By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Public safety was the top topic at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting, held at Alki UCC and online, facilitated by ACC president Tony Fragada.

SOUTHWEST PRECINCT: First guest was the precinct’s night commander, Lt. Nathan Shopay, connecting from home on his night off. He said Alki had been relatively quiet lately and asked about community concerns. One attendee asked if the new traffic-calming measures in east Alki seemed to be working; Lt. Shopay said yes, adding that things would be even better if the diagonal parking area on Duwamish Head were reconfigured. One attendee said the dividers and speed bumps had led to stunt-driving and racing further west. As for crime trends, Lt. Shopay repeated what he had told the Morgan Community Association on Wednesday night (WSB coverage here) – most categories are down, except for auto theft.

CITY ATTORNEY: Ann Davison attended in person. She told ACC attendees that community-meeting attendance is important to her because she wants “to be accessible.” She first spent some time explaining how the City Attorney’s Office works, with civil and criminal divisions, and the latter primarily handling the lesser crimes known as misdemeanors. She also recapped two initiatives on which her staff has been working – “high utilizers” and “close-in-time filing.” She spent some time discussing the matter of filing charges, and noted that if crimes don’t get reported, it’s a sure bet no one will be arrested and no one will be charged. Her office has to get cases referred from police. So, she stressed, call police if you see something! She said there’s another category of assumption she’s trying to change – police sometimes sending a case directly to the City Attorney’s Office because they assume the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office won’t charge a certain type of offense. Davison says she’s been working with SPD to stress that if something seems like a felony, they will send it to the KCPAO; if they decline to file, then Davison’s staff can review.

She also spent some time discussing the civil division of the CAO. So often, municipal law offices are focused on defensive matters, she explained – somebody’s suing over tripping on a sidewalk, or challenging a law, for example. She took the rare tack of going on the offense with the Kia/Hyundai theft lawsuit. She said Seattle was the first in the nation to take that action, and now 10 other municipalities have joined. “I’m not a crowd-follower,” she said. She believes going after the car companies for their products’ vulnerabilities is merited because it’s “resource-draining” for cities to have to spend so much law-enforcement resources on this. “It was not a hard call – even if the lawsuit is unsuccessful, it’s the right thing to do,” she believes.

One last point she made – she said she’s spent time rebuilding relationships with other city departments.

Before she left, an attendee offered these parting words: “We love Joe Everett.” (He’s the Southwest Precinct liaison from the City Attorney’s Office.) His boss appeared to agree with the positive appraisal.

COUNCIL CANDIDATE: He wasn’t officially on the agenda, but City Council District 1 candidate Phil Tavel was in attendance. He was asked whether outgoing Councilmember Lisa Herbold will be endorsing him. He said they had actually had a good conversation in which he asked her to consider it; he said she didn’t rule it out.

NEXT MEETING: ACC president Fragada said guests are expected next month from SDOT (to talk about scooters) and Seattle Public Utilities. ACC meets third Thursdays most months, 7 pm at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds) and online (see our calendar for connection info), so that means May 18th for the next one.