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Seattle City Council-driven project proves to be a big winner at 2011 Seattle Management Association Awards

News Release
On December 8, the Community Centers Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) Work Group, a project team commissioned earlier this year, will be awarded the Planning and Project Management Award from the Seattle Management Association. This award recognizes an individual, project or program manager who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in establishing courses of actions for self and others to ensure that work is completed efficiently and successfully.

Seattle City Council moves to complete police accountability review board

News Release
The Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Education Committee voted this morning to appoint Joe Hawe to the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, the seven-member civilian body that reviews the City’s policies related to police accountability. Hawe, a former Chief of Police, Sheriff and United States Marshall, fills the position vacated by Martha Norberg designated for an individual with law enforcement experience.

Final decision near in Roosevelt rezones

As we get closer to what will likely be final committee-level action Dec. 14 (there’ll be no Roosevelt action at the December 8 Committee on the Built Environment), the Roosevelt rezone work is shaping up to set a template for thoughtful zoning and development standards review in other transit-connected urban villages in Seattle. I say [...]

Asthma and Indoor Air Quality – Successful Programs

The Master Home Environmentalist program of the American Lung Association and the Healthy Homes Program of the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health have complementary approaches to addressing the rising problem of childhood asthma and other consequences of indoor air pollution.  The good news is that both approaches are demonstrating significant successes! The Master Home [...]

Seattle Receives First “Happiness Report Card”

Thomas Jefferson described ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ as what citizens should expect government to promote and enhance.  But can we really find a way to judge ourselves based on those criteria?  Usually we evaluate government – and social progress – using statistics that measure performance, most often economic performance, rather than whether [...]

“Placemaking:” Sidewalk cafes and mobile vending

In the last few weeks I’ve written about how, when I re-upped as the committee chair for COBE in 2010, I made it a goal to focus on land use as service, as a means to an end. I talked about the ways I wanted land use to serve the greater good of our city, [...]

Earthquakes and Seattle – Improving Our Emergency Plans

The Council has held a series of briefings and discussions reviewing the disastrous earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, and Japan over the last few months (an exercise for the reader:  what section of the Pacific Rim has not yet had a major earthquake in recent years?  Hint:  you live there.). Our goal has been to [...]

2012 Budget Adopted by Council

On Monday, November 21, the City Council unanimously adopted the 2012 Seattle Budget, including some significant additions to the human services budget, and some other changes to the Mayor’s proposal.  However, as I suggested in my initial blog post on the budget, there were not a lot of major new initiatives, largely because 2012 is [...]

Applicants wanted for Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee

News Release

Applicants wanted for Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee
he City of Seattle is seeking candidates to fill eight citizen positions on the Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee. Approved by Seattle voters on November 8, the $232 million Levy will be effective from 2012 through 2018, providing funding for school readiness and early learning; academic achievement in elementary, middle and high schools; guidance and related support for college and career preparation; and student health services.