As we go into another election season, and local candidates start making their promises, it’s helpful for everyone to understand what a small percentage of property taxes and sales taxes the city really manages. These percentages are largely set by state law and voter actions.
The City of Renton receives about 9.5 cents of every dollar paid in property tax and sales tax in our city, while the State, County, School District, and other taxing districts get the rest.
My son Danny and my grandson Luke share a birthday, and they love to celebrate together. During this year’s party Cathy and I gathered our kids, their spouses/partners, and our grandkids outside for a photo since there are too many us us to squeeze into a photo around the birthday cakes. Cathy and I share three of our incredible grandchildren (including Luke) with fellow-Rentonites Bob and Donna Jones, who joined us for the party and the photo. Their son Brandon is married to our daughter Katie. Cathy and I are blessed to have all five of our kids and all five of our grandkids living here in Renton.
While my main focus is Renton, I’m analyzing the Seattle drug response for four main reasons: (1) substance abusers will travel between cities without knowing boundaries; (2) Seattle wants to use the King County Prosecutor to prosecute their misdemeanors (which Seattle is supposed to do themselves), but Renton needs the prosecutor to focus on felony prosecutions (3) Some Renton Council Members show tendencies to follow Seattle Council’s lead on issues; (4) Some Seattle residents frequently attend Renton Council Meetings to tell our Council what to do
Seattle’s Mayor Harrell appears to understand the bleak future awaiting Seattle as fentanyl and other hard drugs are effectively decriminalized at the end of the month. He’s called for a working group of Council, Mayor’s office, City Attorney, Court, Police, and other stakeholders to find solutions to the drug crisis before it gets worse, when Seattle likely becomes the only city in Washington where hard drug possession is decriminalized.
Seattle City Council is rightfully being criticized by their city attorney, their business community, and most of their residents for failing to adopt a drug ordinance consistent with state law. A drug ordinance would have explicitly allowed Seattle’s City Attorney to prosecute drug possession crimes in Seattle that have recently been classified as gross misdemeanors under state law.
Seattle City Council recently voted 5-4 not to pass a drug ordinance, and one of those who voted against it wrote an entry on a Seattle City Council blog attempting to explain the decision. The explanation ignores the fact that drug possession has been demoted from a felony to a gross misdemeanor, and therefore now falls under the authority and responsibility of a city to enforce it. In their argument the Seattle City Council reveals that they are unwilling to spend the resources necessary to enforce gross misdemeanors in their city, and instead expect all the residents of King County to pick up the tab for them.
Yesterday we learned that Priority 1 (highest priority) police response times in the City of Seattle are now averaging ten minutes, a terrifyingly-long amount of time if an intruder is breaking into your home, threatening you on the street, or robbing your business. It’s not surprising that residents and businesses have been purchasing more guns than ever in our region out of fear that the police won’t come in time. With proper political leadership and planning, these police responses should be occurring in one to two minutes, not ten minutes.
When I was on city council we tracked Priority 1 response times as one of our most important city metrics. We worked to ensure our police had the staff and resources to be anywhere in town in an extreme emergency within 60-90 seconds, sometimes even faster, and we were able to achieve this goal in most cases.
Renton City Council passed the second-and-final reading of Renton’s new drug ordinance last night, with all seven Council Members voting in support. The drug law targets possession of highly addictive “hard-drugs”, like fentanyl, meth, heroine, and stolen prescription drugs, along with the paraphernalia associated with these substances. (The law has no impact on cannabis products). The law is intended to get the user into treatment and recovery whenever possible, with the threat of jail and fines used as a deterrent to continued drug use.
The State Legislature (almost-miraculously) introduced and adopted a statewide drug law between first reading of Renton’s ordinance a week ago and Renton’s final reading last night, and the unusual circumstances left a small amount of uncertainty about what Renton Council might choose to do with their local ordinance. I had anticipated in this blog entry on Wednesday that the city attorney would make adjustments to the Renton ordinance to align it with state law and then the adjusted ordinance would be passed; and that is what happened.
The State law gives local governments authority for controlling drug paraphernalia, which is covered by the new Renton ordinance and will play an important role in keeping parks, sidewalks, and flowerbeds clear of discarded drug materials. The drug paraphernalia section in Renton’s ordinance will also make it easier to confront someone who has just smoked or injected a drug; while the drug may be gone at that point, possession of the paraphernalia would be grounds for arrest and ideally the drug user’s first step in being guided toward treatment and a sobriety.
Unlike last week’s public comment period, when two-thirds of the testimony encouraged the Council to decriminalize drugs, this week’s public testimony was provided by nine community members who all supported the new Renton drug law. There was no testimony opposed to the new law. (Decriminalization of drugs was off the table because of the new State law, but the drug paraphernalia restrictions potentially could have caused controversy). The speakers gave compelling testimony. Most were members of Renton’s business community who have witnessed much of the suffering of the drug users first-hand, and have struggled to cope with the side-effects of drug use like crime, property damage, and discarded materials.
The complete council meeting with all the public testimony can be viewed here.
After a two-year break from public office, my wife Cathy and I feel that Renton City Council could benefit from my experience again. Today I filed as a candidate for Position 7.
While Renton faces several new and vexing problems, the solutions will ultimately come from collaborative problem solving and hard work as we learned in past decades. I’ve powered through many tough challenges with five Renton mayors and dozens of Renton Council Members in the past, and together with our City employees, residents, businesses and community partners we successfully positioned Renton as a thriving, vibrant, inclusive community where people want to live, work, play and learn.
If Renton voters put me back in office, I’ll look forward to working with residents and city leaders again to help get Renton back on the healthy and desirable path we all want for our city.
In a suprise recovery, the Washington State Legislature succeeded in getting a new drug law approved through both chambers and then signed by the Governor over just two days. The special session was convened at least in part to try to prevent every county and city across the State from coming up with their own drug ordinances.
Renton’s ordinance is complete and simply needs a second reading and council roll-call vote on Monday, followed by the Mayor’s signature on Tuesday to become law. Some residents are wondering if this will still happen given the State law that just passed.
I think the Renton ordinance can and should still go forward, and Ruth Perez, a council member I spoke with, shares this view. Council Member Perez reminds me the new state law specifically gives cities the authority to control drug paraphernalia, and Renton’s ordinance includes this element. Controlling paraphernalia is important for at least a couple reasons. It’s dangerous for smoking-pipes and heroin needles with residue to be lying all over parks and sidewalks where children and others can access them and potentially overdose on them, and it’s easier to prosecute public drug consumption if paraphernalia is itself a crime since often the drugs are consumed by the time the officer is present to make an arrest.
After weeks of receiving input from the Renton community, all seven council members voted tonight to pass a new Renton drug ordinance.
The city staff provided a thorough presentation during the Committee of the Whole meeting prior to tonight’s council meeting. The presentation was heartbreaking at times, touching on the fact that Renton tragically lost 47 residents through overdoses last year, and police and firefighters had to save many more from close calls. The new ordinance focuses heavily on encouraging those struggling with addiction to get treatment as an alternative to being charged and sentenced for drug crimes. The council asked numerous questions during the presentation, and the city staff including the Police Chief, the City Attorney, the Chief Administrative Officer, and the Director of Equity, Housing and Human Services answered them all adeptly.
Official filing begins today for five Renton elected offices. The City Council Seats held by Kim-Khanh Van, Ed Prince, Ryan McIrvin, and Valerie O’Halloran are up for election, as well as the Mayor’s Seat held by Armondo Pavone. (Full disclosure: I’ve given early endorsements to Mayor Armondo Pavone and Council Member Valerie O’Halloran.)
Anyone interested in running has until the end of the workday on Friday May 19 to file (4:00PM online, 4:30 PM in-person), although it’s best not to wait until the last minute.
The Council will be discussing a new drug law at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting at 5:45 PM, and then again at the Council Meeting at 7:00. The agenda for the Committee of the Whole can be found here, and the agenda for the Council Meeting (where you can comment) can be found here. The proposed drug ordinance can be found here, with a staff presentation about it here.
Emails to Renton City Hall from Renton residents who want to make possession of addictive drugs like fentanyl, meth, and heroine illegal are now significantly outnumbering Seattle-centric emails encouraging decriminalization. And many of you have also been outspoken about your positions at public meetings, one-on-one conversations with officials, and social media. Renton residents have shown immense support for criminalizing possession of these deadly drugs, even while Renton’s 11th district Senator Bob Hasegawa voted along with a majority of the Washington State Legislature not to criminalize possession of these drugs last month.
In recent blog entries I’ve explained that Renton is working on its own drug ordinance, and several Renton leaders have no confidence the State will find its way through this issue.
As if to illustrate the difficulties that the Legislature faces in developing a drug law, the King County executive’s office sent King-County-based State Legislators a letter on May 9th arguing with virtually every point made by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs in their May 4th letter. The County Executive’s letter, signed by Michael White, King County State Relations Director, didn’t even try to find common ground on anything with our State’s law enforcement leaders, except for one minor point on public use.
With both the Renton City Council and Washington State Legislature poised to discuss new drug laws next week, action on this important topic could become confusing for residents.
The Legislature is convening in a special session which is essentially a do-over after they failed to act in April, effectively decriminalizing possession of all hard drugs in our state as of July 1st– including fentanyl, meth, cocaine, stolen prescription drugs and other highly addictive substances. Meanwhile, Renton City Council is working on a city ordinance to make possession of these drugs illegal, and public use of drugs even more illegal, because of the Legislature’s failure to enact legislation the last time.
The Legislature is expected to pick up where they left off with Senate Bill 5536, which still had a number of areas of disagreement in it.
Multiple Renton residents have been inquiring on social media about heavy Renton Police presence near Valley Medical. Renton Police Public Information Officer Cyndie Morris provided an update on Facebook to clear up confusion. Here is her summary:
Here are some details:
At 4:23 pm, officers were dispatched to an illegal discharge at Stonebrook Apts 12210 SE Petrovitsky Rd). Multiple callers reporting shots heard with multiple subjects running throughout the complex. Two adult black males (both in their early 20’s) responded to Valley Medical Center with non-life threatening gunshot wounds to their legs (one wound a piece). Victims told officers they were simply standing outside in the complex when somebody ran up on them on foot and shot at them. Suspect was said to then have jumped into a vehicle and fled the scene. Victim advised they don’t know who shot them or why somebody would want to shoot them. No direct witnesses onscene were able to provide any additional information regarding what happened or who was involved. Victims declined to speak to officers any further about what occurred.
There was no arrest made in the above incident, BUT:
As officers were at Valley Medical to interview victims/witnesses, they observed a known wanted juvenile suspect arrive with one of the victim’s. When officers challenged him, he fled on foot. Due to the seriousness of the juvenile’s outstanding warrant, officers pursued after him on foot, requesting assistance from Kent PD K9 and Guardian. Guardian was able to pinpoint the juvenile suspect’s location and officers arrested him without further incident.
By popular request I added a subscribe feature to my blog a couple weeks ago so that you can receive email notification of new entries. I’ve been gratified that many people have found it, and signed up already.
If you have not done so already, please consider signing up. We’re continue to weather a challenging period in Renton and our region, and it’s extremely valuable for residents to remain informed and involved. The next six months are certain to be particularly interesting as local election season always surfaces many issues.
I’ll keep sharing interesting local stories and insights as long as I feel there is an audience that is responding to it. Google analytics tells me readership has grown steadily, and I’ve appreciated hearing your perspectives and seeing your discussions in the comment field. (Your visits and comments are anonymous to me unless you tell me your name, and that is your choice.) I continue to learn from you as we discuss these issues together. Thank you all for reading.
