the city (more on that later), and Councilmembers Tim Burgess, Mike O’Brien (above), and Jean Godden for a discussion of the city’s public-safety budget. (Burgess chairs the Public Safety committee.) The latter meeting was never widely announced; we stumbled onto a brief mention on a city calendar, then a note to a neighborhood mailing list, and when we asked why no news release had been sent to announce the meeting and get it on media events calendars, we were told they were using a small-group format that could only accommodate about 75 people, and they didn’t want to have to turn people away.

They shouldn’t have worried.

We asked WSB contributor Katie Meyer to check out that meeting, and she estimates the citizen turnout at Delridge Community Center (aside from councilmembers and staffers) at fewer than 20. A quick meeting summary, ahead:Read More

Tentative plans for a West Seattle Town Hall meeting with Mayor McGinn have come up at various community meetings – but just now, we heard the first announcement of a date: Steve Louie from the Department of Neighborhoods dropped by the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council to suggest you save the date, June 23, for a mayoral town hall at Hiawatha Community Center. More details to come.

Potentially of interest, since there’s at least one tobacco shop open in West Seattle and one on the way – a bill allowing such establishments to apply for cigar-lounge licenses is halfway through the State Legislature. Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-34th District), who represents an area including West Seattle/White Center, is upset about SB 5542, according to a news release we received – read on:Read More

Campaign season is under way. Two Seattle City Council candidates were at Tuesday night’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting – Position 1 candidate Michael Taylor-Judd and Position 9 candidate Dian Ferguson – and last night, one dozen candidates appeared before our area’s biggest political organization, the 34th District Democrats.

Our video shows the entire forum, unedited, with these candidates (two more were on the agenda but didn’t show): For Position 1, Councilmember Jean Godden, Michael Taylor-Judd, Bobby Forch, Maurice Classen, David Schraer; for Position 3, Councilmember Bruce Harrell, Brad Meachum; for Position 5, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, Sandy Cioffi; for Position 7, Councilmember Tim Burgess (whose lone declared opponent Darryl Carter Metcalf was a no-show); for Position 9, Councilmember Sally Clark, Dian Ferguson (the other declared candidate Fathi Karshie was a no-show). August 16th is the primary, which will narrow to the top two candidates any race that has three or more.

He’s not only the only City Councilmember living in West Seattle, he also chairs the Transportation Committee, and that means lightning-rod issues galore. Councilmember Tom Rasmussen has been on a community-conversation tour around the city, and in case you hadn’t already heard (it’s in the WSB Events Calendar), an early reminder that he’s on home turf this Saturday afternoon, available to chat with anybody who wants to come by, West Seattle (Admiral District) branch of the Seattle Public Library, 2:30-4 pm. His website promises, “All topics are on the table.”

The only non-incumbent West Seattleite in this year’s City Council races so far has gone public today with his platform and his full campaign website. Michael Taylor-Judd is running for Position 1, along with four other people so far (all listed here), including incumbent Councilmember Jean Godden. From this page on his site, he breaks down his positions into four issue areas: education, housing, transportation, public safety. He says he’s in favor of passing the Families and Education Levy this fall; opposes the Highway 99 tunnel but acknowledges it’s the designated alternative and says “Now is the time to assess whether or not the Tunnel will be the safe and suc­cess­ful option our city can afford”; for public safety, he says, “I believe we need to redou­ble the Seattle Police Department’s com­mit­ment to com­mu­nity polic­ing.” You can read his full news release here; his campaign also is on Facebook, here. Taylor-Judd is not the only West Seattleite who’s aiming to be on the ballot this year for City Council; in a separate race, incumbent Councilmember Tom Rasmussen is so far running unopposed (besides Godden with 4 opponents and Rasmussen with none, each of the other 3 incumbents on the fall ballot has one challenger so far). This year’s election dates are August 16 (primary) and November 8 (general).

(February Alki Community Council meeting photo by Karen Berge for WSB)
Just in from the City Council: They’re shelving proposed sign-code changes that could have allowed large illuminated signs on downtown buildings. The changes had drawn concern from the Alki Community Council, which heard from President Richard Conlin about the proposal just a month ago (here’s our coverage) – and here’s a statement he just sent out:

“The Executive’s legislation of proposed revisions to the sign code is on hold for the rest of the year. When the Regional Development and Sustainability (RDS) committee first discussed the issue last December, many Councilmembers and stakeholders raised questions and concerns.

“Those questions were forwarded to Department of Planning and Development (DPD) in early January and they responded to our questions in late February. In light of the DPD’s detailed response and the need for ongoing public discussion about this type of signage, several possible amendments to the legislation must be considered by Councilmembers and various stakeholders.

“The proposed legislation combined with all possible amendment options would require a significant time commitment from the Council. As several major initiatives are already before Council this year, the proposed sign code changes will likely not come back to the RDS committee until late 2011 or early 2012.”

More to come.

ADDED EARLY TUESDAY: Here are more details in coverage from our partners at the Seattle Times.

(ADDED 2:58 PM: Unedited WSB video of entire hourlong event)
Full house at C & P Coffee (WSB sponsor) for U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott‘s “coffee chat” Q&A event (the empty seat in our iPhone photo is the one he was sitting in). He opened with what he promised would not be a “speech,” saying this is a session of Congress “like no other” because of people he said were recently elected with the philosophy of “dismantling government.” So far he has fielded questions and challenges including “Why won’t you defund the war” to alleviate domestic funding challenges (he says he has opposed it but “the people” will have to force a majority of reps to make that happen), and to a question about why corporations are paying little or no tax, he acknowledged, “We’re crushing the middle class.” The event is scheduled to continue for another hour, and there’s still room to squeeze in; right now he’s talking about health-care reform.

11:02 AM: It’s actually wrapping up now. We are rolling video on the entire event and will post it here as soon as it is is uploaded back at HQ. (P.S. Though the group event is ended, Rep. McDermott is dealing with a long receiving line of people who want to ask him questions one-on-one.) This isn’t the first political gathering at C&P Coffee – owner Cameron Moores tells us state legislators have been here before, but she was thrilled with the turnout. (In fact, ex-state-senator-turned-County Councilmember Joe McDermott and State Rep. Eileen Cody both were in the crowd today. Also there, Diana Toledo, who ran against McDermott last year and told us she’s planning to do the same this year.) 2:58 PM: Added the video (top of the story). Longer summary to come.

ADDED: As promised, the longer summary – after the jump:Read More

Our coverage of Saturday’s Town Hall in West Seattle, featuring our area’s three state legislators, includes Rep. Eileen Cody‘s observation that she is somewhat surprised our state’s budget crisis isn’t drawing more demonstrations of concern. Are protests passé? Not necessarily – in fact, one small demonstration had happened in West Seattle hours earlier, in support of another hot issue – and the demonstrators (photo above) were middle schoolers. The story, with video including the young protesters’ explanations, after the jump:Read More

From left, State Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon and State Sen. Sharon Nelson are leading a “Town Hall” meeting at High Point Community Center right now. Rep. Fitzgibbon opened by saying “The biggest challenge in Olympia right now is the budget,” and Rep. Cody warned, “Everyone’s going to feel the pain.” We’ll make notes here as this goes; you have time to get here if you’d like to be part of it – 34th just north of Myrtle, till 11:30 am. More than 100 people are here.

In-progress updates, topic by topic:

BUDGET OUTLOOK/JOBS: The next revenue forecast from the state is expected next Thursday, and the legislators say it’s expected to get uglier. As Sen. Nelson put it, the average recession since the Great Depression has lasted 18 months; this one is 36 months old, she said, and we’re “still scraping bottom.” She says that of the 195,000 jobs lost in our state so far, barely a tenth have been recovered. She also noted that our state’s unemployment-insurance fund is still healthy, unlike some states. And later, while answering a question, she talked about meeting with people who are directly feeling “the pain we are causing” by having to cut, and she declared, “This budget will be immoral, no matter how we look at it.” Moments later, asking a question from the audience, an attendee named Anastasia said, “This whole budget-cutting thing is insane.”

IF YOU ARE UPSET ABOUT THE BUDGET TOO … Rep. Cody remarked toward the end of the event that she’s hopeful they’ll see more “enough is enough” rallies in Olympia because so far, in her view, “people don’t seem to be all that upset about the cuts.” This Thursday, there’s a rally about tax loopholes, Rep. Fitzgibbon noted.

TRANSPORTATION: Rep. Fitzgibbon noted that legislators opposed the governor’s proposal to create a regional district to handle state ferries: “They’re part of the state highway system.” He said major challenges will include helping local transportation agencies like Metro Transit find ways to find additional funding to avoid deep service cuts as traditional revenue sources run short. (11 am note – Interestingly, we are an hour into this event and there has not been a question about transportation yet … 11:30 update: STILL no transportation questions.)

EDUCATION: Sen. Nelson is vice chair of an education committee in the Senate. She talked about decisions that have to be made regarding early-learning programs, and also about higher-education funding – fielding a question about South Seattle Community College, she said there will be some cuts to community colleges, even though “We know they are the ones right now helping folks get back to work” (because of retraining programs). Rep. Fitzgibbon said that further tuition increases are “a dangerous road to go down” and could price more people out of college. The legislators were asked toward meeting’s end about “common core standards” for education; Rep. Cody says she supports it – “If we don’t adopt them and join together (with other states), the textbooks we buy are determined by California and Texas.” She acknowledges there are questions because of the math standards that are being proposed.

ENVIRONMENT: Sen. Nelson recapped the recent vote to crack down on the state’s one coal-burning energy plant, in Centralia, and also noted with regret that she had not been able to get enough votes to pass her proposal to get toxins out of children’s toys. She said she will keep trying.

HEALTH CARE: Rep. Cody, a nurse by trade, has long had an emphasis in that. She said they are working on funding to keep 60,000 more people from losing basic insurance that currently is provided through the state.

WORKPLACE SAFETY: Rep. Fitzgibbon mentioned a bill to make sure dangerous conditions in workplaces are fixed faster. Sen. Nelson discussed the “compromise” regarding workers’ compensation insurance – which results in relatively speedy settlements to get people off insurance – saying that in her opinion, it creates “a two-tiered system … where the poor get poorer” if they cannot hire a lawyer to get a better settlement in case of serious injury. She also says that there are Democrats siding with Republicans on even more-major changes that she says the Washington Business Association is pushing for.

INCOME TAX? Asked by one attendee if a temporary income tax could be implemented to help with the budget, while saying, not really, Sen. Nelson pointed out that the 34th District is one of only five out of 39th that voted in favor of 1098, the income-tax measure.

LEGISLATORS’ SALARIES, AND HAVE THEY FACED CUTS? Answering that question, Rep. Fitzgibbon said their salaries are set at $42,000 and it’s been frozen for a few years. Rep. Cody added that they have dealt with cuts in everything from their travel to printing/postage to staff budgets.

11:37 AM UPDATE: Sen. Nelson reiterated that it will make a difference if people attend the aforementioned rally this coming week – and that it’s important for people to contact them with questions and issues. (Though replies may take a while – Rep. Cody answered a written question earlier in the event by noting that her legislative assistant already has answered 1,800 e-mails this year and “a few hundred more” come in every day – “We’ll get to you, it just might take a while.”

To the list of political leaders with West Seattle appearances ahead (including City Council President Richard Conlin tomorrow night and all 3 state legislators this Saturday, as previewed here), add one more: Congressmember Jim McDermott has just scheduled a “coffee hour” at West Seattle’s C & P Coffee (WSB sponsor) for 10 am March 26th. His staff says it’s the first in a series of “constituent coffee hours” he’ll be holding around the city.