If you want to speak out on the choice King County Executive Dow Constantine says must be made – big cuts in Metro bus service, or a $20 car-tab fee to cover the budget gap (original WSB coverage and 76 comments here) – the County Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee has set three hearings. They’re all outside West Seattle, but if you’re interested, you might consider either the July 12th hearing at the Council Chambers in the County Courthouse downtown (516 Third Avenue), or the July 21st hearing in Burien City Council Chambers (400 SW 152nd); the other hearing is in Kirkland. All hearings start at 6 pm. West Seattle’s County Councilmember Joe McDermott is a member of the committee. For the $20 car-tab fee to kick in, either six county council members have to approve it, or a majority of the council has to send it to voters. (More background in the original county news release about Constantine’s announcement.)
The August 16th primary is seven weeks from Tuesday, but your vote-by-mail ballot will arrive a lot sooner, and candidates are making the rounds to make their pitches. Thursday night, the West Seattle Democratic Women hosted candidates for the twoSeattle City Councilpositions that are on the primary ballot – Position 1 and Position 9. Our video above shows the forum, unedited, while the candidates were speaking and answering questions – the first hour is on the first clip, with the ensuing 12 minutes on the second. (You can watch either in a larger window by clicking the YouTube logo to go to the YT page; please note that YT chooses the freeze frames you see on the video “play” boxes above, we did not.)
WSDW vice chair Lynne Ingalls moderated the forum. All four Position 1 candidates participated – Maurice Classen, Bobby Forch, incumbent Councilmember Jean Godden, and West Seattleite Michael Taylor-Judd; from Position 9, two of the three candidates participated, incumbent Councilmember Sally Clark and Dian Ferguson. WSDW decided on endorsements before the meeting at the West Seattle Golf Course ended; they backed the incumbents, Clark and Godden (note the WSDW’s endorsement rules/qualifications on the left side of their website’s home page). None of the other three council positions up for election this year has more than two contenders, so those candidates all go straight to the November general-election ballot.
Maybe the next politician-meets-the-people Town Hall can be a joint city-county effort, with Mayor Mike McGinn and County Executive Dow Constantine both facing the crowd.
The mayor’s Hiawatha Community Center event tonight brought many a question that should have been addressed by that other government headquartered in downtown Seattle.
Some county-flavored foreshadowing came when breakdancing Vicious Puppies Crew performed pre-mayor with three dancers in yellow T-shirts promoting County Council candidate Diana Toledo – they were the second act, after Defined Movement:
But most of all, county considerations came into play when the mayor was peppered with questions and complaints about transit, which is mostly the county’s responsibility, the way things work now. Here’s video of the event in its entirety:
If you’d rather read the toplines, our story continues ahead: Read More
Two types of networking were in evidence at Wednesday’s monthly West Seattle Chamber of Commerce lunch, and the top photo is proof of one: Regional collaboration between business-advocacy groups. At left is Susan Davis, executive director of the Rainier Valley Chamber of Commerce, which teamed up for the event with the WS C of C, whose CEO Patti Mullen is at center, and those on hand included, at right, April Thanos from the Greater Seattle Business Association (which is having an event in WS soon – more on that later.)
With less than two months till the August 16 primary, the guests in the spotlight at West Seattle Corporate Center (Delridge/Andover – with the giant flag) were most of the candidates running for the five Seattle City Council seats on this year’s ballot, including all but one of the incumbents, on hand for what was billed as “speed networking.”
(Vicious Puppies Crew 2010 clip from YouTube)
Even if you’re NOT interested in asking Mayor McGinn a question or hearing what he has to say, you might consider going to his Town Hall at Hiawatha Community Center tomorrow (Thursday) night. For one – there will be a short entertainment break around 6:30 pm, with two West Seattle-based youth groups performing for a few minutes each: the breakdancing Vicious Puppies Crew and the synchronized dancers of Defined Movement. Before that, from 5:30 till 6:30 pm, the community-information fair will include your chance to meet people from, and find out about, a wide variety of groups and issues. As mentioned here yesterday, the West Seattle Triangle planning team will be represented – the two draft proposals for that area’s future have just gone public, including major zoning changes, and they’re seeking public comment, as well as ready to answer questions. Today, Ed Pottharst from the Department of Neighborhoods shared a list of other participants in the information fair:
Admiral Neighborhood Association
Alki Community Council
Whale Trail Project
Seal Sitters
Alki Wildlife Habitat
Alki Community Center Advisory Council
Barton P-Patch
Concord International Elementary School
Delridge P-Patch
Genesee-Schmitz Neighborhood Council
Lincoln Park P-Patch
Morgan Community Association
Nature Consortium
Southwest Seattle Historical Society & Log House Museum
Sustainable West Seattle
West Seattle Be Prepared
West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network
West Seattle Chamber of Commerce
West Seattle Food Bank
West Seattle Helpline
(If you’ll be tabling there and aren’t listed, leave a comment!) Again – 5:30 pm info fair, 6:30 pm performers, 6:40 pm mayor/others Q/A. Hiawatha is at 2700 California SW, probably best to park at West Seattle High School’s California-facing lot if you’re driving, since Hiawatha’s own lot is fairly small.
Local neighborhood-organization leaders argued successfully to save it from last fall’s round of budget cuts – but now the West Seattle Junction Neighborhood Service Center (Alaska/42nd) is again slated for closure, according to a memo from the Department of Neighborhoods. This is part of almost $9 million in midyear budget cuts just unveiled by Mayor McGinn‘s office. From the memo by DON director Bernie Matsuno outlining more than $206,000 in cuts for the department:
… With these reductions, there are major staffing and programmatic impacts. We will be closing the West Seattle Neighborhood Service Center and moving operations into the Delridge facility. Although we believe this will not impact the community significantly (the Delridge facility is less than two miles away), NPIS staffing will be. We are losing funding for two, .5 FTE Customer Service Representatives (CSR) positions. Losing staff is never easy; we will do everything we can to support and assist staff as they seek other employment. The West Seattle facility will close on June 30.
The Junction center couldn’t stay open forever – it is on the site of the future Conner Homes development, which could start construction as soon as next winter. We are still reviewing the mayor’s plan to look for other West Seattle-specific cuts. This is the only West Seattle-specific cut listed in the presentation made to the Council Budget Committee this morning.
The fields are set for the August 16 primary – and another Seattle City Council candidates’ forum is on the horizon for West Seattle. As previously noted, council candidates will be at the WS Chamber of Commerce‘s next monthly luncheon meeting June 22 for a “speed networking” event. And just announced this weekend, the next day – Thursday, June 23 – the West Seattle Democratic Women will host all four candidates for City Council Position 1 – Maurice Classen, Bobby Forch, incumbent Jean Godden, and West Seattleite Michael Taylor-Judd. Though WSDW usually meets for lunch, this will be an evening event – no-host bar at 6:30, dinner at 7, program at 7:15 pm, and the group says “candidate endorsements will be considered.” Dinner is $12 WSDW members, $15 nonmembers (or you can just get coffee/dessert for $5). Reservations or questions: wsdwomen@yahoo.com, 206-935-3216.
The time and agenda are now set for Mayor McGinn‘s June 23rd Town Hall meeting in West Seattle (first reported here last month). The location is indeed Hiawatha Community Center (2700 California SW), the date still Thursday, June 23rd, and the time breakdown is as follows:
5:30 to 6:30 pm: Community information fair
6:30 to 6:40 pm: Performance by local artists
6:40 to 8:00 pm: Open Q&A with Mayor McGinn and City staff
His last West Seattle Town Hall was at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in December (WSB coverage here), though he’s been here more than a few times since then, including this past Monday at Don Armeni for the SPD Late Night Emphasis Patrols announcement (which is when we took the photo above).
The day after Marty McLaren received the 34th District Democrats‘ endorsement for West Seattle’s seat on the Seattle Public Schools board, over incumbent Steve Sundquist, two more challengers filed to run against him. Today is the final day for candidate filings in the August 16th primary races, and Joy Anderson and Charita Dumas have joined McLaren and Sundquist in the race for the District 6 seat. Both are West Seattleites who were involved in the legal fight to stop the closure of Cooper Elementary School (here’s a story from two years ago). Three other school-board seats are on the ballot this year, and each incumbent in those races has at least two challengers so far.
A standing-room-only crowd filled the main room at The Hall at Fauntleroy tonight for the 34th District Democrats‘ pre-primary-election endorsement meeting. “Always one of our best-attended meetings,” as the group’s vice chair Sabra Schneider observed. The toplines: 34th DDs member and Seattle School Board incumbent Steve Sundquist did not win the group’s endorsement; the only challenger who has filed, Marty McLaren, was endorsed, with 62 percent support. On the Highway 99 Tunnel city referendum, “approve” – essentially pro-tunnel – was endorsed. And in much-contested City Council Position 1, incumbent Jean Godden and challenger Bobby Forch won a dual endorsement on the third ballot. Full details of the 2 1/2-hour meeting, including other endorsements, and video, are coming up. (11:38 PM NOTE: 34th DDs webmaster Bill Schrier just sent word the list is up on their site – see it here.)
2:02 AM: Here’s our video of the entire meeting (including non-endorsement business at the beginning and the end), in two parts, but none is edited or altered – the 2nd part picks up 2 minutes after the 1st ended, but no speaking was missed (they were collecting votes), and ends a few minutes short of the end of miscellaneous meeting-ending “good of the order” (the camera’s power ran out):
Now, if you want to read highlights of how it unfolded – that’ll be done in a few hours. that’s been added; click ahead:Read More
It’s filing week, which means that by the end of this week, we’ll know officially who’s on the August 16 primary ballot (here’s who’s filed so far).
If you like seeing and hearing candidates in person before making up your mind, here are two upcoming opportunities in West Seattle: Wednesday night, the 34th District Democrats have their endorsement meeting, always lively, 7 pm (or come early and mingle with candidates/activists), The Hall at Fauntleroy, agenda here. Then on June 22nd, the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly luncheon is a “speed networking” event with City Council candidates, 11:30 am at the West Seattle Corporate Center (Delridge/Andover).
Both events are open to the public as well as to the respective organizations’ members (but there’s a cost for the Chamber lunch; call 206-932-5685 for info/reservations).
You might find a door-to-door political canvasser outside your home or apartment tomorrow night – and thanks to a heads-up from Diane, we can tell you in advance, they’re legitimate. They will be asking people to support a potential city ordinance requiring that employers provide paid sick days. The notice Diane shared says that canvassers will gather at Pioneer Coffee (2536 Alki SW) at 5:30 pm Thursday, heading out to West Seattle neighborhoods over the ensuing two hours.
He’s only been on the job six months, but King County Councilmember Joe McDermott is already running again. Last fall, he was elected for the year remaining in what was now-County Executive Dow Constantine’s term, after Jan Drago served a year as an appointee; this time, a full four-year term is at stake. Thursday night, in bowling shoes, McDermott presided over his official campaign-kickoff party at Roxbury Lanes just yards south of West Seattle. Among those in attendance were County Council colleagues Julia Patterson, Larry Phillips, Larry Gossett, and Bob Ferguson, State House Rep. Eileen Cody, elected city officials from Burien and Tukwila, members of the North Highline Unincorporated Council, and community advocates from neighborhoods in the 8th District including White Center, South Park, and Vashon. And from McDermott’s home neighborhood, West Seattle – his parents Terri McDermott and Jim McDermott:
Though all at the party were exhorted to have fun and get some bowling in, there was of course the opportunity for the candidate to offer a short speech first:
If you missed Monday night’s Citizen Transportation Advisory Committee workshop in West Seattle, the last of three planned around the city is tonight, at Washington Middle School (2101 South Jackson; map). The question posed here on Monday was two-fold: What are your transportation priorities, and how would you pay for them – would you support new taxes and fees, and if so, how much?
During the forum attended by about 20 people at the Southwest Library, the message delivered through boards and PowerPoint presentations – which are all linked here – was clear: Seattle’s transportation system is currently hanging by its financial fingertips, so if you want anything more than bare-bones progress, the city says, you will need to be further taxed, or tolled.
West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who lives in West Seattle and chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, spoke briefly as the gathering began. More ahead:Read More
4:17 PM: The business boom in medical-marijuana may be about to go bust. In Olympia today, the legislator who had been trying to get a state law passed to regulate medical-marijuana dispensaries announced the effort is officially dead, and King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg is quoted as saying that means the “gray area” that allowed dispensaries to proliferate is “gone.” Here are the details from our partners at the Seattle Times. The dispensary boom has brought at least two into West Seattle so far, with a third and possibly fourth on the way, in addition to a dispensary and a “lounge” that recently opened in White Center. Will a crackdown/shutdown campaign ensue? No word yet.
“The Governor’s ill-advised veto not only further confuses the legal landscape for medical cannabis, it forces local governments to go it alone. We do not have the luxury of ignoring law enforcement’s need for guidance in regard to proliferating dispensaries and grow operations. I am committed to working with our County Prosecutor, the SPD, the Mayor and City Council to find a way for authorized medical cannabis users to obtain their medicine without sacrificing public safety. State and federal authorities have only further complicated this difficult goal, but Seattle will find a way to make a bad situation tolerable.
Holmes also “commended Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles for her doggedness and diligence” on the issue, according to his office.
(Photos by Katie Meyer for WSB)
Four city councilmembers were in West Seattle tonight – Councilmember Tom Rasmussen for the first of three Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee forums around the city (more on that later), and Councilmembers Tim Burgess, Mike O’Brien (above), and Jean Godden for a discussion of the city’s public-safety budget. (Burgess chairs the Public Safety committee.) The latter meeting was never widely announced; we stumbled onto a brief mention on a city calendar, then a note to a neighborhood mailing list, and when we asked why no news release had been sent to announce the meeting and get it on media events calendars, we were told they were using a small-group format that could only accommodate about 75 people, and they didn’t want to have to turn people away.
They shouldn’t have worried.
We asked WSB contributor Katie Meyer to check out that meeting, and she estimates the citizen turnout at Delridge Community Center (aside from councilmembers and staffers) at fewer than 20. A quick meeting summary, ahead:Read More
With three months till the primary, and candidate forums and campaign kickoffs starting to intensify, we’re stepping up coverage of the 2011 election. Last night at the Admiral Theater, West Seattleite Diana Toledo launched her second campaign for King County Council District 8 (which includes West Seattle and White Center), with an all-ages party, friends and family chatting in the theater’s loft, while little ones brought by partygoers romped down on the main floor. Toledo says she chose the venue to support a local business that could use more patrons.
Among those at the party was Tim Fahey, one of the three other candidates that ran for the office last year. You’ll see him in our clip from the short speech Toledo gave last night:
Toledo is a former King County employee who says her experience inside county government will help her reform it (here’s her online bio). The candidate to whom Toledo lost in last year’s general election, now-King County Councilmember Joe McDermott, is the only other declared candidate so far; he has a kickoff party scheduled next week. The official filing period opens this Friday for candidates filing by mail. (Wondering why there’s another election so soon after the last one? That was for the remainder of the term that had been won by Dow Constantine before he moved up to King County Executive two years ago, so this time a full 4-year council term is up for grabs.)
Tentative plans for a West Seattle Town Hall meeting with Mayor McGinn have come up at various community meetings – but just now, we heard the first announcement of a date: Steve Louie from the Department of Neighborhoods dropped by the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council to suggest you save the date, June 23, for a mayoral town hall at Hiawatha Community Center. More details to come.
Potentially of interest, since there’s at least one tobacco shop open in West Seattle and one on the way – a bill allowing such establishments to apply for cigar-lounge licenses is halfway through the State Legislature. Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-34th District), who represents an area including West Seattle/White Center, is upset about SB 5542, according to a news release we received – read on:Read More
3:58 PM: After another faceoff with the city over a permanent site, the homeless encampment that still calls itself “Nickelsville“ has packed up and moved again, and just sent an announcement that its new location is on West Marginal Way in West Seattle, near the intersection with Highland Park Way (map), where the camp had put down stakes before. They’ve been headquartered at the former Fire Station 39 in Lake City, and the city reportedly was ready to let them stay there at least a few more months, but their news release proclaims, “We moved anyway!” for a variety of reasons, including that they needed more space, and they think city leaders are just stringing them along. The address is the same as the one where the camp first set up in September 2008 (WSB coverage here).
7:06 PM: We went over about an hour and a half ago to see what’s happening at the site, and took the photos we have just added (above, 3 of the 4 trucks a camp manager told us they’re using – one was still in transit from Lake City when we stopped by). There were about 50 people in view, and the piles of belongings, pallets and other materials you see in our top photo; one person was wondering aloud when spaces would be assigned. The camp manager told us they should be all set up by tomorrow. No word thus far from the city – who owned this site last time we checked (which is why Seattle Police were used to evict campers back in 2008) – on how this will be dealt with, if at all.
Campaign season is under way. Two Seattle City Council candidates were at Tuesday night’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting – Position 1 candidate Michael Taylor-Judd and Position 9 candidate Dian Ferguson – and last night, one dozen candidates appeared before our area’s biggest political organization, the 34th District Democrats.
Our video shows the entire forum, unedited, with these candidates (two more were on the agenda but didn’t show): For Position 1, Councilmember Jean Godden, Michael Taylor-Judd, Bobby Forch, Maurice Classen, David Schraer; for Position 3, Councilmember Bruce Harrell, Brad Meachum; for Position 5, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, Sandy Cioffi; for Position 7, Councilmember Tim Burgess (whose lone declared opponent Darryl Carter Metcalf was a no-show); for Position 9, Councilmember Sally Clark, Dian Ferguson (the other declared candidate Fathi Karshie was a no-show). August 16th is the primary, which will narrow to the top two candidates any race that has three or more.
He’s not only the only City Councilmember living in West Seattle, he also chairs the Transportation Committee, and that means lightning-rod issues galore. Councilmember Tom Rasmussen has been on a community-conversation tour around the city, and in case you hadn’t already heard (it’s in the WSB Events Calendar), an early reminder that he’s on home turf this Saturday afternoon, available to chat with anybody who wants to come by, West Seattle (Admiral District) branch of the Seattle Public Library, 2:30-4 pm. His website promises, “All topics are on the table.”
The underground “alley vacation” for the two-building Conner Homes project between Alaska/California/42nd (south side) in The Junction won final approval from the City Council this afternoon on a unanimous vote. The Seattle Channel video above shows the entire afternoon council meeting – this item is 30 minutes in; Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, whose Transportation Committee (with only one member, him, in attendance) presided over the official public hearing last week before recommending approval (WSB coverage here), spent several minutes explaining the project to his council colleagues. Then, they voted 9-0 in favor of it. Next step? The permits will finish going through the system, now that this component of the project (which facilitates a large underground parking garage) is finalized. Then, as developer Charlie Conner told WSB last month, he doesn’t expect anything to happen in terms of construction any sooner than the end of the year – the businesses now on the site have leases till then.
Local neighborhood-organization leaders argued successfully to save it from last fall’s round of budget cuts – but now the 
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If you missed Monday night’s 
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