Only one West Seattle-specific proposed city-budget amendment in final round of department-by-department briefings

Tomorrow (Thursday, October 30) is the City Council‘s last of three days with briefings on councilmembers’ proposed amendments to next year’s budget, which will be finalized next month. Our previous previews (here, here, here, and here) have spotlighted a variety of amendments with West Seattle-specific proposals. The Thursday agenda documents are now available and there’s only one West Seattle-specific amendment. The proposal sponsored by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka is in the >Office of Economic Development-related amendments:

OED-007-A – Proviso $250,000 in OED to support small businesses in the North Delridge area facing displacement due to Sound Transit’s impacts

(summary) This Council Budget Action (CBA) would impose a proviso on $250,000 in the Office of Economic Development (OED) for focused outreach and assistance to businesses facing displacement due to Sound Transit’s impacts. Businesses in North Delridge are facing ongoing challenges related to economic transition, industrial adjacency, and infrastructure impacts from the proposed Sound Transit West Seattle-Ballard Link Extension. This proviso is intended to help stabilize and retain affected small businesses in that area.

OED has a number of programs designed to provide technical and financial assistance to small businesses that may apply to these impacted businesses, including but not limited to accounting and business consulting assistance and the Capital Access Program.

The agenda for Thursday’s council meeting also includes briefings on the amendments proposed for the Human Services Department as well as SPD, SFD, and the CARE Department. We’ve read through them all, and you can do the same by following those links, which you’ll also see in the full agenda, which also explains how to comment. (This week’s meetings do not include votes – those come later – just briefings.)

Jay October 29, 2025 (3:29 pm)

There are more than a dozen businesses in North Delridge. Assuming no administrative costs (which you know their will be some), that’d give each business at best $19,200 and only if they were displaced in 2026. We need to bring forward fresh ideas that actually support these businesses.

I’ll also note that the summary in the proposal packet shows no new dollars to OED for this proviso, meaning he’s not adding to the pot for this — getting this money to Delridge businesses would mean pulling $250k from another program/service/resource.

This proposal is almost as unserious of an idea as Rob is a councilmember. If he feels like this is what doing something looks like, that speaks volumes about how low he’s set his bar.