Has anyone else had a problem getting a meeting with Lisa Herbold?

[WSMoti]

The new City of Seattle district system was designed to give residents of each district a representative in the City Council. However I have found it very difficult get Council-member Herbold to meet with me on two issues I brought to her attention.

FYI, the two issues were:

1. Requesting that District Council members give residents at least two weeks notice for all their in-district meetings and post those dates and times on their official City of Seattle Council page.
2. Requesting that any district that does not have enough guest rooms to accommodate visitors of residents not be subject to the restrictions the Council is working on to restrict Airbnb type accommodations.

In both instances she wanted to either delay meeting me for months or have me write to a Council-member at-large to discuss a District specific issue. I patiently waited for my meeting for months and sent several email request to her and her scheduler before writing this post.

While I do care about both of these issues I am more concerned that Council-member Herbold is acting like a Council-member at large instead of a true and accessible representative of West Seattle.

Please feel free to comment if you had similar, worse, or better experiences with getting a meeting with Council-member Herbold about a West Seattle issue.

Thank you,

Moti

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[WSB]

If you are not on her e-mail list – her just-sent update (which should also be on the city website) includes an announcement of office hours in West Seattle next Friday. You can make an appointment OR drop in:

“I will be at the Southwest Neighborhood Center (2801 SW Thistle St) on Friday, January 27th from 2:00pm – 7:00pm. The final meeting of the day will begin at 6:30pm. These hours are walk-in friendly, but if you would like to let me know you’re coming in advance you can email my scheduler Alex Clardy (alex.clardy@seattle.gov)”

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[WSMoti]

Thank you for the post.

I believe that every District Council Member should list their schedules on their official website. If you visit Council Member Herbold’s website and then go to her calendar link the meeting you mentioned is not listed as it should be.

The email list is an option but it doesn’t work well for many people because it requires people to get all sorts of emails all the time when all they want to do is set up a meeting. It is push vs pull technology which is regressive since some West Seattle residents may not wish to pay for unwanted data charges to participate in local government.

The other issue is that Council Member is not giving residents enough notice about her in district meetings. She sponsored the Secure Scheduling legislation with the understanding that people need two weeks notice to plan for work and other events. The Council Member should use the same practice in her own office and give the residents of her district two weeks notice about in district meetings. On one occasion the Council Member gave residents a mere one day notice before an in district meeting.

Lastly I have emailed Alex from the Council Member’s office several times and he did not reply to me with the the info about the January 27th meeting. The Council Member was not copied on my recent emails to Alex so perhaps she is unaware of the challenges some of her constituents are having with setting up a meeting with her about West Seattle specific issues.

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[Vpardee]

I would like to know when & where we can meet with LH before the Next City council meeting.
I have reported illegal teee trimming and runoff diversion over. Steep slopes for over 10 years. And now we have another 50 ft landslide to deal with.
The city takes NO responsibility for managing city right of way:
Arborist say Land use, land use says DOT, DOT says property owners…meanwhile our slopes are saturated and a liability to ALL property owners paying property taxes to the city for the privilege of being told we cannot touch ECA, and that the city takes NO responsibility for over development or mitigating illegal vegetation removal and storm water runoff directed over steep slopes. It has to stop! The ground cannot manage any more water, nad the city continues to allow development without storm water management or vegetation replacement.

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[JanS]

from WSB’s post above:
”
WSB

Keymaster
If you are not on her e-mail list – her just-sent update (which should also be on the city website) includes an announcement of office hours in West Seattle next Friday. You can make an appointment OR drop in:

“I will be at the Southwest Neighborhood Center (2801 SW Thistle St) on Friday, January 27th from 2:00pm – 7:00pm. The final meeting of the day will begin at 6:30pm. These hours are walk-in friendly, but if you would like to let me know you’re coming in advance you can email my scheduler Alex Clardy (alex.clardy@seattle.gov)”

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[anonyme]

Not my personal experience, but I know someone who has had a hell of a time connecting with Ms. Herbold. She tried setting up an appt., and was told to just drop in during office hours. She did so, but after waiting a long time was told that it would be better to make an appt. She was finally able to make an appt., but walk-ins ahead of her took the entire afternoon and the appt. was ignored. Working people cannot afford to waste this kind of time.

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