By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

King County Elections will send out ballots for this fall’s general election a little more than a month from now, so voting time is fast approaching.

Voters in West Seattle and vicinity will elect a new City Council District 1 representative; after eight years, Lisa Herbold, the first and only person to hold the seat since seven of the nine councilmembers started being elected by district, decided not to run again. The top finishers in an eight-candidate primary to succeed her are Maren Costa, who received 33 percent of the August vote, and Rob Saka, who got 24 percent.

As we did before the primary, we sat down with them for half-hour-ish interviews, recorded on video. We recorded each conversation at Fauntleroy Schoolhouse. Saka talked with us on Thursday, September 7th. The main topic for both conversations was public safety, and that’s where we began:

If you can’t or don’t want to watch the video, here’s our summary of the conversation:

We start by suggesting that public safety is the #1 issue right now – on the morning we talked (September 7th), there had been another murder in District 1, a shooting death in South Park. If he was o the council right now, in the midst of all this, what would he say, what would he do?

Saka replied, “It’s tough. Public safety is really the #1 issue that inspired me to run. I’m a father of three younger kids, I live in Delridge with my family, I talk about the need to keep our parks safe, clean, open to all … ” He says it’s the #1 issue for the thousands of voters he’s met going door-to-door. “Let’s be clear about the scope of the problem, a troubling rise in gun violence, in property crimes …” His policy plan to address it: Hire more police. He says that for a city like ours, “we should have 1,400-1,500 deployable officers, today we have 950 to 1050 … so I’m here to hire more police officers.” He says settling the police contract is important, as is realizing the new hires can’t be all rookies – “we need to hire more laterals” (officers that worked in another department). “Another part of my plan is to empower police to carry out their duties … we don’t need to be more harsh or more punitive, we have existing laws on the books, we need to enforce them …” Also, he spouses setting expectations of “excellence” for officers, and “swiftly holding policing accountable for misconduct, just like you would anyone.”

But hiring more police is not the only thing to do to address the crime problem, “the lack of safety that people are feeling.” “We also need to stand up civilian responses” and cites other cities where they’re already working, Denver and Albuquerque. Some situations might call for a social worker instead of “a badge and a gun.” … “These shootings are not distributed equally across the city … some communities are bearing the brunt of it.” He suggests that city leaders are not living up to their basic commitment, that “in exchange for your (tax dollars), you should feel safe and protected. … What we’re experiencing now is the direct result of some bad policy decisions that we made, to be more explicit, the 2020 vote to defund the police. My opponent still thinks it was a good idea. I think it was a terrible idea then and now.”

We point out that the 50% defunding never actually happened, and some back-and-forth ensued. Saka said it was also a bad idea to “rearrange” things (the council eventually decided to move parking enforcement out of SPD, for example, a decision which has since been reversed after costly side effects), and notes that the “defund” vote chased out the city’s first Black female police chief (Chief Carmen Best) as well as leading to officer departures. “They didn’t feel supported, and I understand that. … I think people are yearning for change, ” especially in public change.

How are we going to hire those police, since the positions are funded?

Saka says, “We need to get a new (contract) with the Police Guild,” first and foremost. “I’m committed to working with the mayor, council, police chief” to make that happen. He views it as particularly key to attracting “laterals” (experienced police already working in other departments.” He says policing is an “important, tough job” and it’s important to elect leaders who understand that. He continues, “As a Black man growing up in this country, I’ve experienced what bad policing looks like … for some nonsense that should never have happened. I’m also a former (military) intelligence officer” and says that too has shaped his view, as has he and his wife having run the Boston Marathon the day of the 2013 bombing. “I’ll never forget how when everyone was trying to run away and flee the danger, including me, I’ll never forget seeing hundreds of emergency responders, including police … putting their safety on the line to protect us. That’s how I know we need good police and good response times.”

Regarding the contract, then, what’s the problem, and if not settled yet when elected, what can you do to move it along?

“It’s not a councilmember’s role to directly negotiate … but I’m committed to working with the mayor, the police chief, the other councilmembers – whoever they may be!” Saka stresses that he’s committed to collaborating across differences “to get stuff done, stuff that works.”

Since we can’t hire those hundreds of officers overnight, what else can we do?

Saka said, “We can elect councilmembers who understand the imperative of hiring more police” and “empower them” to enforce the law, as well as holding them accountable. Alternative responses and police responses are not either/or.” He says he’s “fought to hold bad police accountable” – he cites his experience on the King County Charter Review Commission. In that role, he said, he worked with people from various backgrounds and political views/parties to come up with a package of reforms that voters eventually passed.

What civilian responses would he support?

“Social workers, mental health, behavioral health, intervention specialists … it’s a recipe for disaster when we have a situation” involving an unarmed person, and an armed officer is sent to deal with them. “We’ve seen this play out time and time again, it’s what triggered the consent decree,” and he mentions the police killing of John T. Williams. No one is “set up for success” when systems aren’t in place for different types of responses.

Saka days he volunteered for a shift at the 911 center downtown recently and he was struck by “the mounting queue of calls” – some of which were lower priority and might take an officer “hours or even days” to get to. He also was struck by calls for/from people who were clearly in crisis, and the best response wasn’t going to be a badge/gun – no matter how much training they get, “that doesn’t mean they should be responding to every single crisis situation.” Some other cities, he reiterates, have this going already. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel with civilian-led responses,” we can take inspiration from other cities.

Are there any current programs – in the nonprofit or private sector, for example – that you think are working right now?

He says he’s glad that a “pilot program” is launching soon (but didn’t name it). He wants to work with communities. And he notes that once civilian-led responses are in place, it’ll “free up” police to be more proactive – “today we’re in a constant response posture … we’re not at all able to be proactive.” He wants to restore “community-oriented policing,” such as bike patrols, foot patrols, emphasis patrols (like the ones on Alki during the summer, he says) ….

Many of those functions went away because of Chief Diaz’s decision to reallocate to 911 response. Should that be changed?

Saka says he’s open to working with SPD leadership, listening and learning rather than “dictating” what needs to be done.

Enforcement – do you have any changes in mind?

“We have an existing set of laws in place … I’m committed to empowering police to do their job” – and not just police, the civilian responders too. And also to ensure that Black and brown people aren’t being disproportionately targeted. Decisions need to be transparent and accountability is important.

Are there any specific laws that should be changed, tightened, loosened …?

He said he supports the then-impending drug-use bill. He said a neighbor told him they fled the Balkans and feels more unsafe here “than she did back home in a war zone.” He says people “shouldn’t have to trip over” people using drugs, passed out, in the open. He would hav voted yes on the original proposal to align with state law, while his opponent would not have. He thinks the law “strikes the right balance” in recognizing that it’s a public health crisis but also a public=safety issue. “We aren’t going to arrest our way out of any of these problems, but we do need broader tools in the tool kit.” He says his approach to public safety is “holistic.”

So does he support the bill’s new focus on treatment/diversion?

Yes, but he also supported the original version that the council voted down a few months back. “We can’t just fail to act because it doesn’t check every single box.”

He mentioned in that reply that he was leading a “petition effort,” which we had seen in a campaign email, a petition asking Councilmember Lisa Herbold to support the bill – without acknowledging that she actually co-sponsored the bill that is now making its way through the council. Was he thinking she wouldn’t vote for her own bill? He replied by citing “unpredictability” in council votes, saying the original drug-use bill “was a sure thing … until it wasn’t.”

We shift gears to the recently released Draft Seattle Transportation Plan. He says, “I’m familiar with it on a high level.” Overall, he wants to see transit expanded, and says a lot of people are concerned about that – and that they’re concerned about being safe on buses, too.

The plan addresses more than transit, we note, such as advocating for a move away from cars. Is the city moving too fast or too slow on that? “Just about right,” Saka says, going on to say the city can do many things to address climate change – expand EV chargers, work on green building standards, “build climate resiliency in all we do.” Then he mentioned parking and the Comprehensive Plan, and said that people need to be incentivized to move away from single-occupancy vehicles. What did he mean about parking? we asked. He says he wouldn’t go so far as to say that every new building would be built without it – we need to ease into changes like that.

What committees does he want to serve on? He responded by listing committees and commissions on which he’d already served, plus his background as a lawyer and a veteran. So we asked again, which committees? He said that based on current ones – always subject to council changes – Public Safety Committee (which CM Herbold chairs now) and the Economic Development Committee. “I can be successful in a variety of roles – put me in, coach!”

WHAT’S NEXT: Ballots go out Wednesday, October 18; voting ends Tuesday, November 7th. In the meantime, here’s the latest list of when you can see the candidates side by side at forums/debates.