Seattle Forward

Setting Context: Seattle Budget Trends

The Council has begun the budget decision-making process for 2011-2012.  We've prepared a series of slides to set context for the decisions we will be making over the next six to eight weeks.  Click the start button below to watch the presentation. (Please note that you can click on the full screen icon in the lower right corner and you can pause the presentation at any time. The total length is just under eight minutes.)

Click here to obtain a schedule of Council hearings and decision points. 

Roberto Maestas: A Seattle Legend

Roberto Maestas, a fierce advocate for justice and compassion, died this morning at University Hospital surrounded by his family and dear friends.  His passing is a huge loss for Seattle.

Viewed by some early in his career as a firebrand, I knew Roberto later in his life as a principled leader who was driven by a keen sense of right and wrong, a man with a gentle heart and loving spirit. 

Roberto was a man who fought for justice but did so by bringing people together.  He built coalitions, recruited advocates. He was gentle yet strong.  He had an unfailing sense of compassion and forgiveness. His life demonstrated the power of moral authority, placing principle above expediency. Through his life, Roberto touched many.  His influence will be remembered; he was clearly one of our elder statesmen, a true Seattle legend. 

Rest in peace, Roberto.  Thank you for your good service to our beloved city.  

HistoryLink has an excellent summary of Roberto's life here.  Visit the website of El Centro De La Raza, the organization Roberto, and others, founded in Seattle here. Comments from my colleagues follow the break . . .

Hundred Year Choices: Central Waterfront Design

The City named the design firm for the central waterfront project yesterday.  The selection is excellent and is aptly summarized in this piece by Cary Moon over at Publicola.

Civilian Oversight of Police

I shared these remarks at the opening session of the annual conference of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement yesterday morning at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle.  Approximately 230 delegates from around the United States and overseas are participating in the conference.

My colleagues on the City Council and I welcome you to Seattle.  We are delighted you chose our great city . . . the home of the WNBA champion Seattle Storm.

Over the next several days you will discuss, debate, and learn about the best ways and means to provide civilian oversight of police practices and behavior.

All of us know from our own experience, that this is an important topic because . . .

Moving Forward with Education Reform

Our city took a giant step forward on education reform last night when the school board approved a new three-year contract with Our teachers.  The contract is good for our kids, good for our schools and good for our teachers.  It represents the reform that is possible when good people collaborate and work together on behalf of our children. 

The Seattle Education Association, the union representing teachers, demonstrated their desire for innovation and a focus on student performance by negotiating this agreement.  It is a bold step that will honor and respect our teachers.  And it shows how people can work together, even with difficult issues. 

The above photo was taken just after our group made statements highlighting the significance of the new contract.  (Photo IDs, Left to right: George Griffin III, 2010 Chair of the Board, Alliance for Education; Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D., Superintendent, Seattle Public Schools; Chris Korsmo, Executive Director, League of Education Voters; Estela Ortega, Executive Director, El Cento de la Raza; and Tim Burgess, Councilmember, City of Seattle.

Nothing to Fear: SPD Should Open Up Even More

Yesterday, I urged the police department to invite a peer review of their investigation of the officer-involved shooting of John Williams last week at Boren Avenue and Howell Street.

Such a review would accomplish several good things.

First, it would signal to both the public and, just as importantly, the members of our police department the high confidence police commanders have in the quality and integrity of their own investigation.  Inviting outside peer review would be a powerful statement that the department has nothing to fear. Plus, there is wisdom in seeking the counsel of experienced and respected colleagues.

Second, inviting a peer review would directly refute the claims of some in the community that the case file presented to the prosecuting attorney for use in the public inquest will somehow be incomplete or slanted to emphasize some facts over others in a manner that distorts an accurate assessment of the incident.  Openness to outside review is a proactive action that will build public confidence.

Third, our officers and detectives deserve to be supported by the bold leadership of police leaders.  Inviting a peer review of this specific incident would indeed be bold.  To be blunt, police leaders need to "get ahead of the story."  Taking proactive steps to demonstrate true openness, true accountability, is always a good thing.

Why is this so important? 

Police use of deadly force is the ultimate expression of the authority and power we give our officers.  No officer takes this authority lightly.  No officer wants to use deadly force.   But when it is used there must be a very careful, deliberate, and objective review and analysis.  This review process is well established and includes various internal police processes and a public inquest before a judge and jury.  

Because of the many questions being raised about this specific incident, adding additional scrutiny through a peer review can only help.  It would be good for our city and especially good for our police officers and detectives.

Where's Euell Gibbons?

OK, Euell Gibbons is not exactly the metaphor or spokesperson I'm looking for, but he'll do just fine.  Those of my generation may remember watching those Euell Gibbons television commercials in the 1970s for Grape Nuts cereal.  Gibbons was a natural foods advocate and author, but his popular image centered on a "return to basics," hence his pitching of Grape Nuts.

I thought of Gibbons today when I read this excellent piece over at Crosscut about the importance of paying attention to our nation's crumbling infrastructure.  The author, Michael Godfried, argues that it is especially important during down economic times to focus on the basics, like fixing bridges, transportation systems, dams, public buildings, the core infrastructure of our nation.

Godfried's argument certainly applies right here in Seattle.  The City Council recently completed an assessment of major capital projects across the city, everything from the central waterfront seawall to police and fire facilities to sidewalks we've hoped to bring to the outer reaches of the city for decades.  The list was long and expensive, very expensive.  Prioritization of the list is our next step.  It will be a difficult process. 

Later this morning, several of my colleagues and I will join the Governor and Senator Patty Murray, among others, at the two-way Mercer Street groundbreaking ceremony.  This is an essential infrastructure project that is about so much more than transportation.  It will reconnect the South Lake Union and Uptown (lower Queen Anne) neighborhoods.  It creates three additional east-west crossings of Aurora (SR 99) at John, Thomas and Harrison Streets, meaning there will be five such crossings between Denny Way and Mercer.  It recreates an open vista leading to Lake Union Park. It vastly improves pedestrian and bicycle mobility.  And, with the eventual completion of the West Mercer phase of the project, it protects freight mobility and gives Magnolia, Interbay and Ballard residents easy access to the north portal of the new SR 99 tunnel.

Infrastructure projects will be part of our fall budget deliberations for 2011-2012.  In addition, I will be focused on these major areas in this priority order:

• Public Safety services, the city government's highest priority
• Safety-net Human Services, essential protections for those with the greatest survival needs
• Protecting transportation corridors, expanding alternatives
• Preserving jobs and creating opportunity, especially for locally-owned small businesses
• Public education, a vital and important area for the city to be further engaged
• Quality-of-life features, such as parks, athletic fields, arts, music and cultural enhancements

These are tough economic times and we face some very difficult decisions that will result in good people losing their jobs and services being cut back.  At the same time, as Godfried successfully argues, we must not lose sight of the long-term.  Investing in our core infrastructure is necessary and will pay huge dividends long into the future. 

Rebuff of Seattle Times on Ed Reform

This is Labor Day and we should be celebrating and affirming our labor leaders.  Instead, the Seattle Times is bashing the leadership of the Seattle Education Association.  The Times is right to encourage reform of public education, but very, very wrong on the details.

The new, teacher-approved contract will use student academic growth as a check or verification of performance evaluations for all teachers; it's not a voluntary process.  Second, and very important, we don't have "retrograde union leaders" at the Seattle Education Association.  The school district and union bargained in good faith and reached an agreement on a three-year contract that is fair, protects the rights of teachers, and puts our teachers and schools in the forefront of innovation and reform.  The new contract is a huge step forward and that's very good news for the children of Seattle.

Public education reform would have been better served had the Times editorial affirmed and celebrated the significant role the leadership of the Seattle Education Association played in reaching an equitable resolution of the contract.  They deserve praise for their willingness to stretch beyond the norm, to embrace new ideas, to become national leaders for reform.  All for the sake of our kids.

Why is all this so important?  Listen to or read this American Radio Works documentary on the value of teachers, it captures the essence of the national debate on education reform.

Updated: Police Use of Deadly Force

Tuesday, September 7: The documents linked below have been updated.

Seattle police officers have authority to use deadly force in certain limited circumstances.  Thankfully, such incidents are rare.  But there have been two occasions in recent weeks where Seattle officers have used deadly force, the most recent on the afternoon of August 30 at Boren Avenue and Howell Street. 

Several things happen when police use deadly force: there is an internal SPD investigation, then a Firearms Review Board hearing and, finally, a public "coroner's inquest," which is conducted by the King County District Court and prosecuting attorney.  These steps are sometimes confusing, so here are a couple helpful documents that give more detail and explain the process.

Description in SPD manual of Firearms Review Board process (PDF): Download FRB process

Flow chart of Coroner Inquest (PDF): Download flow chart

Next Wednesday morning, the Council's Public Safety and Education Committee will receive a report from the civilian observers of the Firearms Review Board.  These reports are contained in this clerk file.