April 2014

Asking voters to pay more in sales tax and a $60 car tab fee as proposed in Proposition 1 has failed on the April 22 ballot. The unofficial cumulative total votes show the measure being rejected. The totals are Yes 187,324 or 45.49% vs No 224,441 or 54.51% of the vote.

Officials were quick to react to the news:

King County Councilmember Joe McDermott said via Facebook: "Ouch.
We need the Legislature to give us progressive options to fund transit and roads."

State Representative Joe Fitzgibbon said, "The failure of Proposition 1 is a huge disappointment as it will leave thousands of riders stranded, put more cars on the road, and result in more pollution to our air and water."

The small chamber lock at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Ballard is not yet ready to open because of further maintenance requirements. The small lock will remain closed to marine traffic until after 5 p.m. April 25.

Foot traffic is not affected and the large lock will continue around-the-clock operations for vessels. Lock wall staff will move commercial traffic through as quickly as possible.

All pleasure craft will use the large lock, and boaters should be prepared with appropriate equipment and crew. Large lock requirements include long lines and fenders on board. Current locking through information is available at http://bit.ly/BoaterInfo. Mariners may experience delays, depending on passage demand.

Most machinery and equipment, including the gates and valves, are original to the 97-year-old facility. The annual closure gives dam safety experts and maintenance staff an opportunity to dry out the chambers for thorough inspections and to make necessary repairs. This routine maintenance is necessary and important in keeping the Chittenden Locks safe and operational as the locks approach their 100-year anniversary.

The Seattle City Council will hold a public hearing on proposed legislation to improve regulation of micro-housing and congregate residences.

The hearing is Monday, May 19, 2014, in City Council Chambers, Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue, Floor 2. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Or to learn more about the proposal to improve regulations visit our Micro-Housing website.

17 year old chess champion Phinoa Mutesi paid a visit to West Seattle Elementary April 23, bringing an inspirational message to the students. She had a chance to visit and even play a little with the children in a visit that included a bit of classroom instruction from Chess Lady Wendi Fischer of First Move and an assembly for the whole school.

Mutesi, who is Uganda's Junior chess champion came with her coach Robert Katende. She will meet with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to share her inspiring story, detailed in a recent book called Queen of Katwe. It tells the story of how the game of chess, combined with education and faith transformed her life. The book is set to become a film produced by Disney.

Her story is inspirational. She was a 9 year old girl in Kampala, Uganda just trying to eat when she followed her brother to a shack where they came upon a Ugandan missionary teaching children to play chess.

She quickly learned the game and was seen to be a prodigy. She has gone on to become one of Uganda's top chess players despite the fact she has only had a limited education.

Goodman Real Estate has sped up the eviction process for some tenants at Lockhaven, leaving some Lockhaven Tenant Union members looking for a new place to live.

The move comes as a shock to some tenants who were under the impression they had more time to move, some as much as six months.

After purchasing Lockhaven last year, GRE is renovating the building and needs to to have the units vacated for construction. At the end of March, the City approved GRE’s relocation license. Now GRE can give a 20 day notice to move any tenant.

Michelle Kinnucan, an active Lockhaven Tenants Union member and veteran, received her notice at the end of last month. Four other tenants were recently told to expect 20 day notices in May. Two of them are union members and one is a . They live in a different building than Kinnucan.

Kinnucan had originally been told she had until the end of this October to vacate.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle has decided not to run against Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles for the 36th district Senate seat. Rather, Carlyle will be running for re-election for his current seat in the House of Representatives.
Carlyle posted a statement on his website reuvencarlyle36.com elaborating his decision.

"After much consideration and reflection, I have decided to run for re-election to the House of Representatives. I had seriously considered running for the Senate this year but will not do so."

“While I believe I could play a substantive role in the Senate toward progress on the central issues we face in Washington–the structural issues of education, tax modernization and quality of life—I accept the argument that with Democrats across the state working mightily to regain the majority, this is not the time to negatively impact swing district races that Democrats can and must win.”

Responding to Carlyle’s deliberation to run against her, Jeanne Kohl-Welles said, "It was a big surprise to me.”

“Reuven told me over coffee that Friday. He might have been expecting me to not have plans to run, but after he told me, I went into full campaign mode,” said Kohl-Welles.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray today released Moving the Needle, an environmental progress report that pulls together Seattle’s key environmental goals and reports on their progress and achievements.

“Seattle has been an environmental leader for years, with many laudable environmental goals throughout the city’s offices and departments. Until now, these have all been tracked separately,” said Murray. “Moving the Needle presents the key goals and metrics and paints a single picture of how we are doing on the environmental commitments we’ve made over the years.”

Moving the Needle reports on 35 goals across seven areas: buildings and energy; transportation and land use; food; waste; water; trees and green space; and climate change. This report provides a comprehensive look across environmental sectors, and demonstrates how the goals work together to create a bold environmental vision for the Emerald City.

View the report here: http://www.seattle.gov/environment/environmental-progress-report

OLYMPIA – Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, will be participating in a panel discussion on human trafficking at an event held by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on April 29 at 7 p.m.

“Public awareness is key to combatting this terrible scourge on our communities,” Kohl-Welles said. “That is why events like this are vital to getting the word out that trafficking is both a domestic and international issue. The more the public can recognize occurrences of trafficking, the more light we shine on those responsible for perpetuating this terrible crime.”

Kohl-Welles has been the sponsor of many anti-trafficking bills in the Legislature dating back to 2002, helping to make Washington the nation’s leader in efforts to eliminate human trafficking. In 2010, Kohl-Welles received Seattle Against Slavery’s Lincoln Freedom Award for her anti-trafficking legislative work. She also speaks internationally on the subject of human trafficking and is a speaker on trafficking through Humanities Washington Speakers’ Bureau.

Dear editor,

In reading Mr Ufkes comments in the April 18th Weekly, I would like to point out some facts and not random raving. He states that the attempted annexation of Area Y cost the Burien tax payers millions of dollars. Does he keep a separate set of books from the city of Burien?

None of the Burien paid employees who keep the books, and keep track of the budget, seem to know where he got his figures. In fact, they say they are impossible. Is he saying that the assigned people of Burien to handle this are liars’ or don’t know what they are doing? Then he quotes numbers from the last vote of area Y. But, I would have voted against annexation also, if I would have believed his, and his associates, facts and figures they were publishing (as fact) in the last election. Much money was spent by them to get out false statements and phony so-called facts. And, no official facts. Mr. Ufkes seems to think that he is smarter and better informed than the employees of Burien who are charged with keeping the facts.

Dear Editor:

I am writing this in response to comments made recently by one of Burien’s new city council members. It appears from her assertions at the council meeting that Lauren Berkowitz is strongly pro-annexation. This stance is surprising to me because I thought annexation, as a viable issue, was put to bed during the last election cycle?

Apparently not, because both Ms. Berkowitz and her ally, Jerry Robison, a long time annexation proponent, have not as yet given up on this unpopular notion. It looks like political expediency to me because the council never heard a word from Ms. Berkowitz in the months that led up to the 2012 Annexation vote and she certainly did not work on the campaign. I suspect she was cautioned by her handlers to distance herself from the pro-annexation supporters as it would most likely have hurt her chances to defeat Jack Block in the city council race. (Its easy to have the courage of your convictions in hindsight when there are no political consequences for taking an unpopular stance)