White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Dropping by Cafe Rozella on Saturday, we learned from proprietor Leticia that a new neighbor was moving into their building in the Delridge Triangle. And we’ve just gotten confirmation – the campaign manager for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sean Salazar says they’re indeed opening an office next to Cafe Rozella, probably within the next two weeks. Debra Churchill added in e-mail, “Our campaign is all about reaching out to communities in the inner cities. This is a campaign office for us to stay connected with ‘The People’.” Salazar is a Mountlake Terrace chiropractor, running for the seat held by Democratic U.S. Senator Patty Murray, who’s finishing her third 6-year term.

From a comment on our earlier report about last night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting – NHUAC president Greg Duff says new County Councilmember Jan Drago has accepted the invitation to be at the next NHUAC meeting, 7 pm March 4, North Highline Fire District HQ. (Also to be attended, as we mentioned earlier, by Kenny Pittman, who’s the current point person for Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on the proposal for the north section of North Highline to vote on Seattle annexation this November.)

(1:56 pm note – will continue to add more as the day goes on – just now adding the PPT from today’s briefing)

11:35 AM: Lots of information in the briefing that just wrapped up before the Seattle City Council – first formal briefing since it was revealed last week (we broke the story at WSB) that Seattle’s new Mayor Mike McGinn wants White Center annexation to go to a vote this fall.

Despite what information was presented, it wasn’t enough for councilmembers including Council President Richard Conlin, who concluded by saying – “We need to have a LOT more information,” particularly regarding what the annexation would really cost Seattle. And concern also was voiced regarding whether enough information is getting to the White Center residents who would vote – mayoral adviser Kenny Pittman acknowledged he had not spoken to the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council yet, but had received “e-mail over the weekend” and was going to be on their agenda in March (though their February meeting hasn’t happened yet). The timeline is a fast one – it was explained that the Seattle council needs to vote by early March on expressing an interest in putting annexation to White Center voters, even though a final vote on asking the county to put it on the ballot would not happen until August. Between now and that March 8 vote, Council President Conlin’s Regional Development and Sustainability Committee will discuss the issue on February 19, then vote March 2nd on indicating an interest in a vote – again, no strings attached. The big gap between March and August, it was explained, is to pursue the rest of the process, including going before the Boundary Review Board.

ADDED 11:53 AM: A lot of data points from the meeting: Seattle leaders say White Center would get a higher level of police and fire services if annexed, and say that any existing King County Sheriff’s and North Highline Fire District employees who would stand to lose their jobs because of annexation would be first in line, depending on seniority and qualifications, for jobs with Seattle Police and Fire. As for sidewalks – that’s one big question, the capital needs of the potential annexation area.

Interesting note relating to a discussion that’s been ongoing in comments here: Seattle says they’ve been told by Burien that though the Memorandum of Understanding wasn’t officially finalized by Seattle council members, Burien intends to honor it, and not pursue annexation of White Center – if Seattle hasn’t done it by then – until after 2011, per the terms of the agreement. Also, existing card rooms in the area to be annexed would be allowed to continue to operate, though no new ones would be approved, and the revenues Seattle is counting on the area generating, it was noted, depend on those businesses, among others.

The annexation area would NOT include the South Park Bridge – that would remain an unincorporated small sliver under terms of a different city-county agreement sometime back that apparently says that once the SP Bridge is replaced, then the city would consider annexing the area.

And White Center schools would remain in the Highline Public Schools district, until and unless Highline and Seattle decided otherwise (with approval required by the Puget Sound Educational Service District).

The ideal scenario that Pittman described would include the annexation – if approved by White Center voters this fall – NOT taking effect till early 2012, so that the city budget process could proceed with detailed information on how to handle the transition.

ADDED 1:56 PM: After the briefing, we asked for a copy of the PowerPoint that Christa Valles from Council Central Staff had shown – just received it and converted it to PDF; you can see it here. During today’s briefing, Valles repeatedly said she was recommending that the mayor’s office commit more resources to the process – both to get information to the council, and to the people directly affected by the potential annexation.

When we broke the news Wednesday on partner site West Seattle Blog that Seattle’s new mayor wants White Center to vote on annexation this November, we got word that the Seattle City Council would get briefed during its morning meeting tomorrow (Monday 2/1). We now know from the online agenda that the discussion is set for 10:30 am. If you can’t be there, you can watch live online via the Seattle Channel.

(Photo by Dina Johnson)
Only one guest was truly two-dimensional at last night’s lively wake for local activist/advocate Cherisse Luxa: The life-size cardboard version of Howard Dean, for whom Ms. Luxa had served as a delegate during his presidential run (above, that’s Liz Giba with “Flat Howard”). A month and a half after her death from cancer at age 62, she was feted tonight by a standing-room-only crowd at Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub in Burien, with friends from West Seattle to White Center to Burien and beyond (in both directions) crowding the pub, like the 34th District Democrats‘ King County Committeeman Ivan Weiss:

(Photo by Dina Johnson)
Dina Johnson took that photo while, as she says, he was “speaking about his admiration and respect for Cherisse as an ally, and occasionally adversary. (He) said the only time she was wrong is when she asserted she could get Dave Reichert to flip parties and become a Dem.” Also in that photo, State Sen. Joe McDermott at right, Liz Giba at left.

(Photo by Dina Johnson)
Dina also made and photographed that collage of scenes from Ms. Luxa’s life (given to her family). We took a photo of one of the snapshots you see in that collage – one from her years with the King County Sheriff’s Office:

(WCN/WSB photo by Patrick Sand)
Reminiscences of Ms. Luxa’s law-enforcement work were shared, too, says Dina: “… we found out she loved ‘bones and bugs’ forensics that date the death of a corpse.” And an emotional moment: “A short video was shown of her testimony about annexation at a public hearing, from just a week before she was hospitalized. I felt, being familiar with her normal voice, that she spoke with some difficulty, but it was not obvious. That made me tear up.” Last night’s wake took the place of the monthly Drinking Liberally event, at which Ms. Luxa had long been a fixture.

The topic of White Center annexation came up when we covered a brownbag lunch meeting with Seattle City Councilmember Jean Godden at the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce offices today. WS business lawyer Jerome O. Cohen (at left with Godden) opened the subject by nothing that the WS Chamber, where he leads the board of directors, is trying to build stronger ties with White Center. Godden described WC as a “lively area” and mentioned a recent visit to Salvadorean Bakery. She then recalled last year’s vote in which a majority of councilmembers voted not to approve the Memorandum of Understanding that had been worked out by then-Mayor Greg Nickels as well as other parties interested in the area, giving Seattle a certain period for first right of refusal on White Center annexation. “I don’t often brag about the 8-1 votes where I’m the 1 – and there are few,” she said, indicating that one, in which she supported approving the MOU, was different – she believes her fellow councilmembers were trying to send a message, but not the one that she thinks the rest of the world drew from what happened. She says it’s up to new Mayor Mike McGinn, as well as the people of White Center, to indicate they would like to talk about annexation, but notes the legislation is still in effect with the tax changes Seattle wanted and needed for annexation to be possible. One sticking point right now, she indicated, is the South Park Bridge – if Seattle annexed all the unincorporated area to its immediate south, the bridge would become the city’s $110 million problem. But federal help might be on the way, she noted. (She is vice chair of the council’s Transportation Committee, now chaired by West Seattle’s Tom Rasmussen.) Overall, she said, White Center “seems like something that ought to be part of the city” – provided its residents agree.

Liz sent us this with a reminder of the event coming up a week from tomorrow:

As we’ve said before, though we didn’t know Ms. Luxa for long, she was a tremendous help with coverage of complicated White Center/North Highline issues here on WCN, and while covering 34th District Democrats meetings for West Seattle Blog and WCN, we saw what a tremendous force she was there. So we appreciate her contributions as well as everything else for which she has been and will be feted.

An announcement from the King County Assessor’s Office:

The King County Assessor’s Office invites you to its first Open House!

Please join King County Assessor Lloyd Hara at the King County Administration Building, 7th floor conference room, on Thursday, January 28th from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The open house provides a great opportunity for citizens to meet their County Assessor and his staff in an informal setting. Cake and coffee will be served. Please rsvp your attendance to Edna Shim, Special Assistant for Community Relations at edna.shim@kingcounty.gov by Monday, January 25th.

Who:
King County Assessor Lloyd Hara

What:
Inaugural Open House hosted by the King County Assessor’s Office

When:
Thursday, January 28, 2010
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Where:
King County Assessor’s Office & Conference Room
King County Administration Building, 7th Floor
500 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104-2304

PLEASE REMEMBER TO RSVP BY MONDAY, JANUARY 25TH !

(Councilmember Drago sworn in by Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer, official county photo)
ORIGINAL REPORT FROM 12:17 PM: Once again today, the King County Council is scheduled to take up the matter of choosing a temporary replacement – till this year’s election – the seat representing White Center, West Seattle, Vashon and other areas has been open since Dow Constantine became County Executive; the first attempt to decide on a replacement led to a seven-hour meeting with two deadlocked votes three weeks ago. We’re covering today’s meeting on partner site West Seattle Blog; you can follow the coverage here. 3:53 PM UPDATE: Councilmembers have voted unanimously to appoint former Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago. State Sen. Joe McDermott says he’s disappointed not to have gotten the appointment, but already campaigning to win the job in November.

ORIGINAL REPORT: We’re covering this as-it-happens on partner site West Seattle Blog – the King County Council is into the sixth hour of considering the last item on its agenda for the year – to appoint a successor for County Executive Dow Constantine. They deadlocked 4-4 in defeating the first motion to appoint the 34th District Democrats’ choice, State Sen. Joe McDermott; and again deadlocked in defeating the second motion, to appoint Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago. Most of the time’s been taken up in “recess” – closed-door huddles in the wings of the council chambers. Follow the ongoing coverage here; we’ll update WCN if/when there’s finally a decision. UPDATE: In the end – no decision – councilmembers declared themselves hopelessly deadlocked and will try again in the new year.

King County Councilmembers, meeting as the Committee of the Whole, could have announced this morning who they want to recommend to fill the year left in the term for County Executive Dow Constantine‘s former council seat – but instead, they just voted to send the list of four finalists on to their afternoon meeting as the full council without recommendation, which means the announcement and final vote will be made together this afternoon.

That’s an official King County photo from this afternoon’s swearing-in ceremony in downtown Seattle, as Dow Constantine – who until this afternoon represented White Center (and the rest of District 8) on the King County Council — became King County Executive. We have two reports on partner site West Seattle Blog with lots of photos and video, since we were there to cover the event – see the as-it-happened report (including video of the first five minutes of his speech) here, and a late-night followup — including the list of applicants who want his former place on the council – here.

Four weeks till Election Day, but voting starts a lot sooner, and if you want to be part of this election but aren’t registered yet, Monday is the deadline to do it by mail — this King County page has all the info you need on getting registered.

King County Executive Kurt Triplett – who will be succeeded immediately after the November election results are certified, by the winner of the Dow Constantine-Susan Hutchison race – has released his proposed budget. It still calls for mothballing county parks in unincorporated urban areas, which means the section of White Center not affected by the annexation vote, since Burien has said it will keep the annexation-area parks open. Here’s the full announcement from Triplett’s office; here’s the county council’s hearing plan:

Council to host four public hearings on 2010 King County Budget
in Bellevue, Kent, Renton and Seattle

Public input vital to budget process

The Metropolitan King County Council will host four public hearings to take comment on the 2010 Executive Proposed Budget.

Led by Councilmember Larry Gossett, chair of the 2010 Budget and Fiscal Management Committee, the four public hearings will be held:

· Wednesday, October 7 – Bellevue City Council Chambers, 450 110th Ave. NE, Bellevue

· Tuesday, October 13 – Maleng Regional Justice Center, Courtroom 3F, 401 4th Avenue North, Kent

· Thursday, October 22 – Redmond City Council Chambers, 15670 NE 85th Street, Redmond

· Thursday, October 29 – King County Council Chambers, 516 Third Avenue, Room 1200, Seattle

All meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. Day-after coverage of the public hearings will be available both online and on King County TV, seen on Comcast and Broadstripe Cable Channel 22. You can also sign up to follow the deliberations through the Council’s 2010 Budget Blog and Twitter.

Follow the Council’s deliberations through Twitter and our 2010 Budget Blog by visiting the King County Council Budget Web site at:
www.kingcounty.gov/council/budget.aspx

Given that White Center, Boulevard Park and surrounding areas are governed directly by King County, the choice of King County Executive should be taken very seriously.  The two candidates are Susan Hutchison and Dow Constantine.  Constantine is a fixture of West Seattle and White Center politics, so he is a known commodity.  Not so, Susan Hutchison, who hails from the East Side of the County.  Candidate Hutchison has run a “feel good” campaign, emphasizing her position to “bring people together.”  Her website’s issues page contains four short paragraphs, with the following priorities:

Jobs & the Economy:

Susan will help give small businesses the tools they need to create jobs…

Improve Transportation:

Susan will quickly implement simple changes to encourage transit ridership…

Budget Reform:

Susan will identify waste and restructure the budget to ensure our tax dollars are being spent effectively.

Protect Our Environment.

Susan will forge partnerships between environmental, labor and business groups as we work toward our common goal…

That’s it folks, Susan Hutchison’s platform for managing one of the biggest governmental entities in the country. In her defense, it might be said that she is offering as much detail as the two lightweights who are currently vying to be Seattle’s next mayor.  But then, that’s not much of a complement.

I will forthrightly state that I do not like Ms. Hutchison’s right-wing politics and that on that basis alone, she should be disqualified for the position.  Seattle and King County residents are a tolerant, liberal community.  To have a George Bush conservative speaking for us, just does not sit well.  But what about her competence?

Ms. Hutchison has never held public office.  She has never had to struggle with the political realities of governing a complex political entity whose ambits include not only roads and sewers but social services, neighborhoods and law enforcement.  It is difficult to see how her experience on the board of the Seattle Symphony prepared her, in the slightest way, for such a weighty role.

I often disagreed with former King County Executive, Ron Sims, but I found him thoughtful, intelligent and most importantly, quite knowledgeable on any issue relating to his role as Executive of the very large and expansive King County.  On the issue of affordable housing, we know nothing as to where Hutchison stands?  Does she support the Greenbridge and High Point housing/community developments?  If so, on what basis?  If not, why not?  Where does she stand on the issue of incorporation which raises the hackles of so many of White Center’s residents?

And what of her experience dealing with communities of color or economically distressed areas?  How does her “bringing people together” chirp really address the many challenges that White Center faces?  The fact is, nothing in her background begins to give her a serious understanding of White Center or similar communities.  There is no on-the-job training for such issues.  And Ms. Hutchison has given no indication that she even remotely cares about such issues.  In the end, Hutchison is what she was in her prior role as newscaster, a pretty face with a vacuous resume.

It appears that Seattle Mayoral Candidate, Mike McGinn has staked his campaign on one issue, gutting the viaduct tunnel plan carefully negotiated by all the relevant players.  If he wins, he has stated, he will view his victory as a mandate to undo the viaduct replacement plan.  In its stead, McGinn has promised more busses, sidewalks and bike paths.  As someone who regularly commutes on the viaduct it’s hard for me to see how more sidewalks and bikepaths is going to make my commute any easier.  Oh, yeah, and McGinn says he wants to use light rail to replace the viaduct.  Geez, I didn’t know that Sound Transit was planning a light rail leg for West Seattle and White Center.  Wait, there is no light rail leg for West Seattle.  So if McGinn is elected we can expect protracted delays on replacing the viaduct, procuring boatloads of money and the decade’s long process of what:  extending the light rail line to West Seattle.  No problema.  I’ll take the tunnel.  It’s clear that McGinn does not live in West Seattle nor does he use the viaduct to commute.

What is particularly disingenuous, is McGinn’s claim that the tunnel option was voted down by Seattle voters.  This is simply not true.  A tunnel option which would have meant tearing down the viaduct and digging up a tunnel was rejected.  The deep bore tunnel that is currently planned would leave the viaduct in place while the tunnel gets built, saving West Seattleites years of aggravating surface detours.  This option was negotiated because it provides the most mobility and least interference while it is getting built.  What McGinn is proposing would set us back a decade and have us revisit the viaduct replacement options once again.  Recall how all this useless process killed the monorail (we had to vote on it three times).  And in the meantime, we have to hope that a seismic event doesn’t make the whole thing hollow by bringing down the decrepit structure.  Busses, bikes and sidewalks, Oh My!

McGinn’s ill-defined plans for the viaduct are enough to nix the guy in my book.  Add to that, the fact that he has never held electoral office, that most of his policy positions lack any specificity and you have a feel-good kind of guy that you might pick for your soccer team, but not a mayor for a major city.  Seattle needs better.  I’m not crazy about Joe Mallahan, but he at least seems considerably more grounded on policies.  We have already had a couple of amateurs embarrass the City.  It’s time to let the grown ups proceed with real policies grounded in reality.

From the Seattle mayoral debate that’s under way right now at the Cinerama downtown – The first audience question was regarding annexation of the remainder of North Highline. Joe Mallahan says he’s not sure that Seattle is the best option for that area, adding that some in the area have told him they want to wait and see “how Burien does” with the rest of North Highline. Mike McGinn says it’s up to the people in that area to decide. We had asked the campaigns via e-mail to answer this question and had only received McGinn’s response, which to elaborate on that point, was that he does not plan to aggressively pursue it – if citizens in that area ask for Seattle to annex them, he’d see how it goes, but he said he looks forward to working with them however things turn out. (When the video stream of the debate is done, we’ll link back to it here, assuming it’s archived, and we’ll look for the time code so you can see their answers for yourself.) UPDATE: The question was asked by WCCDA’s Virgil Domaoan, according to the WCCDA website, which also notes the time code at which you’ll see the answer is around 26:30 – video link’s here.

It’s been a week and a half since ballots started arriving – and only one week is left to get yours in. If you’re in the North Highline South Annexation zone, of course, you know you are making a decision that’ll affect people for decades to come – so don’t let your ballot gather dust. If you’re not – still some big decisions to make – including who’ll make it to the general election in the King County Executive race. Your ballot needs to be out of your hands by 8 pm Tuesday, August 18. The county King County Elections Department is publishing nightly 8 pm updates on how many ballots it’s received. According to last night’s update, just under 8% are in so far: See the count here. (It includes breakouts by various jurisdictions; among County Council districts, the one including White Center, District 8, has returned the second-highest percentage of ballots so far, 9.2%, second only to 9.4%, from District 6 (metro Eastside). If you would prefer to drop off your ballot rather than mail it, there’s a White Center dropoff box available 24/7 till the voting cutoff time — the King County Library‘s White Center branch (11220 16th SW; map). Work somewhere else, and rather drop it off near your workplace? Here’s the full list of dropboxes countywide. Once your ballot’s on its way, keep checking here to look for confirmation it’s arrived. To review voter guides online, the county/port guide links are here.

Sorry we didn’t see this sooner, but there’s still time to get there:

Sunday, Aug. 9th
2:00 PM
12424 – 12th Ave S, 98168, Boulevard Park

The Boulevard Park Community,
in Conjunction with the Boulevard Park Chapter of ACORN, is hosting

Port of Seattle Commissioner Candidates Forum

Hear and Meet the Candidates – Experience Grassroots Democracy

Candidates accepting the invitation:

Position No. 1:
John Creighton

Position No. 3:
Rob Holland
Al Yuen

Position No. 4:
Tom Albro
Max Vekich

Also attending, but not formally speaking:
Candidates for King County Executive:
Dow Constantine and Ross Hunter

Various other community candidates and special interest groups are expected to attend, as well.

This is a “down home”, informal event in the backyard of a Boulevard Park neighbor.

There will be grilled hot dogs with pop and chips. We are asking for donations to help with costs.

This is a residential neighborhood and parking is limited. Please carpool and plan on walking a ways. Please do not block driveways.

Seating is also limited. To assure a seat, please bring a lawn chair.

Bring questions!

This is not an endorsement of any candidate, but an informational event to help voters make informed choices on their ballots.

We are looking forward to a very interesting afternoon

As noted recently, White Center Now is offering to publish “letters to the editor” for those who would like to share their views on the North Highline South Annexation vote (ballots have been mailed, and must be postmarked by the official primary-election day, August 18th). First one was here (with 17 comments as of right now); this one has come in as a rebuttal:

I would like to refute Mr. Lamphears comments. And also to say, shame on you for lowering the debate with statements about “steamy, smelly pile of bovine fecal matte”, please spare me your potty comments:

Pile #1 — Mr. Ufkes does not live in the voting area – but he does live in Area 2 which Burien makes no secret that it will attempt to annex if they are successful in Area 1

Pile #2 — The Westwood Village and White Center areas are not included in the voting area, In the voting pamphlet there is no reference to Westwood village. But if we are going to try to find relevance this is the point. If you want to do a search for a home in Seattle once Seattle annexes North Highline your home will show up in the search. This will elevate your property value. Also, as Seattle and King County allow greater density homeowners who want to subdivide will have more options. Either way King County or Seattle your home will be worth more without a Burien address

Pile #3 — Mr. Ufkes has been a vocal critic of the North Highline Fire Department. Once again, there is not direct relation between customer satisfaction and response times.

Pile #4 — Burien has no plans to hire more police officers AT THIS TIME because it’s not necessary. As a resident of Area 1 I personally feel underserved and believe we do not have adequate police coverage.

Pile #5 — Burien has no budget deficit — No but Burien does have a looming tax crises. With Auto sales tanking and sales tax revenues down Burien needs a greater tax basis this is really the issue. Burien would like to ‘sell’ annexation as some type of ‘affinity’ issue. It is insulting to think the city council would like to annex North highline out of the goodness of their hearts. Burien is about to have a fiscal crises and they are casting about for an increased tax base. North Highline can live without the higher taxes a future in Burien will assure

Pile #6 — If Burien decides to build a new community center with a tax, the law requires the voters to approve any new taxes. There is no new tax on the horizon. Same as above, Burien wants access to a larger tax base

Pile #7 — There is no such thing as a Burien downtown fire department tax for Town Square. Not having personal knowledge about this I will defer to others to fill this in

Pile #8 — There is no evidence that property values have any relationship to your address. Once again, I do not agree zip code and city matter. Minimum lot size matters. King County 5000sq/ft versus Burien 7800 sq/ft. Do the math.

I urge my fellow residents to vote no annexation, there will be no benefit in being annexed to Burien. Vote for no change, no potential new taxes, and no to the Burien City council who consistently ignores the wishes of its constituents who do not wish to annex North Highline.

David Feinberg

If there’s something you’d like to say, e-mail it to whitecenternow@gmail.com – thanks!