Mayor Mike McGinn paid a visit to the Westwood/Roxhill neighborhood on March 6 and spoke at the Southwest branch of the Seattle Public Library as the West Seattle previously reported.At the time he answered questions from those in attendance and promised that he would provide answers in a followup for questions that he couldn't answer on the spot. Here's the Mayor's response sent as an email to those who requested it:

"There were a couple of questions raised that we weren't able to address at the time; here they are, along with our answers:

1) What can we do to ensure that people don’t use Smith Cove Park as a park and ride?
Parking Enforcement patrols City Parks Department property as needed. You can report illegal parkers to the police non-emergency line: (206) 625-5011. We patrol more in the summer months when parks usage is higher and demand for space can become a friction point.

Many parks have very little in the way of restrictions or signing. Most parks are not very handy for parking on a daylong basis and jumping the bus, however, there may be some instances where a resourceful person has figured out a use that circumvents the best laid plans of the Parks Department. If you know of parks where this frequently occurs, please call the police non-emergency line to report it. We do cite vehicles that are parked in parks that are not in designated parking areas as well as vehicles that are violating posted parking regulations.

2) Would you instruct all department heads to voluntarily post all consultant contracts on their websites?
This is definitely information that should be easily available to the public. Our Department of Finance and Administrative Services is working on a system to post all contracts to the web. Our goal is to have it in place by December of 2012.

In the meantime, the city’s blanket contracts are available online at: http://www2.cityofseattle.net/purchasing/vendorcontracts/

All City contracts are also filed with the City Clerk. The public can find the basic information on those contracts filed with the Clerk’s office at: http://clerk.seattle.gov/~public/ccdb1.htm.

If you have input on how to improve our neighborhood visit follow-up going forward, feel free to contact Sol Villarreal in my office at sol.villarreal@seattle.gov or 206-427-3062.

For other opportunities to talk to myself or other City staff in your community please see our Public Outreach and Engagement Calendar at http://seattle.gov/engage/access.htm, and as always, please write to me with any questions, comments, or concerns that you have at mike.mcginn@seattle.gov .

It's an honor to serve as your Mayor; I'll look forward to seeing you again soon.

Sincerely,

Mike McGinn
Mayor of Seattle