Seattle Forward

Help On The Way! Council Passes New Chronic Nuisance Law

The City Council voted 8-0 (Conlin excused) this afternoon to adopt a new Chronic Nuisance Property ordinance that is designed to stop frequent criminal activity at commercial and residential properties across the city.  We have worked on this legislation for just over a year and it was personally gratifying that all of my colleagues supported this work.

The new law will help people protect their neighborhoods, including some who have lived with drug trafficking, prostitution, and other street-level crime for years.  Unfortunately, there are some property owners who don't care about their neighbors and they allow all sorts of criminal behavior to flourish.  These owners destroy neighborhoods and the Council said today with its vote that we've had enough.

The legislation gives the city an additional tool against property owners who knowingly and repeatedly allow criminal activity on their property and fail to take steps to stop it.  Under the ordinance, following police investigation, the city can seek a court determination that a specific property is a chronic nuisance.  Court-ordered penalties could include fines up to $500 per day that the nuisance continues, a $25,000 fine if a property owner fails to respond to city attempts to resolve the nuisance, and other nuisance abatement steps the court may impose. 

Citywide Crime Stats Thru September

	2007 to Sept	2008 to Sept	2009 to Sept	% Change 2009 Compared to 2008
Homicide	22	21	15	-29%
Rape	73	95	83	-13%
Robbery	1125	1120	1332	19%
Agg Assault	1507	1272	1536	21%
Total Violent Crime	2727	2508	2966	18%
Burglary	4493	4798	4938	3%
Larceny	17129	16543	18480	12%
Veh Theft	4686	2666	2258	-15%
Total Property Crime	26308	24007	25676	7%
Total Major Crimes	29035	26515	28642	8%

Spontaneous Engagement with Mayor-elect Mike McGinn

Yesterday afternoon I made a spontaneous visit to Mayor-elect Mike McGinn's transition offices on the 60th floor of the Seattle Municipal Tower.  Gosh, what a view he has!  I met several of the folks helping Mike with his preparation to take command on January 1.

It was a visit of reciprocity—Mike wandered around the 2nd floor of City Hall last Friday; a very welcome visit that was interpreted as a gesture of collaboration.  Good start, for sure. 

Budget Primer and All That Stuff

The Council has completed the heavy lifting on next year's city budget, including millions of dollars in cuts, additions, and restorations from the Mayor’s proposal.  Our final vote is Monday, November 23 at 2 p.m. 

Where the City’s Money Comes From

Here are the four main funding sources for city government: 

• Our share of the property tax collected by King County,
• Our share of the retail sales tax collected by Washington state,
• Our Business & Occupation Tax and
• Our share of the Real Estate Excise Tax collected by King County, plus fees, fines, and interest earnings. 

How the City Spends Your Money

The Council will approve $907 million in general fund (annual operating budget) expenditures. 

Here are some of the most significant decisions and my personal assessment of how we did.

School Reform: What Might Seattle Accomplish?

We're going to see a revolution in education very soon in our country and city.  Where is this reform revolution coming from and how might it change education in Seattle?

First, parents are increasingly fed up and aren't going to take it anymore.  Silence is no longer an option.  This is especially true in poorer neighborhoods and among children of color.  The failure of one-third of our students to graduate from high school is a tragic and despicable mark on our city.

Second, political leadership here and across the country is coalescing around a very strong push for education reform.  This demand for reform is coming from the grassroots and from important leaders like President Obama.  (Read David Brooks' opinion piece on Obama's pivotal leadership.) It's coming from local education leaders, including members of

Tough Budget Decisions: Let's Not Overlook Young Girls Coerced into Prostitution

Seattle and King County governments face bleak budget forecasts that will force some very tough budget decisions.  Very good programs that serve people throughout our region face cutbacks in their government funding.  My colleagues and I on the City Council will begin making these touch choices this week; our colleagues on the King County Council face similar decisions.  In many ways, there are no winners and we will agonize over our votes.

But there is a group of young people we should not overlook: children and young women forced into prostitution through coercion, intimidation, and overt violence.  A special report commissioned by the City of Seattle in 2008 documented up to 500 juveniles (children 17 years of age and under) involved in street and Internet prostitution, some of it orchestrated by gangs and other organized criminal groups. 

Sunday's Seattle Times cast this crisis correctly and urged funding for a unique safe house option for prostituted children.  Read the editorial here.  Here's an earlier story documenting this issue. 

Help the Officer!

I thought I made it through the weekend fairly well, until I read this post at Seattlecrime.com.  The post includes a transcript of a portion of the radio communications between Officer Britt Sweeney and the police dispatcher last Saturday night.  As I read the transcript tears welled into my eyes.  I felt like I was living through the incident, like I was present as it unfolded. 

Read it and you will capture a glimpse of what our officers experienced over the weekend.  Here's the link in full:  http://www.seattlecrime.com/2009/11/02/the-call.

Officers Killed While Serving in Seattle

Last Thursday afternoon, a few dozen police officers and citizens gathered in the lobby of police headquarters to honor the sacrifice made 62 years earlier that same day when Officer William T. Rumble was killed while patrolling in downtown Seattle.  Officer Rumble's three adult children were there as Interim Police Chief John Diaz presented them with the department's Medal of Honor. 

It was a privilege to stand in the audience and reflect on what policing was like following World War II in Seattle, and then to speak briefly with the officer's children who grew up without their dad. 

Two days later on Halloween night I would be summoned to Harborview following the death of another Seattle officer. Another life lost to senseless urban violence, this time in a hail of gunfire at pointblank range. 

Seattle Officer Slain

A Seattle police officer was shot and killed while sitting in his parked patrol car on 29th Avenue just north of East Yesler Way late Saturday night.  The officer's partner escaped serious injury.  The officers were not on a specific assignment at the time of the shooting.  The slain officer was a Field Training Officer.

I learned of the incident by phone while attending a Halloween Party on Queen Anne Hill.  I immediately went to Harborview Hospital, then to the scene of the incident.  Mayor Nickels was also at Harborview.  This is the type of event I've dreaded, but knew was possible.  I'm sure we'll learn more in the coming days. 

Just Friday evening, Joleen and I attended the annual banquet of the Seattle Police Foundation, an event that honors employees of the police department for their service.  How tragic that 24 hours later our city would be mourning the senseless murder of one of our officers. Click here to review the list of line of duty deaths involving Seattle police officers. 

My prayers are with the officer's family and friends and all of our police officers who serve us with distinction and grace.