I have received many thoughtful letters and emails, both in support and in opposition, to the proposal to build a new arena for a basketball and potentially a hockey team in South Downtown.

Like many who have written in support, I am thrilled to think that there may be a way to bring the Sonics – we do have the right to that name – back to Seattle.

However, I also understand those of you who are asking tough questions.  As a Councilmember, I have a responsibility to make sure any deal the city enters into must be the best one for Seattle taxpayers. It’s important that your elected representatives check into the details, assess the alternatives and ensure that city resources are properly protected.

In the past, Seattle has had some ups and downs with sports enterprises. We have lost teams, venues and even money. To repeat mistakes, especially in light of lessons learned, would be irresponsible.

Many of the proposed arena details have yet to be released.  I do know that Seattle native Chris Hansen is asking the City and County to issue approximately $200 million in bonds to purchase land in SODO and build the arena. In two weeks, the Mayor will transmit a memorandum of understanding that delineates obligations of each party (the city, county and Mr. Hansen) in this enterprise. Mr. Hansen has asked for a binding agreement – a contract – in order to assure the NBA that he has the full commitment of the city.

It is a very serious matter to invest over 200 million dollars of taxpayer money. As such, I have many questions about the proposed agreement and potential bond issuance: Is there a business plan? A pro forma, discussing the chances of the enterprise succeeding? Have we vetted the finances of Mr. Hansen’s fellow prospective owners? What about the ability of a city of this size to support seven big ticket sports?

There does seem to be expectation that there will be a transportation study – a look at possible traffic problems associated with the proposed arena. I appreciate that Mr. Hansen has hired a transportation consultant and will make the results available to us. But it likely will be limited in scope. And, given the concerns of the Port of Seattle and Burlington Northern about freight mobility, a study that is not comprehensive may understate a new arena’s effect on congestion.

As you can see, there are pressing questions that must be answered before Councilmembers will be able to take an informed vote. Here are just a few of my most critical concerns:

• Will additional taxes that the arena will generate cover outlays?
• What additional city services will the arena require? And where will this funding come from?
• What added traffic and/or transportation infrastructure will the city need to provide?
• What about King County? What proportion of the outlay will the county assume? Is it a 50-50 deal? 60-40?
• Are there alternate sites where an arena might be built?
• What arrangements will be made for operating Key Arena in light of competition with a new arena?
• If the city borrows $200 million on this project – apparently a burden that the city could conceivably absorb, although it would almost maximize bonded indebtedness  – what future  projects would the city then be forced to forego?

We have complex and rich history of professional sports teams in Seattle: from the Seattle Pilots and the 1917 Stanley Cup winning Seattle Metropolitans, to our recent additions, the Seattle Storm and Sounders FC. I would like to see this legacy continue for future generations and believe it is possible. However, we must not unnecessarily burden our children and grandchildren if we do not have the best deal possible in front of us.

Going forward, my pledge to you is to be a careful steward of taxpayer’s money. I will work diligently to ensure any deal makes sense for all of Seattle and that we know the full cost and impact to city residents.

Councilmember Jean Godden

Seattle City Councilmember Jean Godden
takes up Utility Discount Program for low income and elderly
More change is needed to ensure access

Seattle – At the urging of Councilmember Jean Godden, the Libraries, Utilities and Center Committee today sent a letter calling for two changes to the Utility Discount Program (UDP).  These changes would immediately benefit low-income families and seniors who need assistance.

The letter, addressed to Ray Hoffman, Director of Seattle Public Utilities, and Dannette Smith, Director of the Human Services Department, calls for:

1. Changing the re-enrollment schedule for low-income seniors from once every 18 months to once every 3 years; and,
2. Making low-income discount rates retroactive to the date a certified application is received

"People who are fully qualified shouldn’t have to wait months for assistance," stated Godden. "Discounts should be retroactive to the date when a qualified customer submits the complete UDP application.

"Unnecessary red tape and bureaucratic delay seems like a high price for those in need to have to bear. Seattle can do better and should."

For more information please visit Councilmember Godden’s review of the program here. You can also visit the Utility Discount Program site.

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Council President Sally J. Clark
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Tim Burgess
Councilmember Richard Conlin
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O’Brien
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen

Special Committee to discuss Seawall

SEATTLE – The Seattle City Council’s Special Committee on the Central Waterfront, Seawall and Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program will meet after Full Council on Monday, April 23. 

The Committee will discuss public safety and protection of the Central Waterfront, the downtown business district, transportation and public infrastructure, a possible bond measure to replace the Elliot Bay Seawall and the Seawall design, schedule, cost estimates and next steps.

WHEN:
Monday, April 23, 2012, following Full Council
(approximately 2:30 p.m.)

WHERE:
Council Chambers, Seattle City Hall
600 Fourth Ave, Second floor, Seattle 98104

View the committee agenda here.

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Councilmember Jean Godden was closely associated with the 1962 World’s Fair.  So closely, in fact, she’s in the official Century 21 coloring book.  Watch as Councilmember Godden describes her fond memories of the event and exhibits that put Seattle on the map.

Councilmember Godden’s personal historical perspective:

The primary architect for the fair was Seattle’s own Paul Thiry, who personally designed the Washington State Coliseum to house the state’s “World of Tomorrow” exhibit. The famed feature of the Coliseum was the 150-passenger Bubbleator. The giant plastic bubble floated through exhibit of the imagined future, piloted by glamorous long-legged models who instructed fair-goers to “step to the rear of the sphere.”

I, alas, was not able to apply for a job piloting the Bubbleator nor for the job of taking passengers via elevator to the Space Needle’s observation deck. Operators needed to be 5 foot 6 and gorgeous. But I did get to leave a small mark on the World’s Fair. The fair designated two official coloring books and my late husband Robert (Bob) Godden, along with his ad-agency partner Ross Swift, was hired by Hayes Distributing Inc. to produce the books. As commercial artists often did, they drew from life and, as fate would have it, almost all adult women in both books could have been my twin sisters.

Aside from coloring books, Godden and Swift did scores of drawings for the fair. They designed a Paul Bunyan Cake, a giant pastry that was the centerpiece for one of the fair’s concluding events. They turned out dozens of ads that appeared in “The Official Guide Book.” They designed punch-out headgear for the Alaska exhibit and shamelessly produced flamboyant “Girls Girls Girls Girls” ads for the scandalous (for the times) adults-only show street extravaganza. Imagine topless beauties (“heavenly bodies”) on display at the “naughty but nice” presentation. It was a reversal for the Seattle City Council, which several years before had deliberated only 24 hours before banning all topless displays.

For more information on this weekend’s Next 50 opening celebration at the Seattle Center, visit http://www.thenextfifty.org/.

Seattle Municipal Archives has some excellent resources on the 1962 World’s Fair.  Click to view digital files, text files.  Image files can be viewed here and here.

Official Century 21 Coloring Book, featuring Councilmember Godden

Council President Sally J. Clark
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Tim Burgess
Councilmember Richard Conlin
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O’Brien
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen

Watch Seattle City Councilmembers share their
favorite Seattle Center memories

SEATTLE - In anticipation of the Seattle Center's Next Fifty celebration kick-off on Saturday, April 21, Seattle City Councilmembers sat down to share their favorite Seattle Center memories. Tune in to our Council Connection blog over the next week as they share their stories.

What:
Seattle City Councilmembers share their Seattle Center memories

When:
Morning and afternoon blog postings, April 16-20, 2012

Where:
Council Connection Blog at http://council.seattle.gov/
Subscribe to the RSS feed at http://council.seattle.gov/feed/

For more information on the Seattle Center's Next Fifty celebration, including the schedule of events, visit http://seattlecenter.com/news/detail.aspx?id=1719.

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Council President Sally J. Clark
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Tim Burgess
Councilmember Richard Conlin
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O'Brien
Councilmember Tom Rasmusse

Library leaders and city officials join together in support of levy for The Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library Board President Marie McCaffrey, City Librarian Marcellus Turner, Mayor Mike McGinn and City Councilmember Richard Conlin announced support for a Library levy to restore cuts and improve core services at a noon press conference at Seattle's Central Library. City officials and Library leaders were joined by scores of Library patrons at the event.

The Library levy would fund increased Library hours, build the collection of books and materials, enhance computers and online services and improve building maintenance. The plan grew out of a two-year process that involved comments from more than 39,000 residents through public meetings, open houses, surveys, focus groups and forums. There were more than 14 million visits to The Seattle Public Library last year and over 11 million books and materials circulated.

The City Council is expected to vote on legislation that would authorize an Aug. 7, 2012, ballot for a Library levy at 2:30 p.m. today.

The seven-year Library levy of $17 million annually would stabilize the Library budget after four years of cuts that have eroded services. The Library has been closed for one week each year since 2009, 15 of 26 branches are closed two days a week, and the budget to buy books and other items has been cut by more than 13 percent since 2009. The levy would also provide an estimated $5 million to address anticipated cuts in 2013. The Library would continue to rely on the city's general fund for the majority of its budget. At about 15 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, the levy would cost the median homeowner approximately $52 a year.

"We owe a huge thank you not only to the mayor and council for their collaboration and support, but also to the people of Seattle who helped shape the plan over the past two years," said McCaffrey. "This is an important step toward completing the vision of the 1998 'Libraries for All' bond measure, which resulted in new and improved libraries across the city."

McGinn said people depend on libraries for access to information and resources they need to succeed. "Libraries are the great equalizers for people of all ages," he said. "A strong Library system contributes to the economic, educational and cultural vitality of our city." He noted that libraries are key partners in supporting his initiatives for youth and families and to bolster civic engagement. "Libraries support our residents looking for work, students needing homework assistance, and people who cannot afford a computer," he said. "Our libraries are educational centers in every community and gathering places for neighborhood meetings and activities."

Conlin initiated a study of alternative funding options for the Library in 2010 after recognizing the city's fiscal challenges and declining tax revenues were affecting services. A levy package grew out of that effort.

"At the City Council's April 3 public hearing, Library patrons spoke to how they have been impacted by the cuts and how critical it was that our libraries be open with the resources and assistance they need," Conlin said. "Libraries are particularly important in challenging economic times and it just doesn't make sense to cut services when people need them the most."

City Librarian Marcellus Turner said the plan was built to reflect the priorities of the community. "Libraries are the city's classrooms for both individuals and the community," he said. "The Library levy will help ensure we can provide essential Library services now and for the next generation of users." 

Ninety-one-year-old Eleanor Owen and local mystery writer Kathrine Beck also spoke about how the Library has helped them, and their families and friends, throughout their lives.

For more information, visit www.spl.org and select "Libraries for All: A Plan for the Present, A Foundation for the Future," or call 206-386-4636.

For more information contact: Andra Addison, communications director, 206-386-4103

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Councilmember Richard Conlin
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Tim Burgess
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O'Brien
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen

Levy proposal addresses ongoing fiscal challenges and supports critical services

What:
After a two-year process involving the thoughtful contributions of tens of thousands of residents and collaboration between The Seattle Public Library, Mayor’s Office and City Council, a proposal to stabilize Library funding and improve Library services is complete.

Who:
Library Board President Marie McCaffrey, City Librarian Marcellus Turner, Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin will announce a proposed Library levy to address ongoing financial challenges and support key service priorities: Library hours, collections, technology and building maintenance.

91-year-old Library patron Eleanor Owen and Seattle author Kathrine Beck will also speak about the Library’s importance to the city’s educational, cultural and economic vitality.

Library and city officials will be joined by other members of the City Council and Library Board, as well as the Friends of the Library, Library Foundation and members of the public.

When:
Noon Monday, April 9, 2012

Schedule:
Noon to 12:30 p.m. – Event Remarks
Library Board president, mayor, City Councilman Richard Conlin and city librarian will talk about the levy plan and what it offers the community. Two Library patrons will talk about the importance of libraries in their lives. The press will receive copies of the proposal, “Libraries for All: A Plan for the Present, A Foundation for the Future.”

12:30 p.m. – 1 p.m. - Other Broadcast Opportunities
Library officials, the mayor, City Council members, Library patrons Eleanor Owen and Kathrine Beck, as well as Library Friends and Foundation members available for further interviews. Opportunities to film baby story time, tax assistance program and poetry group and other activities happening in the building. City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed Library levy for the Aug. 7, 2012 ballot at 2:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 600 Fourth Ave.

Where:
The Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 3

Information:
Andra Addison, The Seattle Public Library, 206-386-4103, andra.addison@spl.org
Caroline Ullmann, The Seattle Public Library, 206-615-1627, caroline.ullmann@spl.org

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Council President Sally J. Clark
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell

Seattle City Councilmembers Clark, Godden and Harrell to appear on April's City Inside/Out: Council Edition
Email your questions now for Seattle City Councilmembers

SEATTLE – What is the latest with the Department of Justice's investigation of the Seattle Police Department? How will policing change in the City? What role will the Council play in Seattle Center's Next Fifty anniversary celebration? Can residents be involved in this year's budget process? Whatever your questions, submit them now.

The April 10 episode of Seattle Channel's City Inside/Out: Council Edition will feature Councilmembers Sally J. Clark, Jean Godden and Bruce Harrell answering your questions with host Brian Callanan.

Submit your questions for the Councilmembers by Friday, April 6, at noon.

• Email: contact@seattlechannel.org
• Online: http://www.seattlechannel.org/CouncilEdition/
• Twitter: @SeattleChannel
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SeattleChannel
• Simply reply to this email

Don't miss this opportunity to put your issues before the City's lawmakers. Send in your questions now and tune in to Seattle Channel, Cable 21 on Tuesday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. to hear the councilmembers respond.

Follow SEATTLE CHANNEL on Facebook and Twitter!

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Council President Sally J. Clark
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Tim Burgess
Councilmember Richard Conlin
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O'Brien
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen

Feedback sought on proposed Seattle Public Library Levy

SEATTLE – Providing funding stability for the Seattle Public Library is a priority for the City of Seattle. Seattle City Councilmembers invite members of the public to provide their feedback on the proposed Library Levy legislation before the Council. 

WHAT:
Public Hearing on the proposed Library Levy

WHEN:
Tuesday, April 3, 5:30 p.m. (Sign up will open at 5 p.m.)

WHERE:
Council Chambers, second floor
Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue, Seattle 98104

Over the last two years, the Library has involved over 39,000 residents in strategic planning for the Library's future and setting priorities for Library services. In community surveys, focus groups panel discussions, five open houses, and three community meetings, the people of Seattle came together to identify the priorities for the Library's work now and in the future. Please take this opportunity to share your feedback on the proposed seven year Library Levy.

For more information on the proposed Library Levy, please visit the Council's issue page.  The proposed legislation will likely be voted on at the April 9, meeting of the Special Committee on the Library Levy at 2:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

Seattle City Council meetings are cablecast and Webcast live on Seattle Channel 21 and on the City Council's website. Copies of legislation, Council meeting calendar, and archives of news releases can be found on the City Council website. Follow the Council on Twitter and on Facebook.

Before the Space Needle became the symbol of Seattle, before the Starbucks mermaid became the world’s barista and decades before the Columbia Center cast its tall, undulating shadow over the West Coast, there was the P-I Globe.

The Globe, spunky, animated symbol of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has long served as the city’s unofficial cultural icon. But there were no iron-clad assurances that the words “It’s in the P-I” would keep spinning into the future – until now.

The Globe, all 13.5 tons of it, no longer sits astride the daily newspaper offices that gave it life in 1948.  Three years ago, the Hearst Company, the P-I’s parent, ceased publishing a paper edition, turning the city’s oldest daily into an online only news source. (Check it out at SeattlePI.com). The newsroom, much reduced in size, recently moved to offices several blocks from the waterfront building at Elliott Avenue West on which the P-I Globe sits, rusty and minimally tended.

The Globe’s orphan plight has not gone unnoticed. Three years ago, three Seattle councilmembers, all former journalists, realized that, if the Globe were to escape the scrap metal heap, it would need protection as a landmark. And, unlike process as usual, the three councilmembers vowed to themselves nominate the globe for landmark status.

Three years seems a long time and, yet, the Globe’s landmark designation is only now reaching its critical point. There has been lengthy research – oh, my, the stories the Globe could tell; but more about that later. During those three years, there have been negotiations with the Hearst Company which still owns the Globe and which, fortunately and happily, recognizes the Globe’s status as part of the city’s history.

Add to that a series of negotiations with the Museum of History and Industry (aka MOHAI), the local nonprofit that has stepped up and is willing to accept ownership and responsibility for the iconic sign.  This is a grand gesture for the museum and a wonderful addition to the museum’s storehouse of significant artifacts which, of course, includes such city symbols as Rainier Beer’s giant “R” and the neon tail-wagging dog from the city’s once famed 24-7 Dog House Restaurant.

Rome, as they say, wasn’t built in a day. And neither was the Globe rescued for posterity in an abbreviated period. But, after much process, many meetings and robust discussions, there is finally is progress to report. Today, the Landmark Board will have before it the question of whether – or not – to recommend landmark status to the P-I Globe. Once that is done and terms of the agreement decided, the final vote will be taken by the Seattle City Council.

At that point, the Globe will likely be moved to a temporary storage location until it can be handed over to MOHAI and Executive Director Leonard Garfield. MOHAI is making plans to refurbish the Globe and find a new permanent location for it to reside.

Where the Globe might go next hasn’t yet been definitely decided. There are funds to raise and venues to consider. Garfield has said that the community should be involved in picking a locale.

Some think the ideal location might be near the museum’s new home at South Lake Union or perhaps near Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront. One suggestion – this one by Seattle Times reporter Lynn Thompson – is placing the Globe adjacent to the sculpture park’s other neon artwork, “Love & Loss.”

A word now about the globe itself, which was spinning atop the old P-I Building at Sixth and Wall Street when I first went to work at the paper in 1974, feeling elated to think that the world would soon, literally, be on my shoulders. By then, the Globe was already a fixture in the city, the result of a 1940s P-I contest won by University of Washington art student Jakk Corsaw. His entry featured a cylindrical map that shot streaks of light from breaking news across the continents.

The P-I art department refashioned the map into a world globe topped with an 18-foot eagle and encompassing the spinning words “It’s in the P-I.” The redesign was a more agreeable task than the department’s other jobs which included altering news photos to make them suitable for a family paper. Among their jobs: painting out the udders of cows and tracing paths taken by Aurora Avenue Bridge suicides. Artist Ray Collins, in a slightly irreverent mood, once wondered aloud if suicides would kindly take along a roll of toilet tissue to mark their route.

The Globe represents the legacy of those brawling Front Page-like days of the Post-Intelligencer, when reporters, editors and craftsmen fought rivals for scoops and put out a morning paper seven days a week in what one editor described as “an every day miracle.”

The late night crew, an inspired bunch of copywriters, editors and rim rats – among them Dune novelist Frank Herbert and “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” novelist Tom Robbins — often took their “lunch” break on the Sixth and Wall-Street Building’s roof, next to the Globe, sometimes inhaling dried plant substances and wishing they could say, “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.” Or now, like me – missing the old print edition and its iconic symbol –  but hoping we can preserve its memories for future generations.