West Seattle, Washington
03 Sunday
We’ve mentioned it before and it’s time to mention it again: Our state’s caucuses are on Feb. 9, exactly three weeks away. The 34th District Democrats are doing their level best to make sure everyone in the area knows about it — someone was out doorbelling in our neighborhood today 
(we didn’t get to the door in time but he left a doorhanger with info, including our precinct number and caucus site), and the 34th DD Caucus Outreach Committee had a meeting today. (Also meeting today, according to Slog — area Clinton supporters including County Executive Ron Sims gathered in South Park.) The 34th DD’s website has a caucus info page including a list of locations, by precinct; you can find your precinct number on this county page (but beware, the “polling place” that comes up after the precinct # is NOT your caucus place) — or for a one-step process, try this statewide page (type your address below the map, it’ll find your precinct and caucus site). The 34th District Republicans‘ website still isn’t as info-rich as the D page, but the King County Republicans’ site has its own caucus locator; you may not need it, as it appears all West Seattle Republicans are caucusing at Southwest Community Center. The GOP is choosing half its WA delegates through the caucuses and half through the Feb. 19 primary, but the Democrats are choosing all their delegates through the caucus process.
That’s newly elected Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, speaking tonight to the Alki Community Council. “Every neighborhood counts,” he declared, and hit on several hot topics. But the hottest topic of the night took center stage before he spoke, when a large, displeased group of Alki Point residents tried to pass a resolution about the one issue that had brought them all to the meeting:Read More
A bill to give cities the power to limit condo conversions is coming up for a State House hearing this Friday, says Slog. It’s HB 2014, which died last year. Here in West Seattle, the conversion pace seems to have slowed, with high-profile conversion cancellations at Strata and West Ridge/Gables, but apartment buildings continue to sell (and be put up for sale, with descriptions like “condo-quality”). If you want to tell your legislators what you think about HB 2014, remember your new State Representative is Sharon Nelson (WSB interview here, including contact info) and your new State Senator is Joe McDermott. 10 PM SIDE NOTE: The P-I has just posted an article about a condo development near Seattle Center that’s going to be finished as apartments instead; an expert quoted in the article says apartments “are the pre-eminent land use” in the city right now.
Our area’s newest state legislator has begun her first legislative session this afternoon in Olympia. 34th District State Rep. Sharon Nelson was chosen last November to succeed Joe McDermott, who moved up to State Senate after Erik Poulsen‘s resignation. Rep. Nelson talked with WSB this morning about what she’ll be working on and how she’s hoping to hear from you:Read More
Thanks to Stan Lock, one of West Seattle’s two city Neighborhood District Coordinators, for forwarding word of which city councilmembers are running which committees this year. This is important info since in Seattle, city councilmembers do not represent specific districts; 
instead, you can take concerns and issues to the specific councilmember(s) focusing on the most relevant area of concern. In addition to word that Richard Conlin succeeds Nick Licata as council president), here are today’s official committee announcements — Licata chairs Culture, Civil Rights, Health and Personnel as well as Labor Policy; West Seattle resident Tom Rasmussen (who also took the oath of office today after his opposition-less re-election run last fall) chairs Parks/Seattle Center; new councilmember Bruce Harrell chairs Energy and Technology; Conlin chairs Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities; Jean Godden chairs Finance/Budget; Richard McIver chairs Housing/Economic Development; Sally Clark leads Planning, Land Use, and Neighborhoods; new councilmember Tim Burgess chairs Public Safety/Human Services/Education; and Jan Drago continues to chair the Transportation committee. Their contact info, e-mail as well as phone numbers, is all listed on this city webpage.
We’ll have plenty to talk about regarding local and state election issues in the months to come, but with the Iowa caucuses tonight, the presidential race is front and center – so we’re seizing the moment to remind you again that caucuses in our state are just weeks away, on February 9. We took a closer look in this report just before the holidays, with a lot of help from the 34th District Democrats. Since then, the King County Republicans have finally put some information online — their site now has a caucus locator for local Republicans. Local Democrats can locate their caucus site from the 34th DD caucus-info page — which lists all district Democratic caucus sites (here) next to the names of the sites’ PCOs (precinct committee officers) — ADDED FRIDAY, THANKS TO WSB-ERS: to get your precinct number, go here. When we checked today with 34th DD chair Ivan Weiss for any additional advice for would-be participants, he suggested, “They should contact their PCOs if they want to volunteer to help. For example, each precinct will need, in addition to the PCO or convener, a tally clerk (top priority) and a secretary to take the caucus minutes. Also we will need volunteers to move tables and chairs around, and to staff the sign-in tables. Any voter in the 34th District can contact me any time by e-mail or phone if they need to find what precinct they are in, or for any other thing, no matter how trivial. I mean that seriously. I am set up to help them, and usually can answer their questions within minutes.” Ivan’s contact info is here; 34th District Republican contact info is here.
So says the Times. Heartening news for us fans of in-person voting.
Our state’s Presidential Primary is exactly two months away (February 19). But its results will only count for roughly a fourth of our state’s voice in the presidential nomination process – all state Democratic delegates, and 49% of the Republican delegates, will be chosen in a process starting at the statewide caucuses on February 9. Members of our area’s best-organized political group, the 34th District Democrats, already are working to get out the word about those meetings. For those who haven’t participated in caucuses before – or are wondering why the focus is on the caucuses and not the primary – we sent questions to 34th DD chair Ivan Weiss; the Q & A with his e-mailed replies is just ahead. (Disclaimer, we know there are 34th District Republicans out there somewhere too – we’ve just never heard from them! Can’t find any comprehensive info about GOP caucuses online, either.)Read More
Couldn’t watch the councilcast today so we’ve been keeping an eye out for word of what happened — finally, the P-I has a short story up.
Per the P-I — the controversial proposal to annex White Center to Seattle might die Monday.
SENATOR HERE THIS MORNING: U.S. Senator Patty Murray and a long list of business and education leaders will be in West Seattle this morning, in Olympic Hall at South Seattle Community College, for a field hearing of Murray’s Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety.
FIRST STOP IN THE CITY PARKS HEARING TOUR TONIGHT: As we reported earlier this month, the city Parks Department is touring the city in a series of 30-plus public hearings on what should be in its forthcoming Strategic Business Plan. Tonight is the first of five hearings in West Seattle (7-9 pm, Southwest Community Center). Lots more info here; the full list of meetings is here; if you are absolutely certain you cannot make it to any of those meetings, the Parks Department has a “short online survey” you can take here. With so much parkland here on our beautiful peninsula — and remember, we’re the biggest neighborhood in the city! — it’s vital to have West Seattle opinions, hopes, and dreams represented in the forthcoming Parks plan.
The King County Elections Department has just certified final results from this month’s election; the final count in Seattle School Board District 6, which is centered on West Seattle (but is voted on citywide in the general election), was Steve Sundquist (photo left) 61.2%, Maria Ramirez 38.4%. Sundquist and other newly elected school-board members will be sworn in at school-district HQ in Sodo tomorrow night.
The $900 million-plus city budget for next year got unanimous approval from the City Council a few hours ago. That includes the Pedestrian Safety Initiative that councilmembers publicized with this event along Delridge just last week. Regarding specifics of interest to us in West Seattle — for starters, one note of interest from a newsletter sent by West Seattle-resident Councilmember Tom Rasmussen after the vote — he says the budget that was passed includes “Rental Assistance – Added $350,000 for emergency rental assistance and homeless prevention to include renters being evicted due to the conversion of their apartments to condominiums.” Brian Hawksford from Councilmember Rasmussen’s office also confirms that the $50,000 for a new pedestal for the Alki Statue of Liberty (as announced at the 9/11/07 unveiling) is in the budget that won final approval, and he says Rasmussen got $ added to the budget to help bring two areas of the city, including ours, up to parity with the rest of the city regarding Parks Department programs for the physically and developmentally disabled. 5 PM ADDENDUM: Dueling press releases are out from the Mayor and Council — here’s his (noting his disappointment that they killed the 311 emergency-infoline proposal), and here’s theirs.
Not sure if this is the first time the Seattle City Council has gathered on Delridge — but it’s probably the loudest time. Members were at Delridge and Myrtle to officially unveil the Pedestrian Safety Initiative (details here; we’re checking for West Seattle specifics) that’s part of the $900 million-plus city budget proposal. Here’s our first video clip (1 more to come) from the start of the event this morning; local kids appear nearby, about a minute in:
Second clip features a local neighborhood activist hoping to get her voice heard:Read More
8-1 in favor (King County Councilmembers sitting as King County Ferry District), only no vote was Reagan Dunn. Missed part of the discussion so checking to see what changes if any were included in the approved plan, which is FD2007-06.1, with Title Amendment T. Lots of happy talk about transportation in King County now going “back to the future,” with a modern-day version of the fabled Mosquito Fleet. West Seattle’s Councilmember Dow Constantine talked about how the Mosquito Fleet was swept away by the automobile, but now, “those automobiles are sitting in gridlock and we don’t have a lot of choices about how to get from place to place” — this is a step toward more options; it includes demonstration routes elsewhere on Puget Sound and Lake Washington, in addition to the Elliott Bay Water Taxi and county operation of the Vashon-Seattle passenger ferry that the state has to give up. More details in a bit.
You can watch/listen in online (or on cable) on King County TV. (The levy to pay for Elliott Bay Water Taxi operations and other passenger-ferry routes is the main topic of discussion right now.)
It’s one of the hottest topics we’ve discussed here in the past few weeks, and it’s bringing the entire City Council here next Tuesday. While covering Council President Nick Licata‘s High Point visit last night (here’s our report, including video of Licata stopping a child from crossing 35th before the light changed), 
we heard council members were coming to Sanislo Elementary; now the official city announcement is out, and it explains that they will gather Tuesday morning at Delridge/Myrtle, along the walking route to Sanislo (a few blocks away), to “hold a press conference about their proposed Strategic Pedestrian Safety Initiative for the 2008 City Budget.” Notably, this will be happening just one day before the first anniversary of a West Seattle pedestrian death that shook the council as well as the rest of the city — the 47th/Admiral accident on 11/14/06 that killed Councilmember David Della‘s chief of staff, Tatsuo Nakata.
We monitored some of this afternoon’s King County Ferry District hearing on the water taxi and other proposed foot-ferry operations. 
The district board members, aka King County Council members, had just received the proposed operations plan/budget (which we are awaiting to pass on to you) — they have a lot of decisions to make, and the next meeting is Tuesday morning. One thing we were glad to hear — toward the end of the meeting, West Seattle’s KC Councilmember Dow Constantine talked about the excellent in-person turnout (we saw some known WSB readers at the podium!) and also the fact more than 50 people submitted “online testimony” — for which the specific link was created after a WSB reader asked about it. Way to go for public participation, and stand by for more details on the decisions to be made and how it will affect you, both in terms of transportation and taxation. 4:15 PM UPDATE: Here are those details, contained for starters in the County Executive’s “transmittal letter” (read the full text here) — we’re still reading through it ourselves, but one topline is the proposed funding plan (quoting from the document now): “a property tax levy of 5.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value over ten years.”
1:20 AM UPDATE: Yet another update from King County’s elections dept., which appears to be finally calling it quits for the night after one more vote update. Now 99% of precincts are counted, but of course thousands of votes mailed as late as Election Day will still be trickling in. According to the county site, the votes counted so far represent 25% of registered voters in King County. One shift in the latest count: Incumbent Alec Fisken is now behind Bill Bryant in the race for Seattle Port Commission Position 5.
11:55 PM UPDATE: Yet another new count is out in the past half-hour. The Seattle Port Commission results are worth watching, given West Seattle’s ties to port operations. Incumbent Bob Edwards is losing; incumbent Alec Fisken is barely ahead in a squeaker.
11 PM UPDATE: The second batch of King County votes is in. No changes on the races mentioned below. Steve Sundquist looks to be on his way in as West Seattle’s next school-board rep, still ahead of Maria Ramirez 60%-40%. And Roads & Transit Prop 1 is losing 44%-56% — back to the drawing board (again) for the people trying to work out transportation solutions. Next big transportation issue to be tackled here in King County, remember, is the Ferry District, which includes Water Taxi operation, with that major public hearing coming up Thursday.
9:40 PM UPDATE: If you are waiting breathlessly for the next round of updated vote counts — King County says it’s not planning to release that next round till about 10:30. (But you can keep checking the links below just to see if it happens sooner!) Other notes from the first round of results: The City Council turned out to have a couple interesting races. Venus Velazquez (who has WS ties) is well behind Bruce Harrell; David Della is losing in a big way to Tim Burgess. In the school board districts outside West Seattle, the incumbents who are behind, at least in the first round of returns, are Sally Soriano (who has WS ties) and Darlene Flynn.
8:20 PM UPDATE: First results are in. King County voters are going against Roads/Transit, 45-55%. Steve Sundquist leads Maria Ramirez for West Seattle’s school board seat, 60%-40% (and two incumbents are losing in other races). Incumbent Dow Constantine leads challenger John Potter for West Seattle’s King County Council seat, 75%-25%. Here are the direct links for the latest numbers in races of particular West Seattle interest:
Roads & Transit Proposition 1 and statewide ballot measures
King County Council including District 8 (West Seattle/Vashon Island)
Seattle School Board including District 6 (West/South Seattle)
Seattle Port Commission (two races)
Seattle City Council Positions 1, 3, 5 (including West Seattle’s Tom Rasmussen, who had no opponent)
Seattle City Council Positions 7 & 9
All other results from King County & its cities/districts
That’s the scene after the morning voter rush at Peace Lutheran @ 39th/Thistle, with poll worker Frank at right. Conventional wisdom among poll workers seems to be that this is probably not the very last in-person election after all — looks like they’ll be working the presidential primary in February — but most likely the last “big” election, if King County really gets mail-only voting in gear for November 2008, with President, Governor, and more on the ballot. (More info on today’s election is in this earlier post; you can check here for local results and West Seattle-specific notes once the counting begins @ 8 pm.)
If you haven’t already voted by mail, you can vote in person (probably for the last time) 7 am-8 pm today. Here are links to the King County Voters’ Pamphlet, with details on what you’re deciding as well as arguments for/against: ballot measures here, candidates here, “video voters’ guide” here. Since there are five City Council races and two city Charter Amendments on the ballot as well, the city has its own voters guide for you (find it here). Here are a few more West Seattle specifics regarding today’s election, including exactly what Proposition 1 promises WS:Read More
)Within the past hour, the King County Council confirmed Sharon Nelson a short time ago as State House Representative for the 34th District (West Seattle/Vashon Island). Rep. Nelson was appointed to the seat left open when Joe McDermott was confirmed as State Senator, succeeding Erik Poulsen, who resigned for a job in the private sector. Congratulations, Rep. Nelson! (Photo showing Rep. Nelson being sworn in by King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu is courtesy of the Office of King County Councilmember Dow Constantine.)
Just in from the 34th District Democrats‘ website: Sharon Nelson of Maury Island, chief of staff for West Seattle’s King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, was chosen tonight as the 34th DDs’ recommended choice for State Representative. (Photo at right, courtesy 34th DDs.) If the King County Council goes with the recommendation to appoint her, Nelson would succeed Joe McDermott, appointed to the State Senate last month after Erik Poulsen quit. Read more about Nelson here. The 34th DDs say the KC Council’s decision could come as soon as Monday.
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