West Seattle, Washington
04 Friday
We’ve talked before about phone books and junk mail, and how to try to opt out of them. The city council’s Public Utilities and Neighborhood Committee (which had a special meeting on another topic here in West Seattle last week – here’s our report) is taking up the topic tomorrow, with several options before them. In case you want to let them know which sounds best to you, here’s the “draft memo” listing the options. They range all the way up to passing a new law that would allow some phone books to be delivered on an “opt-in” basis only. The preferred option, according to the memo, is to contract with a company called Catalog Choice that would provide an online “enhanced opt-out service” for both city and county residents via Web access; the memo says it would cost $30,000 to get that going next year. Tomorrow’s committee meeting is at 2 pm at City Hall downtown; here’s the full agenda.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell was in West Seattle tonight – our photo shows her on the big-screen at Brockey Center on the South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) campus as she keynoted the 4th annual awards banquet for Washington Public Campaigns. She reiterated her support for public campaign financing – suggesting we wouldn’t have had to endure damaging deregulation-related debacles if we had it – and recalled her largely self-financed, political-action-committee-contribution-free 2000 campaign. Cantwell’s in her second term, which runs till 2012. The event was described as the biggest banquet for the group yet – more than 300 people (its “Dessert Dash” alone raised almost $6,000). WPC has a strong West Seattle link because its past president is Marcee Stone, who gave up that role in order to run for office – eschewing corporate and political-action-committee money in keeping with what she’s been fighting for – in the 34th District House Position 2 race. Stone emceed tonight’s event; award recipients (listed here) were State Sen. Eric Oemig (45th District) accepting the Public Leadership Award, Washington Community Action Network honored as Organization of the Year, and Elsie Simon as Volunteer of the Year.
P.S. Public campaign financing is on the agenda for another West Seattle event that’s just two nights away – Washington Public Campaigns will be featured at the next Community Forum presented by Sustainable West Seattle, 7 pm Monday at the Senior Center of West Seattle in The Junction (more details on the SWS website).
Story and photos by Jonathan Stumpf
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Last night, at a special West Seattle joint meeting of the CIty Council’s Energy/Technology/Civil Rights, and Public Utilities/Neighborhoods Committees at the Chief Sealth/Boren campus, it was brought to the attention of councilmembers 
Mike O’Brien, Bruce Harrell, and Richard Conlin, that there’s a large disconnect between the discount utility, emergency shut-off, and home improvement services available to the community and those qualified that actually use them.
Presenting this info to the councilmembers and the audience of about 60 were various staff from Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities, Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens, Seattle Human Services, Seattle Office of Housing, St. Vincent De Paul, Central Area Motivation Program, and Council central staff.
Councilmember O’Brien opened the meeting with a call to the community. Read More
(We’ll continue to update this story through the afternoon as reaction comes in – scroll down)
ORIGINAL 10:46 AM REPORT: The City Council’s special Budget Committee meeting has just begun; this will be the first official word of what cuts will be made to make up for extra red ink in the current budget year; We’ll post as it happens. It’s being pointed out that these cuts do NOT require council approval. Note: The presentation is online, according to our friends at My Green Lake – see it here. We’re reading it now.
ONGOING COVERAGE: Budget boss Beth Goldberg‘s first announcement: In light of the Fremont fire that killed five over the weekend, NO reductions in the Fire Department.
From the budget document – wading pool effects: Lincoln Park remains open 7 days a week. (Goldberg is telling the council that the decision was based on keeping the most-used wading pools fully open. Other decisions, she says, were made based on “geographic equity.”)
Wading pools open 3 Days per week (in our area – there are other 3-day schedules around the city):
Delridge, EC Hughes, Hiawatha, South Park (Goldberg says the scheduling decisions were made based on the busiest day of the week and the days on each side of that day; as of this writing, the Parks website is not updated)
Highland Park wading pool remains closed (it’s set for conversion to a spray park; Goldberg is noting during the briefing that spray features are cheaper to operate than regular wading pools; she says the city’s total wading-pool budget is just under half a million dollars a year)
ALSO FROM PARKS: No community center/swimming pool closures this year, no lifeguard cuts. The description of cuts does not mention any program cuts, but does note a 5% reduction in maintenance (no elaboration yet)
LIBRARIES: Current hours will be maintained at all locations (but there are cuts, like $500,000 cut from the collection fund)
(added 11 am) POLICE: From the document linked above:
Leaves 21 new sworn officer positions related to the neighborhood policing program vacant, saving $2.1 million
(added 11:19 am) Goldberg says there are more SDOT cuts to come – “as we go deeper, the decisions get uglier.” The document linked above goes into detail about that department’s challenges.
11:56 AM: The meeting’s over. The mayor has a media availability at 12:15 to comment on the cuts.
12:19 PM: News releases are starting to come out with reaction to the cuts. We’ll publish the ones we get – starting with, after the jump, Councilmember Jean Godden, who says she’s concerned about the 21 police jobs that won’t be hired:Read More
We’ve mentioned the City Council‘s upcoming briefing on midyear budget cuts – watch for word on that after the meeting starts at 10:30 – but there’s something else governmental to keep an eye on this morning: We know of at least two West Seattleites planning to testify at the animal-services-proposal hearing at the County Courthouse downtown – details after the jump:Read More
Friday was the final day for candidates to file to run in the August 17th primary, and the online lists – which we have reason to believe aren’t final yet – show two local races with candidates who hadn’t surfaced earlier: In the County Council District 8 race (the job to which Jan Drago was appointed to but isn’t running for), 
joining State Sen. Joe McDermott of West Seattle, Normandy Park City Councilmember Shawn McEvoy, and political newcomer Diana Toledo of West Seattle, we see Tim Fahey of South Park, whose campaign focus – via the Web and Facebook – appears to be on the soon-to-close SP Bridge. In the State Legislature races, Rep. Sharon Nelson remains unopposed for State Senate; the State House Position 2 job she’s giving up has drawn the previously announced candidates – Joe Fitzgibbon of Burien, Mike Heavey of West Seattle, Marcee Stone of West Seattle are on the online list; Geoffrey “Mac” McElroy, also of West Seattle, isn’t, but he says he filed Friday afternoon, so we’ll assume the online list has some lags. But there is one extra entrant, in Rep. Eileen Cody‘s State House Position 1 race; Ray Carter of West Seattle filed on Friday afternoon. He doesn’t appear to have a website, so we don’t know much about him yet, except that he declared his party preference as “Prefers Reluctantly GOP Party.” That makes him the only person mentioned in this story to have declared with GOP or Republican; the County Council race is nonpartisan, so no declarations there, but in the other state races, everyone has declared a Democratic preference except McElroy, who has said he’d run as an independent (since he’s not showing on the state page yet, we don’t know how it will show). In all races, the top two votegetters in August will move on to Nov. 2.
ADDED 10:43 AM: In comments and via e-mail, it’s pointed out that the county candidate-filing list page is showing McElroy’s registration, even though the state page hasn’t caught up yet. And indeed, “prefers independent party” is the designation. We also have heard from newly filed State House candidate Ray Carter, who e-mailed us an explanation of his “reluctantly GOP” preference and his campaign – click ahead to read:Read More
That’s Mayor Mike McGinn at last night’s 34th District Democrats meeting, warning again that the city budget picture remains ugly. He also said the much-awaited (albeit nervously awaited, by many) midyear cuts are soon to be “rolled out” – and this afternoon, we’ve learned the “rollout” is set for Monday morning — city budget boss Beth Goldberg is scheduled to brief the City Council Budget Committee on the midyear cuts at 10:30 am Monday, according to the agenda just sent out. McGinn was at the 34th DDs’ meeting at The Hall at Fauntleroy along with Council President Richard Conlin and Councilmember Bruce Harrell – read on for notes on what else they said, including their answers to audience questions (besides the Admiral crosswalk Q/A we reported separately this morning):Read More
As previewed here Wednesday morning, an Admiral Neighborhood Association delegation took the mike at last night’s 34th District Democrats meeting to make a pitch to Mayor Mike McGinn, City Council President Richard Conlin, and Councilmember Bruce Harrell: Make the 47th/Admiral intersection safer with a pedestrian-activated street light. Our clip shows ANA president Katy Walum making the pitch (applauded by the 34th DDs) and the mayor’s reply – which boiled down to, he needs to ask SDOT what they think. Just a few hours earlier, it turns out, Walum had received some new information from SDOT:
She forwarded us a Wednesday afternoon note from SDOT’s Luke Korpi, who wrote that the department “will be conducting another study for a pedestrian signal at Admiral Way at 47th Ave SW. This will probably be completed in about two to three months.”
As for the 34th DDs – we’ve got another story in the works, focusing on the rest of the group’s hour-plus discussion with the mayor and councilmembers – topics ranged from the Viaduct/Tunnel situation to whether the city will step up to fund the White Center Food Bank for the work it does on behalf of in-city residents.
7:31 PM: That’s Mayor Mike McGinn at the South Park businesses-coping-with-bridge-closure meeting – one of four events we’re covering right now. One of the others is the 34th District Democrats’ meeting in Fauntleroy, where the mayor is expected to arrive within the next hour. We’ll add any big news that emerges – with full stories to come later. 8:43 PM UPDATE: 34th DDs is a great meeting so far. But the big news – the Molly Moon’s Ice Cream truck, which tweeted earlier that it was thinking of coming to West Seattle tonight, has turned up OUTSIDE The Hall at Fauntleroy – and the 100+ people in here are suddenly distracted! 8:49 PM: After a brief discussion of the previous point, the Admiral Neighborhood Association leadership asked their question about the 47th/Admiral stoplight request. The mayor said he’s not prepared to answer that question but will check with SDOT. Councilmember Bruce Harrell, who is also here, as is Council President Richard Conlin, says he’d like to know more, but it belongs with Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s committee (Transportation). Conlin says, “We must be more creative, innovative and responsive in dealing with neighborhoods on these issues.” 10:09 PM: Meeting ended about half an hour ago. Full story to come, as well as separate coverage of the Triangle, Water Taxi and South Park meetings.
The list of city-government luminaries who are coming to West Seattle soon just got longer. The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council‘s next meeting – one week from tonight – now has City Attorney Pete Holmes on the agenda. (More on the WSCPC site.) And as noted earlier, Mayor Mike McGinn and Council President Richard Conlin are on the agenda for tomorrow night’s 34th District Democrats meeting, along with Councilmember Bruce Harrell. After that, Conlin, Harrell and Councilmember Mike O’Brien return to West Seattle next week, for a special evening joint meeting of two council committees (handling energy, technology, utilities, and neighborhoods). The agenda’s not online for that meeting yet but it’s at Chief Sealth/Boren on Thursday, June 17th, starting with a resource fair at 5 pm, followed by the committee meeting at 6, public comment at 7.
Monday was the first day of the official “filing week” for anyone who wants to be on the August 17th primary-election ballot. Candidates have been able to postal-mail their forms since May 21st, but online and in-person filing didn’t open till this morning. For the West Seattle (and surrounding areas)-specific races, here’s who’s filed so far: In the 34th Legislative District (map), Rep. Sharon Nelson has filed for State Senate, listing her affiliation as “Prefers Democrat Party”; for the State House Position 2 spot she’s leaving, Marcee Stone and Mike Heavey (who tweeted a photo of his online-filing moment) both filed Monday, both listing their affiliation as “Prefers Democratic Party.” (Remember, we’re in the “Top Two” primary mode now, meaning the top two vote-getters in each race advance to the Nov. 2 general election, regardless of affiliation.) The state list of “who’s filed so far” can be seen here; the King County list is here – no filings yet for the County Council District 8 seat, though at least three people have said they intend to run. We’ll update the filings nightly as the week goes on; you can also expect to hear more about this year’s elections at Wednesday night’s meeting of our area’s biggest political group, the 34th District Democrats (whose endorsements are here), 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy, with the agenda so far including Mayor Mike McGinn, Council President Richard Conlin, and Councilmember Bruce Harrell.
Tomorrow morning’s presidential Town Hall addressing health reform and seniors will be viewed at senior-serving facilities across the country, including Providence Mount St. Vincent here in West Seattle. The Mount’s Arlene Carter sends word that Susan Johnson, the Health and Human Services regional director for Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Idaho, will be at the Mount for the event, starting at 8 tomorrow morning. The National Council on Aging is sponsoring “satellite town halls” like the one in WS to try to get questions answered about health-reform changes. (If you can’t get to The Mount, the event itself, led by President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from a Maryland senior center, will be streamed on whitehouse.gov and healthreform.gov, 8:15 am-9:45 am our time tomorrow.)
Now, there are three declared candidates campaigning for King County Council District 8, the seat currently held by Councilmember Jan Drago — appointed to fill the vacancy after Dow Constantinewas elected County Executive, but not running to keep the job. The latest is West Seattleite Diana Toledo – read on for her announcement:Read More
Much symbolic breath is being held citywide to see what will be cut/closed/etc. when the city announces midyear budget cuts, requested by Mayor McGinn after it became clear this year’s budget needed some adjusting. The Parks Department is being watched most closely, after months of rumors swirling regarding all sorts of possible cuts. At one point, Parks expected news on or around June 1st; then, as we reported from last week’s Parks Board meeting, the acting deputy superintendent thought not before June 5-6; we checked with Parks communications today and they were looking toward June 4; a subsequent check with the mayor’s office revealed there’s no indication yet the news will come that soon, so we may not hear for at least another week. Therefore, today’s bottom line seems to be – we’ll find out, when we find out. (PubliCola reported last night that they are hearing the cuts “may not be as devastating” as feared.)
Sharp differences, and occasionally sharp words, between three of the candidates running for 34th District State House Position 2 – Joe Fitzgibbon, “Mac” McElroy, and Marcee Stone – at a midday campaign forum on the South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) forum today. Fitzgibbon made a repeated point that he’s young; Stone countered that age doesn’t matter, but made a point of her gender; McElroy’s main point was that he’s not “the status quo.” The fourth candidate in the race, Mike Heavey, sent his campaign manager to read a statement and to apologize that Heavey couldn’t make it because he was prohibited from campaigning while on the clock for his King County job (assisting Councilmember Jan Drago). Even if higher education isn’t at the top of your interest list in deciding who to vote for as successor to State Rep. Sharon Nelson (who’s running thus-far-unopposed for State Senate), some of the discussion might prove instructive – read on for details:Read More
The headline on the “media advisory” e-mail we received was initially a little jarring: “Healthy Schools for Washington to Launch Referendum 52 Campaign at aging, run down building housing Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle” – after all, Chief Sealth International High School‘s permanent campus is currently undergoing millions of dollars in renovations. Turns out, they’re talking about the Boren building that Sealth has called home for the past 2 school years; so, if you see a bit of a media hubbub outside Boren/Sealth at 3 pm tomorrow, this is what it’s about: The campaign kickoff for R-52, described as “a November ballot measure that will create $505 million in bonding capacity to repair aging, dilapidated school buildings across Washington State”; the advisory says Boren is among them. We’ll be at the media event tomorrow; the advisory points to a website where it says more info is available, but as of right this moment, that site’s not up yet (www.healthyschoolsforwa.org). The state website doesn’t have info at the moment either, but via Sightline, we find that this is your chance to vote yay or nay on a bill passed by the Legislature last year. Sightline’s analysis frames it more as energy retrofitting for school buidings, rather than repairs.
From our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times, word that Costco stores will start collecting signatures next week for Initiative 1100, which would privatize the liquor business in our state. But the Times says it’s not universally supported by those you might think would be behind it – some say large companies would have an unfair advantage. Here’s the official Costco news release about the initiative; here’s the state list of initiatives now in circulation, including this one (it’s not the only one seeking to privatize liquor sales); here’s the full text of I-1100. It’ll need more than 241,000 valid signatures by July 2 to make the November ballot.
Late last week, various citywide-news outlets reported the future was uncertain for County Executive Dow Constantine‘s proposal to raise the sales tax to avoid cuts in criminal-justice services. Today, there’s a new proposal, this time from the King County Council – involving property taxes. It would ask voters to reduce four existing levies and approve a new one specifically to pay for criminal-justice programs. Five council members are listed as sponsors, including Councilmember Jan Drago, who represents West Seattle; you can read the full proposal here. Read on for the official county news release:Read More
(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
Snapshots from West Seattle Democratic Women‘s “Rubbing Elbows” event Thursday night at Woodside/Braseth Gallery (co-owned by West Seattleite John Braseth) downtown, as many of the invited dignitaries took time out to share their thoughts about the group’s work: State Sen. and County Council candidate Joe McDermott is shown above with WSDW’s Karen Chilcutt and Carol Frillman, plus Rep. Eileen Cody, and Rep. Sharon Nelson. He said of the WSDW: “In so many places in the community they’re really engaging and at the same time carrying on great conversations, amongst themselves and throughout the community, about what Democratic values mean.” Next, from the legislator who hopes to succeed McDermott in the Senate:
Rep. and State Senate candidate Sharon Nelson said: “When we’re down in Olympia, it is really easy just to listen to the lobbyists and to have a different perspective. But coming home when you’re really seeing an organization that helps poor families, working families, and food banks….staffing the White Center Food Bank one night a month… I really appreciate everything this group does and the fact that their values are really reflected in their work.”
West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen joked that, since the WSDW were fundraising for worthy causes, he wondered if maybe they could also pass the hat for the South Park Bridge. And his fellow Councilmember Sally Clark jokingly jumped with “pass the hat” as some members of the audience suggested a bake sale. What Clark (and others) had to say – and more photos – after the jump:Read More
A new entrant today in the 8th District race for King County Council, a position to which Councilmember Jan Drago was appointed last year but has said she won’t run for. Normandy Park Councilmember Shawn McEvoy is now in the running against previously declared candidate State Sen. Joe McDermott. Read on for McEvoy’s announcement:Read More
Our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times are among those reporting that Tom Carr, the West Seattleite who lost his bid for re-election as Seattle city attorney last year, has a new job – same role in Boulder, Colorado. It’s a college (University of Colorado) town northwest of Denver, with a political climate much like Seattle; here’s a longer story from the Boulder Daily Camera, which says Carr will start the job on July 1st; for yet another take, here’s what Slog had to say this morning.
(video highlights added to the end of this story early Thursday)
Right now at The Hall at Fauntleroy, our area’s biggest political group, the 34th District Democrats, have just started their regular meeting, after a special event – campaign kickoff for State Sen. Joe McDermott‘s King County Council run; he thanked the crowd for their support. He and his fellow 34th District legislators, Reps. Eileen Cody and Sharon Nelson, are scheduled to provide a legislative update during the meeting; the 34th DDs also are scheduled to make one or more endorsements from among the three Democrats running for Rep. Nelson’s seat (she’s running, unopposed so far, for McDermott’s Senate seat). We’ll provide in-progress updates as news happens.
7:25 PM UPDATE: News just happened. One of the three candidates, Mike Heavey, has just withdrawn from the race. The room was clearly shocked – our reporter there says there was an audible gasp. 7:42 PM UPDATE: We talked to Heavey for clarification. He is **NOT** dropping out of the race – but is withdrawing from the endorsement process that’s under way at the meeting right now.
(Photo by Dina Johnson, added Wednesday)
7:47 PM UPDATE: Results of the endorsement vote – Marcee Stone (above) gets the 34th DDs’ members’ endorsement, with 65% of the 120+ votes cast, double what Joe Fitzgibbon received. PCOs are taking a separate vote. 9:04 PM: The meeting’s over. Stone also won the PCO vote, which translates to the party’s official nomination. We’ll add a bit more about the meeting later, including video highlights. 1:37 AM THURSDAY: Those highlights are here, in video shot/edited for WSB by Edgar Riebe of Captive Eye Media:
The 34th Dems made other endorsements Wednesday night, and they are all listed on the group’s home page.
At 5:30 pm, Seattle Channel will stream tonight’s budget hearing from North Seattle – you can watch it here.
10:08 PM NOTE: Testimony is still under way. If you haven’t tuned in to the stream yet, just click the play button and it’ll go live. 10:17 PM: And minutes later … it’s over. As Councilmember Jean Godden noted, that was “the final budget hearing of spring” – no dates set yet for the next round; this is a process that won’t result in a final budget for months.
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