SeaTac lawmakers will discuss locally the global issues of climate change and sustainability at their May 22 study session.

The local issue is a $600 dues payment for membership in ICLEI, an international organization concerned with sustainability issues on a local level.

On May 8, six speakers, including three SeaTac residents, urged SeaTac council members to reject a voucher payment to ICLEI that was originally on the council’s consent agenda.

That led to a mini-debate between council members Barry Ladenburg and Rick Forschler on climate change.

Ladenburg said he found it almost laughable that people would still question the existence of global warming or climate change.

“The discussion over the question is over,” Ladenburg declared. “The question now is what do we do about it.”

He added that the problem must be dealt with on an international scale.
Forschler countered, “It is far from a settled issue.”

He said local residents can reduce pollution but questioned the city’s membership in a “problem-type organization.” Forschler suggested the council repeal the 2008 resolution authorizing the city’s ICLEI membership.

City Manager Todd Cutts said his staff will bring back to council members on May 22 a list of benefits to SeaTac from belonging to the group.

During public comments, SeaTac resident Vicki Lockwood said ICLEI is an organization tied to the United Nations (U.N.) that negatively affects local economic development and promotes more regulation.

Lockwood warned that ICLEI would change the way Americans live by reallocating wealth to developing countries.
SeaTac resident Erin Sitterley said citizens would be noting how council members vote on membership in the group.

“You can’t give away property rights,” Sitterley declared. “You don’t represent the U.N.”

The group’s website (iclei.org.) says it is an association of over 1,220 local government members from 70 different countries who are committed to sustainable development.

The group was founded, according to its website, in 1990 when more than 200 local governments from 43 countries convened at a conference at the U.N. in New York City.

Its original name was changed from the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives to ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.

SeaTac lawmakers also heard a presentation from the new manager of Sound Transit’s light rail extension to South 200th Street.
Miles Haupt noted light rail will be extended 1.6 miles from the SeaTac City Center/Sea-Tac Airport station on an elevated guide way to a new station spanning South 200th Street at 28th Avenue South.

Parking could be available for 1,050 vehicles, including 700 stalls within a parking garage. The 350 surface stalls may be temporary until light rail expands south to Highline Community College in Des Moines, according to Haupt.

A parking crunch at the Tukwila light-rail station has contributed to a speed up in plans to expand to South 200th.

Development agreements are expected to be approved soon, Haupt told the lawmakers. Sound Transit and the Port of Seattle are expected to finalize their agreements by the end of May.

A community meeting will be held in early June at Madrona Elementary, followed by a public hearing and an expected approval of the city’s agreement on June 26, according to Haupt.

Haupt said a contractor contract should be awarded this fall with major construction starting early next year and the station opening in fall 2016.