Tag: Burien

King County, Police

Community Police Commission Hires Acting Director, Burien Plans Closed-Door Police Chief Selection

1. The Community Police Commission, whose internal struggles we covered earlier this month, has appointed Bessie Scott, the deputy inspector general at the city’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), as its acting director, a temporary position, CPC co-chair Joel Merkel confirmed.

Cali Ellis, the current director, has been on administrative leave since last month amid staff complaints about her leadership; in the past two months, almost every member of the CPC’s small staff has resigned or gone on leave, and the commission itself has struggled to maintain a full roster of 15 members.

The CPC is a fully independent arm of the three-pronged police accountability system Seattle established in response to a federal consent decree in 2012; its mission is to listen to feedback from diverse communities and advocate for policies that improve police accountability. The Office of Police Accountability investigates complaints against police, and the OIG provides oversight of the entire police accountability system.

Scott, who did not respond to calls for comment, was the policy director of the CPC between 2018 and 2020 and served as interim director from 2019 to 2020.

The CPC ordinarily holds meetings twice a month, but canceled its meeting this week and plans to hold meetings monthly while it addresses internal issues and hires a deputy director (and, presumably, a permanent executive director); the deputy director is a new position.

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2. The city of Burien will not hold an open, public process for selecting a new police chief to replace popular former chief Ted Boe, who was effectively pushed out after City Manager Adolfo Bailon began demanding his removal in March. Boe resigned in June and took a job as police chief in Des Moines.

Burien contracts for police service with the King County Sheriff’s Office, which is currently suing the city over its total ban on sleeping outdoors, which the sheriff’s office—meaning Boe and his deputies—have declined to enforce.

Instead of a public process, the city council and manager will choose the new police chief after a series of private meetings with a handpicked group of stakeholders and the entire council, divided up into two groups of three.

The council’s meetings may constitute a “serial meeting” under the Open Public Meetings Act, which prohibits government bodies from taking collective action in private. One type of illegal serial meeting is when a legislative body, like a city council, splits up to have a series of private meetings that result in collective action by the larger body.

Earlier this year, a man sued the city after a majority of the city council held a press conference, and took public comments, without providing notice of the meeting or inviting the public to attend. The plaintiff, Arthur West, accused the council of violating the OPMA.

In an email to Burien City Councilmembers, Bailon said he knew that “some members of our community long-for” the “public component” of the selection process the city used when choosing Boe six years ago.

“However, the new process includes considerably more  direct input from people of color and is more representative of the cultural and ethnic diversity that exists in Burien I believe firmly that it is far more important to seek and include input from people of color – that make-up a considerable percentage of our population – than it is to provide a venue for politically-extreme activists – with little to no diversity in culture or race – that drown-out voices from people of color.” (Emphasis in original).

The community panel includes five people of color. The rest of the people of color giving input on the police chief are city staffers (including Bailon) and council members themselves.

Bailon—who frequently calls 911 to report people he believes are setting up tents or using drugs outside his office—has expressed frustration about people who oppose the city’s harsh stance on homeless encampments.

homelessness, King County

Burien City Manager Accuses King County Executive of “Establishing” Encampment Outside Courthouse
“I look forward to receiving answers to all my questions”: Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon’s “demand” letter included several photos of the encampment, including this one.

By Erica C. Barnett

In an email to Deputy King County Executive Shannon Braddock last week, Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon demanded answers to a number of questions about an encampment outside the King County Courthouse in downtown Burien, where unsheltered people have been living for several weeks. The county recently set up a fence around the encampment that prevents it from sprawling onto the sidewalk.

In the letter, Bailon asserted that the county itself had “established” the encampment around the courthouse—an accusation that not only presumes that the county is physically moving unsheltered people into camps, but also suggests that homeless people would not choose to live in proximity to each other without government intervention.

The letter begins: “Deputy County Executive Braddock – I write to express disappointment in the indifference expressed by King County to the questions and concerns raised by Burien regarding the encampment created by King County.  My patience on this issue has now run out.  I now demand from King County answers to the questions listed below.”

A sampling, by no means complete, of Bailon’s “demands”:

“How, if at all, were neighboring residential apartment complexes, homes, and businesses notified of King County’s plan to establish an encampment?” (Bailon lives in downtown Burien, as does Councilmember Linda Akey.)

“What steps have been taken by King County to ensure that recent work performed at its encampment [the fence] is compliant with zoning codes that govern the City of Burien?

“Is King County planning to respond to Burien’s offer of assistance through its new service provider, The More We Love, and funds for temporary lodging?” (The More We Love, a company set up by a Union Gospel Mission volunteer and Kirkland mortgage broker named Kristine Moreland, is offering temporary stays at a hotel in Renton to homeless people who agree to leave encampments in Burien.)

“How many, if any, security and or camp management personnel are on-site during daytime/evenings/overnight?”

“I look forward to receiving a response to all of my questions,” Bailon concluded.

In her response, Braddock explained that King County did not, in fact, “establish this encampment. I can only assume that individuals began camping on this property given they had no place else to go.”

Last year, Burien passed a ban on “camping” in the city, defined as sleeping while in the presence of any “indicia of camping,” including sleeping bags, tarps, blankets, or other items that might provide comfort or protection from the elements. The law says that the ban won’t be enforced overnight (until 6 in the morning) if there is no shelter “available,” but Burien has interpreted this to include shelter far outside Burien, including in Seattle—effectively banishing homeless people from the city.

In addition, Burien’s sleeping ban permanently bars homeless people from sleeping within 500 feet of any public building, park, school, or day care, and includes a map of these banishment areas, which the law empowers the city manager to change without notice at any time.

The King County Sheriff’s Office, which provides police services to Burien, is suing the city over the ban and is not currently enforcing it.

Braddock also noted that Moreland told the county that Burien officials directed her not to do any outreach to people living at the courthouse encampment. ” I want to be clear that that is not a direction received from the County, but direction received from the City of Burien,” Braddock wrote. The county, she continued, is contracting with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to provide outreach and shelter offers to people living in the encampment.

There is no general overnight shelter in Burien. King County offered Burien $1 million to help establish a tiny house village, with supportive services, in the city; after more than a year of deliberations, the city had rejected multiple locations and was on its way to passing legislation that would preclude the final option, a piece of Seattle-owned property near the Sea-Tac Airport runways. The county ended up giving the money to KCRHA to spend in South King County.

According to Braddock, Bailon offered in June to “assist” the county in moving the encampment by partnering with The More We Love, an agreement that would have required King County to help pay for Moreland’s contract with the city. “If the offer of assistance is the same as what you proposed in your June 4 email—that King County would need to help fund Burien’s contract for services that have been procured by the City of Burien—the answer is no,” Braddock wrote.

In his letter to Braddock, Bailon also demanded to know why the King County Sheriff’s office classified at least 10 auto break-ins, or attempted break-ins, that took place on one night in an apartment parking as one incident instead of 10 or more. Then he answered his own question: “This seems to be an attempt to tailor the method for collecting data in order to manipulate results.” Bailon did not explain why a law enforcement agency would want to minimize crime, or why he believed the break-ins were related to the encampment other than proximity.

Asked why the sheriff’s office would classify incidents one location as a single offense, KCSO spokesman Eric White said the office “did receive a call from a community member who stated they saw 15 cars that had been either broken into or vandalized,” but that person “did not make a report with us. One victim did make a report with us … but asked to make a report over the phone[,] which he did.”

“For clarification,” White added, “it is not uncommon to group several crimes into one report and list multiple victims of the crime if the crimes are related to string of crimes, in close proximity (time and distance) of each other by the same suspect or suspects.  Suspects can be charged with multiple crimes  under the same single case number.”

In a separate letter, also sent on July 23, five members of the Burien City Council asked the King County Council for “help with investigating the King County Executive Office’s actions in Burien,” accusing County Executive Dow Constantine of showing “contempt for for the United States Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson,” which overturned a ruling that said jurisdictions must provide shelter before sweeping unsheltered people.

The council majority, like Bailon, accused the executive’s office of “permitting… King County’s encampment” at the courthouse, “without discussing this plan with Burien and without any community engagement.”

“The Metropolitan King County Council has the authority to demand a briefing from the King County Executive Office and/or any county department involved in establishing, maintaining, and operating the county’s unpermitted and unlawful encampment in Burien.”

homelessness, Police

“Unacceptable”: Burien City Manager Complained to Police Chief, Sheriff About Lack of Immediate Response to His 911 Calls
Burien’s Town Square Park, as seen from City Hall (via Google Maps)

By Erica C. Barnett

We’ve reported before on Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon’s habit of calling 911, sometimes multiple times a day, to report on the presence of people he believes are using drugs, setting up tents, or behaving oddly outside the window of his office at Burien City Hall, which overlooks Town Square Park in downtown Burien. But emails obtained through a records request show that he took things a step further earlier this year when he felt the police weren’t responding quickly enough to his requests for immediate, in-person service.

In February, just a few weeks before the Burien City Council passed a law that effectively makes it illegal for unsheltered people to sleep in the city, Bailon contacted then-Police Chief Ted Boe directly to complain that he had been on hold with the city’s non-emergency 911 response line for 25 minutes after he called “to report ongoing open drug use and an encampment commencing within Town Square Park.”

“This is the second time that I encounter this problem,” Bailon told the police chief. “Please help me to understand why this continues to happen with KCSO’s 911 system, and what caused this issue this evening.” At the bottom of the email, Bailon attached a screen shot of his phone capturing the length (25 minutes and one second) of the call in progress.

As a point of comparison, when former city council member Lisa Herbold texted then-Seattle police chief Carmen Best in 2020 to say she was concerned about a dilapidated trailer that showed up her house, which she believed someone had set up as part of a political stunt, she was admonished and fined $500 by the city’s ethics and elections commission.

In another incident, an administrative assistant for the city received a call from a woman who claimed to be “from Eastern Russia” saying that “Homelessness is an issue everywhere, not just in Burien, and illegals were going to get that lady on the video,” according to the staffer’s summary.

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The staffer took “that lady on the video” to be Councilmember Akey, who was caught on tape confronting a group of unsheltered people outside her downtown Burien condo and telling them she would call the police on them if they didn’t leave. (At the time, they had the legal right to set up tents on the sidewalk until 6 in the morning).

Bailon again complained to Boe directly, this time demanding to know why police had not come out to take the staffer’s report. The police chief investigated and informed Bailon that there had been a error by the call taker, and told Bailon if the staffer would call 911 again, the police would log the call and send someone out immediately to take her report.

In response, Bailon demanded that Boe send someone out immediately without the need for a 911 call, adding, “911 command staff need to be proactive on this failure and approach the City to correct the issue. It is very common for 911-non emergency to take up to and over 20 minutes to accept a call, and I do not want my team to have to wait for extended periods of time due to a failure on the part of a 911 operator and the 911 system.” (In Seattle, the non-emergency line is separate from 911 and callers have to leave a message.)

Boe responded by telling Bailon that the woman had been reprimanded for her mistake, and asking him again to have a staffer call 911.

Instead of making the call, Bailon escalated his complaint to Boe’s boss, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, sending her what was by now a lengthy email thread and complaining that Boe had “dismissed my request on two separate occasions and, instead, instruct the City to call 911 again to file a new report. This is unacceptable. I do not understand the reason for the City being instructed to file a new report instead of the 911 system fulfilling its obligation to the City of Burien.”

The head of patrol for the sheriff’s department responded to Bailon’s email to Cole-Tindall, explaining that if Bailon didn’t want to wait for police to come out to City Hall, someone could easily take a report over the phone; all the city staffer needed to do was call 911 again and someone would take the report or come to City Hall right away. Instead of taking either route, Bailon said he didn’t understand why the sheriff’s office was forcing him to make a “special request” to have an officer sent over, and insisted, again, that the police send someone over without another 911 call.

By the end of the email thread PubliCola reviewed, two days had elapsed between the initial call and Bailon’s email refusing, for the fourth time, to have someone dial 911 again.

It’s unclear whether the administrative assistant ever filed a report about the phone call from the woman “from Eastern Russia,” which the email thread indicated the city at least initially considered a high-priority “threat.”

Courts, homelessness, human services, King County

Burien Forfeits $1 Million for Shelter, Will Contract With Controversial Group for Outreach and Hotel Rooms

By Erica C. Barnett

King County has withdrawn its offer to provide $1 million to the city of Burien for emergency housing after the city spent a year considering and rejecting locations for a tiny house village. Most recently, the Burien City Council considered legislation that would prohibit tiny houses on a lot, owned by Seattle City Light, that they had tentatively approved as a shelter site.

The bill, which the council postponed, would have limited the size of lots where shelter is permitted to a size much smaller than the City Light lot; an amendment, proposed by Councilmember Stephanie Mora, would have also explicitly prohibited tiny houses by requiring that any shelter structure have permanent foundations.

In a letter to Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon, Deputy King County Executive Shannon Braddock wrote, “we are withdrawing King County’s offer of $1 million and 35 pallet shelters effective immediately,” in part because the county’s formal offer has been on the table for over one year and Burien has yet confirm a site and make use of the funds. In addition, the Burien City Council appears to be actively working to put in place restrictions that exclude pallet shelters on the site selected by the Burien Council.”

On top of the $1 million, the county offered Burien the chance to apply for $5 million to fund the operations of the tiny house village, but Burien “chose not to apply,” Braddock noted. Council members who opposed the funding frequently complained that it didn’t come with any operations funding beyond the initial million dollars. Burien’s annual general fund budget is around $36 million.

Braddock told PubliCola in a statement that the county “will now direct the $1 million and pallet shelters to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) to use on outreach and emergency housing for individuals in South King County, including addressing the District Court site in Burien” by providing portable toilets and handwashing stations.

Bailon has complained to the county about an encampment outside the courthouse and “shared [his] outreach team will not be able to service that area,” according to Braddock’s letter. In his response to Braddock, Bailon said he hadn’t asked for the toilets or handwashing stations, but said the city “is pleased to learn that steps are being taken to address the public health issue created by King County”—that is, the presence of homeless people at the courthouse.

In a related development, Burien is preparing to sign a contract for homeless encampment outreach with The More We Love, a private encampment removal company started by Kristine Moreland, a Kirkland real-estate broker who has volunteered with Union Gospel Mission. As PubliCola has reported, Moreland sent a spreadsheet containing private information about unsheltered people to city officials and a private business person.

 

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The More We Love will reportedly use a small private system called Diversion Management Information Services, rather than the Homeless Management Information System used by most homeless service providers, to keep track of its clients’ data, including health and service information.

“Throughout the review process it was determined TMWL’s work proposed fit our funding goals, will be accessible to Burien’s unhoused community, and will be implemented in a timely manner,” Manuel Hernandez, a spokesman for the city of Burien, said.

Moreland’s group will receive funds originally allocated to other groups. First, they’ll receive the remaining funds that were previously allocated to REACH, a countywide outreach organization whose contract Bailon unilaterally terminated earlier this year; the city issued a request for proposals for $380,000 in outreach funding earlier this year. Second, they’ll get funding that was originally earmarked for a day center at Highline Methodist Church in Burien, which also hosts a severe weather shelter in the winter. Continue reading “Burien Forfeits $1 Million for Shelter, Will Contract With Controversial Group for Outreach and Hotel Rooms” →

homelessness, housing, King County, Police

Burien Proposes Transitional Housing Ban that May Violate State Law
Burien police chief Ted Boe.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Burien City Council discussed legislation Monday night that would ban transitional housing, including tiny house villages, within 500 feet of any school, park, day care, playground, or recreational facility, but—at the last minute—decided to hold off on approving it until they can figure out whether state law prohibits their plan. The original proposed amendment, from Councilmember Stephanie Mora, set the radius at 1,000 feet.

If passed, the ban would likely doom a planned tiny house village on property owned by Seattle City Light near SeaTac airport, because the land is located within 500 feet of private Kennedy High School, whose students have been a focus of “protect the children”-style objections to the proposed drug-and-alcohol-free village. Even without the ban, the legislation (as amended, also by Mora, last week) would prohibit the village unless the council amended it, because it restricts transitional housing to parcels much smaller (2 acres max) than City Light’s property.

It’s unclear whether the proposed restrictions would be legal.

During the meeting, council members as well as Burien’s city attorney, Garmon Newsom II, brought up a state law passed in 2021, HB 1220, that prohibits cities from banning transitional housing and shelter in residential areas, although he described it inaccurately—first saying that it only applied in areas where hotels are allowed (Burien, notably, has no hotels); then clarifying that it also said cities must allow transitional housing in residential zones, but that it was fine to bar it in “specific locations” because “we’re not excluding an entire zone. We’re just creating areas where these types of facilities may not be allowed.”

 

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The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Strom Peterson (D-21, Edmonds) says: “A city shall not prohibit transitional housing or permanent supportive housing in any zones in which residential dwelling units or hotels are allowed.”

The law goes on to allow cities to impose “reasonable” spacing and occupancy requirements. However, it does not appear to allow the kind of blanket ban Burien is now considering, according to Futurewise director Alex Brennan, whose organization was a key advocate for 1220. “The intent was just what the bill says—you have to allow transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, et cetera, anywhere that you allow residential,” Brennan said.

Rep. Strom Peterson (D-21, Edmonds), the lead sponsor of HB 1220, said the intent of his bill was to require cities to allow transitional housing, affordable housing, and shelter anywhere housing or hotels are allowed. “People should be allowed to live where people are allowed to live. Whether you’re making a million dollars a year or can spend $500 a night in a five-star hotel, or you’re someone who is much less fortunate, you should be able to live in the same area,” Peterson said. “I don’t see how a blanket ban like that follows the law.” Continue reading “Burien Proposes Transitional Housing Ban that May Violate State Law” →

City Council, Density, homelessness, labor, Mayor Harrell, Transportation

This Week on PubliCola: May 4, 2024

A roundup of this week’s news.

Monday, April 29

Planning Commission: Harrell’s Growth Plan Will Worsen Inequities and Keep Housing Unaffordable

The Seattle Planning commission weighed in on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed comprehensive plan update, which proposes a continuation of thepr “urban village” strategy developed to preserve single-family enclaves in the 1990s, calling it unrealistic and inadequate. ““In order to ensure everyone has a home they can afford in the neighborhood of their choice, we need to plan to increase, not reduce, our current rate of housing production” to allow “five to eight story multifamily housing in many more areas of the city,” the commission wrote.

Burien Moves Forward on Tiny House Village as Mayor Vilifies Police Chief for Not Enforcing Camping Ban

The city of Burien tentatively approved a zoning change that could help advance a long-planned tiny house village on property owned by Seattle City Light (see below, though, for an update). Meanwhile, Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling claimed the city is selectively paying the King County Sheriff’s Office for police service except for what they would owe the county for enforcing the city’s homeless ban—a claim the sheriff’s office couldn’t verify, since the city doesn’t owe them a payment until next month.

Tuesday, April 30

“I’m Losing My Temper”: Moore Accuses Morales of Calling Her Council Colleagues “Evil… Corporate Shills”

In comments that rattled some of her colleagues, Cathy Moore accused her fellow council member Tammy Morales of “vilifying” Moore and other council members in the media, saying she had called them “evil… corporate shills” who “don’t care about our fellow human beings” because they voted against an affordable-housing pilot Morales had been working on for years. Morales did express disappointment in the vote, but there is no evidence for Moore’s specific accusations. Moore also threatened to use council rules to silence Morales if she failed to be “civil.”

Labor Fizz: City Reduces Delay for Workers’ Retro Pay; Harrell Praises SPOG Contract for “Enhancing Accountability”

City workers learned this week that they’ll get retroactive pay increases in July, rather than October. Last month, the city told employees working under a new contract that the city would have to delay paying back wages because they’re implementing a new payroll system later this year. Also, Mayor Bruce Harrell released a tentative police contract that would make Seattle police the highest-paid in the region, boosting their starting pay, before overtime and bonuses, into six figures.

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Wednesday, May 1

Council Kills Morales’ Affordable Housing Bill, Arguing for More Process and Delay

The Seattle City Council voted 7-2 to kill legislation aimed at helping community organizations with “limited development experience” build small-scale affordable housing developments. Morales had been working on the program, called the “Connected Communities Pilot,” since 2022. Council members called the legislation premature, saying such proposals should get in line behind the 2024 housing levy and what will likely be the 2025 comprehensive plan.

Thursday, May 2

Officer Who Joked About Pedestrian Death Will Speak on Traffic Safety at Conference; Moore Calls for “More Vice Squads”

Daniel Auderer, the Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president who laughed and joked about a fellow officer’s killing of pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula, will speak at a prestigious conference on traffic safety later this year. The conference program says Auderer will be representing SPD, although SPD denies this and says they aren’t paying for him to attend. And: At a meeting on public safety, Councilmember Cathy Moore said that in addition to bringing back an old prostitution loitering law, she wants to see “more vice squads” on Aurora Ave. N.

Friday, May 3

Harrell’s Transportation Levy Proposal Boosts Tax Measure to $1.45 Million, Front-Loads Sidewalk Construction

After advocacy groups expressed disappointment that the proposed transportation levy renewal backed off on bike, pedestrian, and transit projects, the mayor proposed a revised version that adds $100 million to the ballot measure and pushes sidewalk construction to the first four years of the eight-year levy proposal, which now heads to the city council for amendments.

Harrell Discusses Gig Worker Minimum Wage Repeal, Burien Restrictions Could Prohibit Tiny House Village

Remember what we said about Burien’s tiny house village vote? Well, it turns out the zoning legislation they’re considering on Monday will prohibit a proposed tiny house village unless the council amends it, because it restricts transitional housing to parcels much smaller than the one where the village is supposed to go. And: Will Harrell come out against Sara Nelson’s proposal to repeal the current minimum wage and labor protections for delivery drivers? Organized labor seems to be banking on it.