Fighting City Hall from the bottom up

Editor's note: This is the second installment of There Go the Neighborhoods, an occasional series on Seattle's neighborhood-planning process.

Von Paul Patu, a resident of Southeast Seattle and a member of South Pacific Islander Educational Support Services, sat patiently, and sometimes not so patiently, in the front row to one side of a U-shaped formation of tables. There members of the Southeast District Council (SEDC) were seated. Unfortunately, and perhaps tellingly, at all of the district council meetings I've attended, the council members face one another in this arrangement with their backs to the citizens in attendance.

Ten minutes were earmarked for public comment; the meeting reached that agenda item at the projected ending time of 8:30 p.m. One third of the public had already left. Weary council members, all volunteer citizens themselves, were already shuffling their papers in anticipation of wrapping up the meeting.

Von Paul's hand was always the first one up when there was an opportunity for questions or comments throughout the first two hours. Clearly he's well known to the neighborhood district council. On the City of Seattle's Web site, a flow chart shows what is called the Neighborhood Involvement Structure, in which the arrows point up from the citizen groups, nonprofits, and local chambers of commerce that comprise 13 district councils, up to the City Neighborhood Council, finally feeding up to the Department of Neighborhoods. All meetings along this upward track are open to the public and, in theory, are the means for the average citizen to connect with local government. So in raising a hand, a citizen like von Paul is following protocol to have his voice heard and carried up the pipeline to city government. But even on paper, the community groups at the bottom of the flow chart resemble dust motes being sucked up a vacuum nozzle, with many filters on the way.

In public meeting rooms all over the city, groups of citizens meet monthly, nine months out of 12, on behalf of district councils. Seattle is a city that prides itself on neighborhoods — in the matrix there are 38 recognized neighborhoods divided into 13 districts, each with a Neighborhood Service Center that is city-run. There is some district overlap, for example between Greater Duwamish and Delridge, but most have clear boundaries. A Neighborhood Service Center coordinator generally sits on the District Council; otherwise all the members are from the community. (The Southeast coordinator had just accepted another position with the city.) The district councils all have bylaws, meet regularly, and are open to the public. On each district council, there are 30-40 voting members, each representing a group that meets membership requirements. All district councils have an executive board, including one member whose role is to sit on the City Neighborhood Council that brings together the 13 districts.

Back at the SEDC's March meeting, von Paul Patu raises his hand to comment on preliminary plans presented by the Housing Authority Group to build affordable housing for people with jobs. "Will there be place for the homeless to wash up? Make them smell good? We have homeless sleeping under the bridge and there is no place for them to stay." The staffer is forced to respond that her organization builds housing; it doesn't manage social services. Patu's group has applied for voting membership on the SEDC, but the application is still being reviewed; he says it has been two years.

The three main stated purposes of the 13 district councils are to rate Neighborhood Matching Fund Projects, be a funnel for budget requests, and provide a forum for community issues. Depending on their specific bylaws, almost all of the councils profess to increase citizen awareness and the means to participate in city budget issues and neighborhood planning. The meetings also serve as sort of appearance circuit for City Council members and staffers from various departments. But how many residents know there are district council meetings or have time to attend them? Attendance can be high if there's a hot topic on the agenda and sufficient publicity, but the two-hour-long meetings are not the most efficient way to gain information.

As district council meetings go, the SEDC's March meeting was very low-key. No big issues, no City Council visitors. There was a presentation from the director of community outreach in the mayor's office before she dashed off to visit the Greater Duwamish District Council, a Housing Resource Group presentation, a review of the February minutes, and then almost an hour of presentations from three candidates for Neighborhood Matching Funds. Then review and discussion before approving the 2008 Work Plan. The time was already 8:30 p.m.

At last came the public comment period that von Paul Patu had been waiting for all meeting. He stood up and apologized for missing a few meetings due to bad health, then said, "A big issue is the violence in our community. A lot of people are dying. We have lost 12 young people. We need to have a big rally and demonstration. We need to go to the street and try to put a stop to this killing. We've got to get people out of the boxes, out of the churches, families out of their homes." He alluded to a recent march against violence that had a small turnout because it was only organized by one church. "Our community has got to be the leaders," he concluded. Then he thanked the council for their work and asked again about his group's application for voting status. "You should be hearing shortly," he was assured.

Beyond work plan items that correspond to city departments and initiatives, the issues affecting districts vary throughout the city, even within neighborhoods within a district. Creating a better quality of life in one neighborhood can mean a traffic island in another neighborhood and reducing gang violence in another. Magnolia's hot issues in January included dealing with a coyote in Discovery Park and home break-ins. Beacon Hill is currently experiencing an ongoing series of assaults on Asian women. Each council may rank their own priorities, but is equity possible between such disparate neighborhoods? As von Paul Patu also said at the Southeast District Council meeting, "if eight young people had died in the North End, the mayor would be out there for a special meeting."

Thirteen districts, 13 neighborhood service centers, an average of 35 participating groups per council, five executive committees, and one city neighborhood council working its way through hours and hours on a way to recommendations and interaction with the Department of Neighborhoods. So how does one citizen's voice get heard?

Next: The City Neighborhood Council, another step on the way to local government's ear.

• Peggy Sturdivant is a freelancer who writes a weekly column on community issues for the Ballard News-Tribune. You can reach her in care of editor@crosscut.com.