Seattle Forward

The Importance of Fiscal Consistency

The Mayor announced this week that city government would not sell approximately 11 acres of surplus land along Myers Way in southwest Seattle, opting instead to retain it as undeveloped open space. This decision is unfortunately inconsistent with 13 years of expressed fiscal policy regarding this property.

The history of the Myers Way property (51 total acres) is important to understand. The city purchased the land from Nintendo in 2003 for $14.9 million as part of the Joint Training Center (JTF) project, a new facility to be used by the city’s Fire Department and utilities for skills and safety training. The City did not want to buy the entire 51 acres – only a small portion needed for the JTF – but Nintendo would only sell it as one entire property. So at the time of the purchase, the City Council declared its intent that any surplus land not needed for the JTF would be sold “for private development to offset total project costs and to spur economic development” in the surrounding neighborhood.

Sustainable Retirement Plan Saves Taxpayers $200 Million Over 30 Years

The City Council unanimously approved legislation yesterday afternoon that will lead to a new defined benefit retirement plan for City employees. The plan is expected to save the City $200 million over the next 30 years.

This new retirement plan is a win-win-win. We've managed to retain a defined benefit pension system, which will help attract top talent to City agencies. Employees will contribute less from their salary, which means more money in their pockets now. And, over time, the City will save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

The retirement plan, called Seattle City Employees' Retirement System (SCERS) II, will be available for new employees hired on and after January 1, 2017. The new retirement system benefits better align with other public agencies in the Puget Sound region and were developed collaboratively with City labor unions.

Following the 2008 recession, the City’s retirement system faced financial challenges after experiencing a 26.8% loss. In 2011, a City Council-sponsored report defined the challenges facing the system and offered alternatives to ensure the future sustainability of the system.

The plan approved today is structured similarly to the current retirement plan, SCERS I, and will still provide an adequate retirement benefit to employees. Both employees and the City will contribute less to the program.  Currently the City and its employees contribute 15.8% of payroll to fund the benefits earned during the year.  In the new plan the contribution will drop to 11.9% of payroll.

We’re saving money, ensuring a healthy retirement system going forward, and providing competitive benefits for our employees. I'm grateful for the collaborative effort by the Mayor, Council and the City’s labor unions to reach this outcome.

Final Decisions on 2016 Budget

The Full Council voted to adopt the City’s 2016 budget today, incorporating changes Councilmembers have made from the Mayor’s proposal over the last two months.

The Mayor’s proposed budget provided us with a good start, including funding for a hospital-based gun violence intervention program at Harborview Medical Center.

I’m happy to report that all of the items I pushed for were adopted into the Council’s final package. These included funding to study an educational center for immigrants and refugees with foreign professional degrees, increasing dedicated funding for arts programs, support for small manufacturers, advancing a study to incentivize shared parking facilities in private buildings, expanding funds for the reentry and job assistance program Career Bridge, and language to direct City staff to work with Seattle Public Schools on student population growth planning.

I also have been working closely with community leaders and Councilmember Harrell to provide City support for a new “Opportunity Center” in southeast Seattle. This budget will provide nearly $2 million in seed funding for this project, which is expected to include job training, affordable housing, meeting space, or other amenities a community-led process will help determine.

Public Campaign Finance Statement

Consistent with my earlier blog post on this topic, I shared the following statement at the Full Council meeting this afternoon explaining my vote to not move forward a public campaign finance system this year:

We face a tough choice today as we consider this motion, but that’s what we are called to do.

We gather facts. We listen to various perspectives. We weigh the pros and cons of various arguments and then we decide. Sometimes our decisions are simple. Other times, like today, they are not easy; they’re complicated and require a balancing of various interests.

In the end, we make our decisions based on what’s best for the common good; what will benefit our city and region; and, in Seattle, with a special emphasis on what’s best for the most vulnerable among us.

Seattle has a strong and well-regulated campaign finance system, with individual contribution limits less than half those for King County and the State of Washington. Public financing of elections is a solid, progressive and important policy to pursue. We studied this issue extensively last year and asked the voters of Seattle to approve public financing of City Council campaigns. The voters said “no.”

Now we’re being asked to do a repeat this year. The easiest decision would be to put it back on the ballot and say, “let the voters decide again.” But, at what cost and at what risk? That’s where the decision gets difficult.

Public Campaign Finance: Right Idea, Wrong Time

There has been news coverage recently about how as City Council President I won’t introduce legislation that would send a measure to establish public financing of political campaigns back again to the voters in November.* The Stranger has a story about this in this week’s edition.

Public financing of campaigns is a good idea. Seattle established a system for partial public financing of campaigns in 1978. I helped oversee the later years of that program as a commissioner on the City’s Ethics and Elections Commission. In 1992 a statewide initiative put an end to this practice, but in 2008 the State Legislature allowed local jurisdictions to establish programs through a public vote.

Last year I voted to let Seattle decide if they wanted public campaign financing. The proposed system would have incentivized candidates to reach out to a wider segment of the population by providing matching public funds to small campaign donations; a property tax provided the funds. The voters said “no” by a narrow margin.

This November’s election ballot will have many candidates, issues, and multiple tax measures (including a resurrection of a tax for the monorail!). There’s always risk, however slight, that voters will experience “tax fatigue” and overreact by voting no on measures they might have otherwise supported, such as universal preschool or public transit funding.

At a time when frustration with government is running so high, I want the City to show voters that local government is focused on what’s most important. Maintaining and improving transit service and expanding high-quality preschool for our children top my list of priorities.

*In case you’re wondering, the Council President decides what legislation will be put before the Council and when, but this power is by no means absolute. Any councilmember can make a motion to introduce legislation during a Full Council meeting; councilmembers who favor placing a public finance tax measure on this November’s ballot have not done so. If a majority of the Council wanted to hold further discussions on public campaign finance legislation, that motion would succeed and the legislation would be introduced and referred to committee.

A New Year at City Hall

Today was a big day at City Hall. Hundreds packed the building for the swearing-in of new Mayor Ed Murray, new Councilmember Kshama Sawant, the three reelected Councilmembers and our reelected City Attorney.

Working together, those of us in the City have a fresh opportunity to build the public’s trust and confidence in local government.

The Council also held our first Full Council meeting of the year, where we finalized City Council committee and regional committee assignments. I will chair the Education and Governance Committee, which will focus on realizing the goal of voluntary, high-quality, affordable preschool available to all Seattle’s children. The Committee also oversees intergovernmental relations, the City’s personnel policies, and any legislative matters relating to ethics and elections.

In addition, my colleagues selected me to serve as the President of the City Council for 2014-2015. This means that I chair the City Council meetings and ensure all members of the legislative department can perform their work efficiently and effectively. Below are the remarks I made in acceptance of this position:

City Inside/Out: Budget, Preschool for All, Federal Shutdown and More

I joined Councilmembers Bruce Harrell and Jean Godden on the October edition of the Seattle Channel's City Inside/Out. The video premieres tonight at 7:30 p.m., but is available online now:

Council Dedicates Camera Revenue to School Safety

The City Council passed legislation today that requires revenue from automated school zone speed cameras be dedicated to traffic and pedestrian safety improvements near schools.

These cameras were installed to keep children and families safe. Establishing a dedicated fund is the most straightforward way to put the camera revenue right back into school safety. The Council’s action will bring street and sidewalk improvements to the areas close to our schools and provide driver, pedestrian and bicyclist education — all to increase safety for our kids.

The fund will take effect January 1, 2014. Earlier this month, the Council allocated $2.5 million from 2013 speed camera revenue for these types of projects and these funds can be put to use as soon as projects are identified.

Invest Early in Our Children to Build the Strongest Seattle

The following article was sent out in my City View Newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here.

What if Seattle became a national leader in providing early learning opportunities for all of our children?

To achieve this ideal, we must move at the speed of light. Why? Because the more we research how children learn and grow, the more we confirm investing early—years before kindergarten—yields the best results.

This morning, two national experts on early childhood development and learning briefed the City Council and made the case for early investments. You can review the presentations of Dr. Steven Barnett (National Institute for Early Education Research) and Dr. Sarah Roseberry Lytle (University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences) here and here.

Dr. Lytle told us that, only hours after birth, infants can tell the difference between their native language and a foreign language and that 85% of a child’s brain is developed by the time they are three years old.

Pacific Place Garage: To Sell or Not To Sell?

After months of review, my committee made a decision last week to hold legislation that would have authorized the sale of the Pacific Place Garage owned by the City. (We try not to use the term “Pacific Place Garage Sale,” because that sounds like a bargain shopper’s dream and not the sale of a piece of subterranean urban infrastructure worth tens of millions of dollars.) It was not an easy or simple decision, so I thought it would be good to explain the Council’s review process in greater detail. But first, some background.