With so many cuts proposed in next year’s city budget, and so much concern over their potential effects – we’re working right now on the story of the Southwest District Council hearing last night from the Department of Neighborhoods‘ director, who frequently used the word “pain” – next Wednesday’s public hearing in West Seattle is bound to draw hundreds. If you are planning on going – and all involved urge you to! – you’ll want to see the full online agenda, which includes some of the plans for procedures and guidelines, as well as a note that the hearing is actually TWO hearings – the first one about where the city might get money (property-tax levy?), the second, comments on the proposal itself. The agenda also includes links to documents you might want to review. The hearing’s at 5:30 pm (sign-ins at 5) at South Seattle Community College‘s Brockey Center, next Wednesday, October 13th; the full agenda is here. (And even more budget info, including other ways to comment, can be found here.)

Continuing our nightly mini-updates looking ahead to the November 2nd election, with voting starting in just about a week, since the county says ballots go into the mail next Wednesday: If you’re interested in talking politics online with other West Seattleites, we call your attention to the WSB Forums, where we started a Politics section two years ago, by request. That year, perhaps not surprisingly, participants were far more interested in talking national politics than local politics. This year, it’s been a mix. You can browse the topics currently under discussion from the index page for this section of the forum – if you want to join in, you have to sign up, but it’s usually pretty quick. Meantime, if you want to talk politics in person – you’re in luck, since tonight (Thursday) is a special election-focused program by the Southwest Seattle Business and Professional Women, looking at how this year’s elections might affect women. Longtime political consultant Cathy Allen is the guest speaker. The event starts at 6 in White Center’s Greenbridge neighborhood; full details here, including how to RSVP. Meantime, as we will remind you in every update, you have more than three dozen races/issues to decide, so start preparing now, before your ballot arrives – here’s where to find your online “guide” (the general pamphlet’s linked on the left, or you can create your own custom version on the right).

In our nightly update/refresher course, as the November 2nd election approaches (with mail-in ballots scheduled to be mailed by the county one week from today): The ballot’s full of hot statewide ballot measures – but in terms of candidates, two local races are for open seats :

STATE HOUSE, 34TH DISTRICT, POSITION 2: If you didn’t pay attention in the primary, this is the seat that Rep. Sharon Nelson is leaving for the State Senate (where she is running unopposed, for the seat given up by State Sen. Joe McDermott, who is seeking election to the King County Council). Joe Fitzgibbon of Burien and Mike Heavey of West Seattle, both Democrats, are the two finalists from a four-person primary race. Much of the campaign action has involved doorbelling – but you can pick up other bits and pieces by following them on Twitter (Fitzgibbon here, Heavey here) or Facebook (Heavey here, Fitzgibbon here). Recent news includes Fitzgibbon’s endorsement by OneAmerica Votes Washington and Heavey’s endorsement by the Seattle Times.

KING COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 8: This is the seat Dow Constantine left to run for King County Executive; Jan Drago was appointed to the job early this year, after leaving the Seattle City Council, but never planned to run to keep it. So after what was also a four-candidate primary race, the nonpartisan position now has State Sen. Joe McDermott (see above) and Diana Toledo in the running, both from West Seattle. Recent news includes Toledo’s endorsements from the two candidates who didn’t make it out of the primary, Shawn McEvoy and Tim Fahey, and McDermott’s endorsement by IBEW Local 46. These two don’t seem to be tweeting, but you can follow them on Facebook for quick bursts of campaign notes – McDermott here, Toledo here.

Your full list of what/who is on the forthcoming ballot can be found online by going here. There’s one campaign forum coming up in the area with all four candidates on the same night – 7 pm October 21st, sponsored by the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, at the Greenbridge YWCA, 9720 8th SW.

Four weeks till Election Night on November 2, but you’ll be able to vote much sooner, as King County plans to mail ballots for the general election on October 13. Though the election may not be top-of-mind for most people right now, there is much at stake, so we’re planning nightly updates/reminders – sometimes short, sometimes long. We start tonight with a quick overview: Go to the right sidebar here and put in your name and birthdate to bring up your online voter guide – you will see you have more than three dozen votes to cast: The U.S. Senate race, U.S. House, three State Legislative District 34 races (including the no-incumbent State House Position 2), 2 King County races including the no-incumbent County Council District 8, seven Seattle Municipal Court judgeships (two of them contested), 10 statewide judicial races (including one contested spot on the State Supreme Court), six statewide initiatives, one statewide referendum, two state constitutional amendments, three county charter amendments, one county proposition, and one Seattle Public Schools levy. In the “online voter guide,” there are links to information about every candidate and every ballot measure.

Tomorrow: The newest developments in our area’s two biggest races.

12:13 PM: Click “play” in the video window above, and you’ll see [now-archived] Mayor McGinn presenting his official 2011 Budget Address. We will be adding key points in the text of this story as we get them. Earlier, we got a preview from a source attending one of the meetings at which Seattle Parks employees were briefed – among the proposals, as reported here, Alki Community Center would be closed (though child-care and preschool programs would be proposed to continue through an ongoing partnership). (12:39 pm note – Alki CC was described as “limited-use status” in the mayor’s address)

12:16 PM: The mayor has begun. He mentions the $67 million budget deficit. He says he will talk about not only the decisions made, but how they were made.

12:20 PM: If you want to read ahead – the budget info’s all linked here. We’re just starting to read through it and will add highlights. The mayor’s speech at Rainier Beach Community Center, meantime, is still in the background/context stage. Here’s a section including some specific effects in West Seattle:

• Community Centers: Five community centers – Alki, Ballard, Laurelhurst, Queen Anne, and Green Lake – will have reduced operating hours. The drop-in hours for Alki, Ballard, and Laurelhurst will be reduced from 53 hours per week during the school year and 46 hours per week in the summer to 15-20 hours per week year round.

• Wading Pools: Wading pools at Green Lake, Lincoln, Magnuson, Van Asselt, and Volunteer Park will be open seven days a week in the summer months. Wading pools at South Park, East Queen Anne, Cal Anderson, Dahl, Delridge, Wallingford, Hiawatha, Bitter Lake, EC Hughes, and Sound View Parks will be open three days a week. …

• Seattle Public Library: The library is making 8.5 percent in cuts yet keeping all current hours of operation at 2010 levels by restructuring management of branches. A systemwide closure first instituted in 2009 will continue in 2011.

• Neighborhood Service Centers (NSC): Six of Seattle’s 13 Neighborhood Service Centers (those that serve as payment and information centers) will remain open. Seven centers will close, including the West Seattle payment and information center. The West Seattle site was selected for closure because the building lease expires at the end of 2010; it will merge with the nearby Delridge NSC. The remaining six payment sites are Delridge, University District, Central District, Lake City, Southeast, and Ballard.

12:35 PM: The mayor says that 30 police officers will be redeployed from lower-priority positions to patrol, so there will be more officers on patrol, even though they will not be hiring new officers (as had been proposed in the Neighborhood Policing Plan).

12:40 PM: The mayor describes Alki Community Center’s proposed status as “limited use.” Also, still reviewing the online documents related to the budget, here’s one case of proposed streamlining:

Currently, the Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE), the Department of Neighborhoods (DON), Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), and Seattle City Light each play a role in providing tree planting services to Seattle residents. The 2011-2012 Proposed Budget consolidates the OSE and DON portions of the program under the auspices of SPU, improving service delivery and making more effective use of utility funds and the General Fund. This change will provide the urban forestry program with dedicated staffing to better facilitate community engagement with the mission of increasing the city‟s tree canopy cover. Seattle City Light will continue to contribute to the program, as well.

12:45 PM: One more West Seattle detail regarding libraries – While Delridge will remain open 35 hours a week, it is one of the city’s “smaller libraries” that the mayor says will be shifted to “circulating library” status – no librarian on duty. The online overview explains that this means:

These branches
will offer collections, holds-pickup, and computer access. Access to specialized reference or collection
services will be provided on-line or by telephone access to staff at the Central Library. Programming will
be primarily focused on youth and provided by librarians from other locations.

South Park also is proposed for this status change. … While he says there are no “general tax increases,” there are fee increases – he mentions parking-meter rates and the “parking scofflaw” crackdown mentioned in our earlier story (though he says there will be an amnesty period). He also mentions, without elaborating – we’re still reading the documents – increases in various fees.

1:03 PM: The mayor just talked about neighborhood planning beginning with an analysis of “how we spend our money.” Meantime, we are continuing to find more details in the online overview: One big change – if you go downtown or to other neighborhoods where street parking is not free, Sundays now will be paid parking days (11 am-6 pm) as well as Mondays-Saturdays. The meter/pay-station rates will rise by $1.50 downtown and 50 cents (an hour) in other neighborhoods.

1:09 PM: The mayor’s speech is over. One more thing from the online overview – more details on fee increases:

FAS: FAS will increase the cat license fee in 2011. The current fee structure has been in place since 2003. The fee for altered cats will increase from $15 to $20 and the fee for unaltered cats will increase from $20 to $30. FAS will also restructure the driver-for-hire license fee and will levy a $50 charge on taxi drivers who have dual King County/City of Seattle licenses. Previously taxi drivers were not required to pay the City for dual licenses. Drivers licensed only in Seattle, who make up less than 1% of all licensed drivers, will see their fee reduced from $75 to $50.

Library: The Library will increase the daily fine rate on a variety of loaned materials including print materials, DVDs, inter-library loans, and reference materials. The Library will also increase the fees for patrons to print from Library computers. Additionally, the Library will authorize its collection recovery agency to send fine notices to parents of juveniles under the age of 13 who owe fines. Collectively, these measures will generate $650,000 in revenue.

Police: The Seattle Police Department will increase the fee charged to alarm companies who request a police response based on a false alarm. The purpose of this increase is twofold. First, SPD is attempting to reduce the number of false alarms as these responses constitute a large drain on available officers to respond to true emergencies. Given that the current percentage of alarms that are false is 97%, there is much room for improvement. Second, SPD is attempting to recoup a greater percentage of its costs related to responding to false alarms.

Fire: To maintain historical cost recovery rates for billable services, the Seattle Fire Department will implement fee increases of 10% to 15% for permits, conducting certification examinations for fire protection systems and code compliance inspections when multiple re-inspections are required. Additionally, a new $10 reporting fee for processing required fire protection system confidence testing documentation is applied. The increased fees will generate approximately $586,000 for the General Fund and will bring Fire Prevention Division fees to a 75% cost recovery rate, consistent with previous practices.

Seattle Municipal Court: The Seattle Municipal Court will generate additional revenue in 2011 through a variety of changes to its fee structure. First, the Court will continue a number of fee increases it implemented in mid-2010, including an increase from $1 to $3 to handle credit card payments made via the Internet (there is no charge for payments sent in by U.S. mail or made in-person); an increase from $100 to $122 in the administrative fee for deferred findings; and a $10 fee to set up time-payment plans. In 2011, the Court will increase revenue collections by working with its collection agency, Alliance One, to process a large volume of garnishments for people who have past due fines. The Court will also increase the monthly probation fee from $20 to $25. Lastly, the Court will increase revenue collections related to red light camera violations. Collectively, these increases will generate $1.2 million in revenue.

Parks and Recreation: The 2011-2012 Proposed Budget assumes $1 million in new revenue from increases in Parks fees and charges. The updated fees and charges set in this budget are based on Parks‟ new fees and charges policy, which seeks to align fees with the cost of providing the service. Higher percentage costs are charged where benefits of the service accrue primarily to the individual and a lower percentage where society also benefits. In addition to considering the cost of providing a service, Parks analyzed comparable fees charged by other public agencies and recreation service providers. As a result of this analysis, the following fees are increased in the 2011-2012 Proposed Budget: Japanese Garden, Camp Long, Amy Yee Tennis Center, swimming pools, athletic fields, boat ramps, community meeting rooms and gymnasiums, special events – ceremonies, picnics, and the Langston Hughes Performing Arts. A new fee for plan review is also proposed.

Official steps now include presenting the budget to the council this afternoon, and two months of public hearings, meetings, comments, and other forms of review. Again, the West Seattle hearing on the budget is at 5:30 pm October 13th, in the Brockey Center on the southern end of the South Seattle Community College campus (6000 16th SW).

1:55 PM NOTE: We are about to re-add the live video window, since it’s going to show the mayor’s formal budget transmittal to the City Council. Plus – if you’d like to read the detailed city budget overview, here’s the most informative link we’ve found so far (we’re STILL reading through other docs).

3 PM: The mayor’s City Council speech is over. The council’s regular meeting is continuing, so we’ll keep that in the live window for now. The full budget is here. We are working on a shorter bullet-point list too; here’s the overview from our partners at the Seattle Times.

3:26 PM UPDATE: The mayor is now taking questions from the media – and that event is what’s live in the video window atop the story. Also – from that media availability (and our ongoing reading of “the fine print” in the budget) we’ve learned of another major West Seattle effect: The Seattle Police Department Mounted Unit, based in Westcrest Park, is proposed for elimination – its officers would be transferred elsewhere in the department.

4:50 PM UPDATE: All of today’s live events are over – the archived city video atop this story is the mayor’s noon speech. Meantime, the next big discussion of the budget is less than two hours away – the City Neighborhood Council, chaired and co-chaired by West Seattleites (Chas Redmond and Jim Del Ciello, respectively – thanks to Jim for this tip), is discussing the budget during its meeting at 6:30 pm at the West Precinct downtown, with city budget boss Beth Goldberg scheduled to attend. Here’s the draft agenda.

City leaders have given indications at every turn that more painful budget cuts are unavoidable next year – so this fall’s public hearings may be the most important ones ever. The schedule just arrived via e-mail, and one is in West Seattle – here’s the full list:

Balancing our city’s budget in tough times requires a great deal of direction, constructive input from citizens, and the careful ordering of priorities. Don’t miss this opportunity to make your voice heard. Please join us on:

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.
Sign-in start at 5:00 p.m.
Location: Northgate Community Center Gym, 10510 5th Ave NE

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 5:30 p.m
Sign-in start at 5:00 p.m.
South Seattle Community College, The Brockey Center, 6000 16th Ave SW

Tuesday, October 26 at 5:30 p.m.
Sign-in start at 5:00 p.m.
Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave

Mayor McGinn is scheduled to present his budget proposal two days before the hearings begin – 2 pm September 27th. For the rest of the budget timeline, including other reviews, presentations, and votes, check the city’s budget-process webpage.

U.S. Senator Patty Murray has just made a quick stop in West Seattle as part of a whirlwind campaign tour of local veterans’ facilities. She spoke briefly at American Legion Post 160 in The Triangle, accompanied by a group of veterans who say they’re supporting her because of her advocacy for their issues, particularly health care through the Veterans’ Administration. Sen. Murray will face Republican challenger Dino Rossi in November; in the primary-election tally so far, Murray has 46 percent of the vote, Rossi 33 percent, topping a field of 15 contenders.

As previewed here yesterday, Mayor McGinn has gone public with what he calls the Seattle Jobs Plan. There’s a full writeup on his website. In addition to investment and infrastructure, the plan also promises to “monitor and report semi-annually on five key economic indicators: business income, job growth, business start-ups, performance of local K-12 and postsecondary education systems, and distribution of income.” The plan itself is linked here. ADDED 3:11 PM: Seattle Channel-provided video of the mayor’s announcement.

Just out of the WSB inbox, a media advisory for Mayor McGinn‘s announcement of the “Seattle Jobs Plan” tomorrow morning. The announcement explains:

The Seattle Jobs Plan articulates a strategy for next generation economic development to help create a sustainable economy with shared prosperity. It is a framework of policies, programs and investments to create quality jobs, protect the environment and ensure that taxpayers get true value from the city of Seattle’s public investments.

The news conference is being held at Cascade Designs, and along with its co-founder John Burroughs, the mayor will be joined, according to the advisory, by Seattle Community Colleges Chancellor Dr. Jill Wakefield, former president of West Seattle’s South Seattle Community College.

Procrastinating voters, don’t despair – there really is a way to vote **UP TILL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT**. We have just confirmed with the Riverton Heights branch of the U.S. Postal Service – near Sea-Tac Airport – that you can mail something there up until midnight, and it’ll be postmarked today – the King County Elections Department says your ballot DOES count as long as it’s postmarked (by) August 17th. Here’s more on the branch, including a map. Otherwise, the West Seattle USPS branches at Westwood and The Junction are about to close; the county dropboxes downtown and in Tukwila will ONLY accept ballots till 8 straight up. After that, you’re out of luck. Meantime, as for results: The county plans first results tonight around 8:15 pm – we’ll publish/link them here and bring you candidate reaction.