By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

When then-Mayor Ed Murray announced plans last year to create a Community Involvement Commission, it accompanied word that the city would cut formal ties with neighborhood-district councils.

Most of those councils have continued their work anyway. And one of the two in West Seattle – the Southwest District Council – invited a commission member to its December meeting.

Her guest appearance was just part of a full agenda at the meeting this past Wednesday night – no holiday-season slowdown here. One of several big topics was the SWDC’s leadership change:

(From left, new SWDC secretary Roxane Rusch, new co-chair Tamsen Spengler, outgoing co-chair David Whiting, outgoing secretary Vicki Schmitz Block)

NEW LEADERSHIP: Outgoing co-chair David Whiting from the Admiral Neighborhood Association led his final SWDC meeting, with outgoing secretary Vicki Schmitz Block of the Fauntleroy Community Association also at the head of the table. Whiting isn’t just leaving the council, he’s leaving West Seattle, moving with his wife to her hometown, Spokane. The other outgoing co-chair, Eric Iwamoto of the Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Coalition, was unable to attend. Two members of the new leadership team were there, co-chair Tamsen Spengler of the Morgan Community Association and secretary Roxane Rusch from the Admiral NA; the other new co-chair will be Amanda Sawyer of the Junction Neighborhood Organization.

NEIGHBORHOOD CHAT WITH DURKAN TRANSITION REP: Cindi Barker, who represents the West Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs on SWDC, briefly summarized this relatively hastily organized meeting two weeks ago. Asha Mohamed, a member of Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s transition team, visited West Seattle to talk with representatives of local groups/organizations. The one big question that Mohamed asked the WS reps: “What’s the one thing you want me to go talk to the mayor about?” Their reply, recounted Barker: Restore the Department of Neighborhoods‘ ability to work with neighborhood groups on a professional level so they can use the same tools DoN is using to try to reach more people.

DAKOTA HOMESTEAD UPDATE: Kristen Corning Bedford and Becca Bay from the Urban Homestead Foundation briefed the council on the status of the group’s effort to buy City Light‘s former Dakota Substation so it could be used as open/green space for environmental education. The good news for their effort – the city has extended the deadline, and wants to work with them for as long as the group wants to continue trying to raise the purchase price. The bad news – the site’s value has now been recalculated at more than $600,000. The foundation has a grant that will cover half the purchase price, but they still need to cover the other half and are up to about $35,000, many “small, individual gifts from the community,” leaving a gap of almost $300,000. The site otherwise will be sold for single-family housing. Corning said, “We’ve heard there are developers just waiting for us to fail.”

Their next fundraiser is a dine-out benefit at local restaurants next Tuesday night (check this page on the foundation website for the latest list):

Our most recent story about the effort is here.

CRIME DOWN: West Seattle property crime is down 9 percent year-to-year, total crime down 8 percent, Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Ron Smith told the SWDC, surpassing outgoing Chief Kathleen O’Toole‘s goal of a five percent reduction citywide. Not all categories are down, he said – homicides are higher than last year, with four in West Seattle. While street robberies are down 15 percent, commercial robberies are up – but more than three-fourths are shoplifting incidents turned violent. Speaking of shoplifting, it’s up 36 percent – 370 incidents to date last year, 502 to date this year, but the emphasis patrols at Westwood Village are starting to make a dent in that, Lt. Smith said. Car prowls are down dramatically – 1,570 through this time last year, 1,170 this year. Residential burglaries are down 19 percent – 438 through this time last year, 355 this year. Shots-fired incidents are down – 71 through this time last year, 63 this year (that counts incidents confirmed as gunfire, whether via discovery of casing and/or property damage and/or a victim).

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT COMMISSION: West Seattle resident Jenna Franklin was invited to come talk with the SWDC; she is an at-large appointee on the commission. She said that they’ve spent much of the early months on logistics. “Much of the conversation we’ve had with city departments has been understanding our scope and role,” as well as the departments’ roles and priorities. They also have worked on understanding “the lack of participation in civic process by marginalized communities.” Overall, it’s been “a long-term orientation … to some extent.” Overall, she said that after months of this work, commission members are now eager to get directly involved in policy initiatives. But with the administration change, they’re also waiting and watching to see whether that would affect their mission.

To appoint new members they looked at who they had and Seattle’s demography and what/who was missing, “looking for balance,” Franklin said.

MoCA’s Deb Barker asked for the “elevator pitch” of “what is your purpose?”

Franklin: “Advice and feedback and guidance to city programs and projects” to get more people involved. “We also see ourselves as conduits as being in the community ourselves,” providing feedback and even pushing back – they gave DoN some feedback on something they haven’t felt comfortable with.

Diane Vincent, identifying herself as a renter, wondered what percentage of the commission was comprised of renters. 54%, said Franklin.

Whiting wondered about commission members’ individual advocacy interests, which seemed to diverge from the original ordinance that created the group, back when the mayor said he wanted to cut ties with neighborhood councils. “I expected the group to be more involved with ‘how do we reach people we never hear from’ rather than advocacy on certain issues.”

Franklin said there’s a learning curve between “what you know and what you do” and moving on to “a deep dive on a lot of (other) priority areas.” She said that none of her fellow commissioners believe they have replaced neighborhood organizations and community councils nor that their work would replace any of those groups’ work.

They are working to teach each other. She said she also hopes that they will meet out in the community, to get closer to living the purpose of the group’s name.

Rusch asked for advice on the new year, new political leadership. Look for an opportunity to influence how money is spent before those decisions are made, Franklin – who works in community engagement for a public agency – suggested.

On to what is the hottest current topic for many neighborhood groups:

HALA MHA UPZONING: Rich Koehler from JuNO recapped feeling that the city had already made up its mind. And he recapped the general concern that all neighborhoods were treated as if they were identical – that’s the feedback they gave for the Draft Environmental Impact Report, and they noted the Final EIS – released a month ago – hadn’t changed much. So how did JuNO get involved in the citywide appeal of the FEIS, as well as its own? They were invited to a “cross-neighborhood meeting” for Seattle Fair Growth and discovered they had a lot in common with other groups. Maybe trying to cover 27 neighborhoods in one document was a little much, he said, adding that there’s still room for more groups to join the appeal.

Cindi Barker, switching hats to her MoCA involvement, talked about specifics of that group’s appeal (also filed in addition to participation in the coalition challenge), such as the city’s failure to respond to ferry-traffic impacts unique to their area. She also mentioned the Comprehensive Plan Amendment aspect of the fight for some neighborhoods including theirs. They want to see a good mix of housing options. Next steps for the appeals include the setting of a pre-hearing meeting with the Hearing Examiner, who will rule on the appeals after formal hearings, dates TBA.

Has anyone heard from Mayor Durkan on HALA? it was asked. Not so far, was the answer.

Other notes:

NEIGHBORHOOD EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION HUBS: Cindi Barker reported that hub participants have new radios, and that next year’s big drill is set for April 28th. She also mentioned that an Alki resident has volunteered to train apartment buildings on how to be prepared for disasters.

HARBOR/LUNA PARK: Rusch mentioned that the volunteers have completed the project, putting in 500 plants, tracking down property owners (including the city), and you’ll see the results if you go through Harbor/Manning/Avalon. Nucor helped put some art together, she mentioned, adding that the area has been so improved that the most-recent weekend cleanup turned up no needles and very little trash.

The Southwest District Council meets first Wednesdays most months, 6:30 pm at the Senior Center/Sisson Building in The Junction.