Within the coming weeks, Metropolis of Seattle officers face the arduous job of closing a projected $260 million price range shortfall. The Seattle Metropolis Council might want to make tough, high-stakes selections. The trail to a price range that may do the best good is obvious–an open course of that prioritizes partnership and public enter.
Counting on group enter to tell selections is the inspiration of a democratic group and one of the simplest ways to make sure success and mutual security. Coverage selections should contain group specialists from the start to make sure that laws is well-informed from the outset and never dangerous to marginalized group members, that public response is one among help and never anger, and that elected officers aren’t pressured to backpedal.
Nevertheless, latest actions of this council present a troubling observe file of missed alternatives for group enter and rushed laws with out acceptable public engagement. For instance, after a single committee assembly, the council signed off on a controversial new jail contract with the South Correctional Entity (SCORE). This departs from precedent–laws usually receives at the least two committee conferences. If the council gave the general public extra transparency and alternative to talk, that assembly could not have escalated and resulted in council clearing folks from chambers. By clearing the chamber, vital questions and issues in regards to the excessive value and security went unanswered.
Equally, a council member added a last-minute proviso that will successfully freeze Equitable Improvement Initiative (EDI) funding for tasks in traditionally Black, brown, and immigrant communities with out proactively consulting or informing group companions on the heart of this work.
Elected officers have the duty to heart transparency and public engagement in our metropolis’s processes. Doing so ensures stronger insurance policies. The autumn price range course of is a key alternative to follow this. Our metropolis’s income forecast is alarming, however we can not simply reduce our manner out of the price range disaster. Because the Seattle Human Companies Coalition–a multiracial, multicultural group of human service suppliers–we all know that potential funding cuts will considerably impression our metropolis’s most marginalized residents–folks experiencing homelessness, experiencing starvation and meals insecurity, survivors of gender-based violence, senior residents, and youth.
Throughout this price range course of, we urge the Seattle Metropolis Council to embrace our widespread values and create area for open dialogue. All of us need a political atmosphere the place the group trusts our elected officers and the place all of us have a voice within the selections that impression our lives. These voices embody human service suppliers with experience on options to the group’s most persistent social issues in addition to group members with numerous opinions and lived experiences.
We have now seen this course of work in previous price range discussions. Final yr, the town council reviewed a council-ordered wage fairness examine on low human providers wages. They sought information, made an knowledgeable resolution, and acted in partnership with the group.
Because the council turns to price range deliberations, we ask for this similar degree of dialogue and partnership with organizations, coalitions, and group members. We hope the Seattle Metropolis Council will present clear, constant, and democratic alternatives for public engagement, and contemplate enter from a various vary of views, backgrounds, and lived experiences–from companies to human service organizations, from renters to householders to our unhoused neighbors.
Partaking a wider vary of group voices is what our metropolis must make the strongest insurance policies and funding selections. Working in an echo chamber and disregarding difficult opinions doesn’t serve our metropolis and dangers creating dangerous insurance policies.
Democracy requires all of us to actively pay attention, even when our opinions and experiences differ. With proactive and clear engagement with the group, we’re hopeful our elected officers can cross a price range that displays the group’s values. The group who put this council in place is watching, and open dialogue throughout this pressing time is important to rebuilding belief.
Seattle Human Companies Coalition (SHSC) is a coalition of over 200 businesses representing group points akin to homelessness, meals fairness, gender-based violence, group well being care, senior providers, and early childhood training. Marissa Perez directs the SHSC, Jen Muzia serves as SHSC co-chair, Marcia Wright-Soika co-chairs the SHSC’s metropolis price range job power.
