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Nick Licata and Jay Westbrook

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from: Nick Licata

A Day in the Life of a Councilman

Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2001, at 8:47 PM ET

Hi Jay,

Just returned from my third committee meeting of the day. We are fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate, on the Seattle City Council in that any council member can attend, participate and vote in any of the committees--unlike the County Council or the State Legislature, which limits the vote within each committee to only the committee members. Since I have this insatiable urge to butt my nose into every civic problem, I find myself introducing legislation in many committees.

I started the day in our Finance Committee, of which I am a member. The two most important items discussed were restructuring our risk management system and selling off 11 parcels of city-owned land near downtown to one developer for approximately $22 million.

The council must approve by ordinance every claim settlement above $10,000. This results in a lot of detailed work. But more importantly, the way our system is organized there is little if any incentive for each department to control its losses due to claims. And there is no incentive to recover liability costs through subrogation. My proposed changes would make each city department responsible for paying its claim losses out of its budget.

We sold the public land to promote more business development near the city core, a way of cutting back on urban sprawl. By adding a residential component, we hope to provide housing within walking distance of the new jobs being created. A citizen's panel still must review the possible sale.

I then attended the Public Safety Committee where I sat in on the police chief's review of the recent killing of a black resident who was apparently trying to flee from the police. The details surrounding the incident are still being filled in, but the community questions the use of lethal force. There is a rally tonight and at least one community meeting this weekend which public officials are being asked to attend. The police department has begun an internal review but no civilian or independent review has been arranged--although a citizen has been sitting in on the police review. I believe we also need to consider having an independent prosecutor conduct an inquest.

The last meeting I attended was of the Water Utilities Committee, which agreed to increase summer residential water rates by 400 percent for the top 15 percent of water consumers. I had suggested that we also look at even higher rates for the top 0.5 percent, who consume over 8 percent of our water supply. The committee members decided to put off that decision until next year.

Well that gives you a glimpse of what a portion of my day looked like, and that doesn't include the constituent meetings I also attended.

Till tomorrow,

Nick

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Nick Licata

A Day in the Life of a Councilman

Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2001, at 8:47 PM ET
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Nick Licata is an at-large member of the Seattle City Council. Jay Westbrook represents Ward 18 on the Cleveland City Council.
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