Seattle Forward

Belltown Walk

Last night, I joined about 30 Belltown residents for a neighborhood walk.  We all wore yellow vests.  The walks started a couple of months ago as a citizen-led effort to "take back the streets" from drug dealers, prostitutes, and graffiti taggers.  Walkers pick up litter, hand out fliers to business owners, and, by their presence, demonstrate their concern about street crime and social disorder. 

SPD Sgt. Paul Gracy walked with us.  The citizen walks are scheduled well into the summer.

Council Approves Youth Violence Prevention Initiative

The Council voted 8-0 this afternoon to approve full funding for the Mayor's special initiative to curb youth violence.  Read earlier posts on this topic here.

Stopping Youth Violence

Monday afternoon, April 27, 2009, the City Council will likely give final approval to Mayor Greg Nickels' Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. 

I recently sat down with four young people in a medical school classroom at the University of Washington for a discussion about youth violence, a pressing and continuing challenge in our city.  Just before our meeting, the room had been used for a class on cardiology, apropos for a discussion about the heartbreaking reality of street violence involving our children.

Each of the young “reporters”—three men and one woman—described their own histories with violence.  Listening for about 90 minutes to these good people was extremely informative. They chose to be vulnerable and their comments were raw, tragic, and piercing; I’d like to share a few of the more poignant comments from my notes.  I’ve blended statements from all four of the youth to provide a sense of the breadth and impact of their personal experiences. 

“. . . the seeds of violence were planted at home; that’s where I learned to fight . . . I’ve never considered myself a violent person, but I kept getting into fights . . . my grandpa would pick me up after a fight and rather than steer me in a good direction would ask ‘who won?’ . . . teachers need to look past my angry words and try to understand what’s motivating those words . . . we just want people who can see our positive strengths and have empathy . . . I remember being

New Jail: Time for Leadership and Collaboration

The City Council today formally asked King County to extend for at least 10 years its jail services contract with cities, an extension that would allow Seattle to avoid building its own jail facility for misdemeanor prisoners. 

Here is a copy of the letter and other documentation:  Download 042409 Letter to King County

You can find more background on this issue here. 

Protecting Our Children

Mayor Nickels and I announced the assignment of specially-trained and hand-screened police officers to five Seattle middle schools today.  This is one element of the city's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative that will likely be approved by the full City Council before the end of April.  This news conference was held at Seattle Public Schools' headquarters.  I'll have more to say about this Initiative in the next few days.

The Challenges of Governing: Open Meetings

UPDATE:  Councilmember Godden's office just informed me that the private budget briefing meetings will be discontinued.  Instead, budget staff members will brief council members one-on-one in private sessions.  That seems like a distinction without a difference, it's certainly less efficient.  This whole espisode could lead to some good discussion about transparency in government, something the Council is doing right now through a special committee on open government led by Council President Richard Conlin. 

EARLIER Post: Well, I woke up this morning to newspaper headlines and an editorial challenging the Council's years-long practice of private briefings on various topics in anticipation of public meetings and hearings.  I've been on the Council for 16 months and these meetings occur quite frequently on a wide range of issues.  I have participated in briefings on the city budget, police issues and operations, federal and state legislation, and employment issues, to name just a few of the topics.  City staff and Council members use these briefings to share information, answer questions, understand context, and gain insight.  It's a key part of our learning process.  These meetings are not used to arrive at a conclusion or predetermined outcome; I'm never asked to stake out a position or advocate for a specific solution.  In fact, the meetings often raise more questions than anything else. 

Now, the city attorney seems to suggest that these meetings potentially violate the state's open meetings law.  The practical question I have is what triggers the requirements of the law?  Is it because four council members were present?  How about three?  Two?  Gosh, can I meet with myself?  (That's a joke, folks!) 

I understand a skeptical public might view these meetings in a less favorable light.  I received this thoughtful email from a Seattle constituent earlier this morning:

"I have been a long time supporter and very much appreciate the change that you have brought to the council. However, I believe that you and the council are simply wrong on the issue of holding closed-private meetings on the budget. In this morning's paper you stated that that the closed door meetings allow you to "talk freely and debate issues." I doubt that many people would dispute your justification and as a public employee myself I completely understand why closed meeting might be more efficient. However, as a public servant, you are bound to a different standard; one that requires that the light of day be shed on how the people's money is going to be spent. There is no point in me trying to lecture you on the Open Public Meetings Act, I am quite sure that you are very familiar with it. I just wanted to voice my strong opinion that the council is wrong on this issue and that after having to endure 8 years of a federal government that made all of its decisions behind closed doors the public is ready for some transparency from its elected officials."

I fully understand and respect this writer's perspective, but wonder how to learn and gain perspective on complex issues that I must digest and understand in rapid order prior to hearing from constituents, weighing options, and making decisions.  Did the framers of the state's public meetings law really intend to prohibit these kind of briefing sessions?  Did they intend to bar any and all private meetings where any Council members are present?  If not, then what is the threshold that requires such meetings be public?  Prior to yesterday, our legal counsel set that threshold at no more than four members. 

The Council has scheduled a series of public meetings on the budget over the next few weeks where we will listen to the public, debate among ourselves, and finally make decisions.  You can see the schedule of these public meetings here.

By the way, want to know what happened in yesterday's "secret" meeting?  It started about 4:05 p.m. in Councilmember Godden's office.  The city's finance director handed out a draft list of potential budget cuts and the gist of what he said to us was ". . . this is what we will present at the Council's April 20 public budget meeting . . . let me tell you about them. . . let me know if you need any supporting documentation about any item prior to your meeting . . . do you have questions . . ."  There were several questions about six or eight of the line items, a general discussion about potential employee layoffs and furloughs, and acknowledgment that the Mayor has not finalized all of his budget decisions.  I left the meeting at 4:55 p.m. 

More on Nuisance Properties in Neighborhoods

WestSeattleBlog.com has a detailed summary of last Friday afternoon's tour of abandoned houses in the North Delridge neighborhood here.  This tour highlighted a significant problem that impacts neighborhoods throughout the city.

This photo shows Councilmember Sally Clark and me at the doorway of a house that was trashed; garbage, furniture, papers, and household items were piled everywhere, some of it several feet deep. 

This type of abandoned house is a public nuisance and a real risk for children and others in the neighborhood.  As the economy struggles we may find more and more of these houses abandoned, ransacked, and left open to squatters and others who are sometimes engaged in criminal activity, such as burglary and theft. 

Councilmember Clark and I will be proposing some legislative fixes later this month.

Abandoned Houses: North Delridge Neighborhood Tour

My colleague, Sally Clark, and I took a tour of the north Delridge neighborhood in West Seattle this afternoon.  It was personal and eye-opening, allowing us to see the negative impact of abandoned homes.  

WestSeattleBlog.com—one of the best neighborhood-based blogs in town—has reported on the tour here. 

Abandoned houses quickly become magnets for crime, litter, graffiti, and "squatters," not something any neighborhood wants.  The City has some tools to use to clean up these houses, but certainly not enough.  For example, good-intentioned City leaders many years ago passed legislation prohibiting someone from tearing down a home until a building permit was issued for whatever was going to be built in its place.  It was an effort to protect housing from being needlessly destroyed.  Clearly, some exceptions to this rule need to be established since it was never intended to preclude destruction of abandoned houses like those we saw today.

More assertive enforcement of building and public health laws is also needed.  Take a look at this abandoned house interior.  This house was open to anyone who wanted to enter; the front door had been kicked down.  Clearly, this house presents a public health risk, especially to children who may wander in. 

Later this month, some of my colleagues and I will be introducing legislation to toughen the City's public nuisance laws.  This new measure will help address property owners who allow their property to be used for criminal activity; some of the houses we saw today might get the extra attention they need if this legislation is adopted.