Accessibility becomes a rallying point for District 3 challengers

Kshama Sawant’s mission to reject the usual corporate politics on the Seattle City Council has drawn a great deal of attention. So much so that she doesn’t have time to take meetings with everyone who asks. But Sawant’s spokesperson maintains that Pamela Banks was never slighted intentionally.

What started as an open secret in the District 3 City Council race became official March 5, when Banks, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle for the last three years, announced she’s running against Sawant in the newly drawn district race, in part, she said, because of her inability to schedule a meeting with the incumbent.

Banks, who worked in politics for about 30 years prior to her time at the Urban League, is the most experienced challenger against Sawant, the former software engineer with the Socialist Alternative who defeated 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin in 2013. The other currently running for District 3 are Rod Hearne, vice chair of LGBT activist group Equal Rights Washington, and Morgan Beach, chairperson of the Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee on the Seattle Women’s Commission.

Sawant appears poised to continue her fight against tax breaks for large corporations, while focusing on the escalating rent crisis and increasingly unaffordable Seattle. And while Sawant’s camp endorses Sawant’s first term as an independent council member who shifted the entire political debate, Banks and the two other opponents question whether Sawant is actually representing the voices of the district she represents.

“I feel like the current incumbent has not been accessible to a lot of the people who have reached out to her,” Banks said. “It doesn’t do any good if we as citizens can’t be heard.”

Banks said she was one of those people, attempting to set up a meeting with Sawant to discuss community issues, such as the Urban League’s job training programs for African-American men.

Sawant was not available to comment for this story, but Philip Locker, spokesperson for Sawant’s election campaign, spoke in-depth about the campaign and Sawant’s first term in office. He confirmed Banks’ claim, saying a part-time staffer in Sawant’s office received an email from Banks’ assistant to set up a meeting on July 2, 2014, but never responded.

Locker said Sawant has no principled objection to Banks and has met with hundreds of organizations and constituents who are not properly served by the political establishment.

As a city leader who is also known to bounce from meeting to meeting, Banks said she understands that Sawant is busy, but she is still concerned about community members’ ability to meet with the incumbent. She said accessibility and accountability in the new District 3 role will be key to a City Council member’s success.

Banks is not alone in this assessment, with each of the other two candidates saying they’d been approached by community members who didn’t feel they were being listened to by their council representative.

Hearne added that the fact that three contenders all primarily serve under-represented groups shows the public’s dissatisfaction with Sawant’s ability to read the state of the district.

“If there was a sense she was doing a great job for the communities she claimed to serve, I don’t think there would be [such an eclectic group],” he said.

Morgan said Sawant’s lack of time for constituents is part of the problem, though her main reason for joining the fray was to talk about the issues affecting her and her neighbors.

“I’m living the affordability problem,” she said. “The way [Sawant is] getting things done is not necessarily the way I want to see things done, and I don’t know that it’s going to be the most effective in the long term.”

Locker defended the allegations by noting that, besides the hundreds of constituents and social justice groups she’s met with during her term, her office has published three editions of her newsletter, which is distributed to about 25,000 people. He added that Sawant has hosted more town hall and neighborhood meetings — a variety of which were for under-represented communities — than anyone else at city hall.

“I don’t know any other council member who makes such an effort to reach so many people in Seattle,” he said.

Locker said Sawant’s intention is always for correspondence but that she receives a disproportionate amount of requests coming into her office than other council members, in part because most of the council members are not responsive to the needs of working people. Sawant’s office is attempting to remedy that by expanding with another part-time staff member, along with an intern. Each council member is allotted three full-time assistants. Locker said the extra resources are being put toward response to constituents.

Locker added that Sawant has been interviewed by the media more than any other council member.

“The needs of the people are more than just one council member can deal with,” he said. “We have a lack of representation of people who are looking for real solutions.”

City Councilmember Mike O’Brien said he does his best to prioritize meetings with the public, but that it’s not always easy. O’Brien wouldn’t comment on the reputation of other council members but did say Sawant is a high-profile council member who “no doubt” gets more requests for his time than he does.

“I try to take meetings with anyone,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a couple weeks, but I’m not getting national media requests on a weekly basis, so I don’t have that pressure.”

Locker said Sawant’s office is putting together a report on number of meetings she’s had with constituents and organizations over the last year, as well as a summary of what her office worked on in 2014. It’s part of her belief in being held accountable and transparent, Locker said.

“She has a constant diet of demands for media availability that is simply not feasible to accommodate, so she has to pick,” he said.

Countering name recognition

The City Council is in the midst of an overhaul, with senior members Nick Licata, Tom Rasmussen and Sally Clark not seeking reelection.

Banks said the district format is “made for candidates like me.” She plans to to use her neighborhood connections with small businesses, faith-based groups and grassroots efforts to move issues forward.

“The incumbent has great name recognition,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a ground game.”

The other contenders echoed Banks’ expectations for working the neighborhood and said they were attracted to the redrawn, neighborhood-centric district lines.

Hearne and Morgan said their general approach to gaining the neighborhoods’ trust is different than Sawant’s: Whereas she will stand in front of a rally, they will move from neighbor to neighbor.

“It’s about earning votes and not taking them away from anybody else,” Hearne said. “And that’s what I’m working on.”

Morgan said, “It’s about governing, not grandstanding — that’s very much apart of [Sawant’s] method for doing business.”

Locker opposed the perception that Sawant is not built for the hyper-local district format, noting that she was the only member of the City Council who endorsed, voted for and advocated for the district election change in 2013. The political system in Seattle was very incumbent-heavy, very much fueled by big-money donors, Locker said, and Sawant supported going to districts to facilitate more grassroots challengers of big money.

Locker said Sawant is able to tie the best interest of the working people in Seattle with national solutions: “There is a real role to play locally, but we need leaders who can think outside the boundaries of the city.”

All three challengers also mentioned the need to be collaborative with other council members, a common complaint against Sawant, who has never shied from being the lone no vote, including during the nomination of new Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole.

Banks said she doesn’t agree with “like think,” but that council members should be respectful to one another: She doesn’t want District 3 left out of the city’s conversation because Sawant can’t play well with others. She mentioned Sawant’s arrest in SeaTac as a moment when Sawant was looking for national acclaim, rather than considering the community she represents.

“It makes a statement, but it’s not providing a solution to working on housing affordability or economic development,” Banks said. “I’m a collaborator; I’m a problem solver. It takes five votes to get things done, and I think I can deliver for our district.”

Sawant is a polarizing figure, best exemplified by a survey released in fall 2014 that showed she received the highest district approval rating (61 percent) on the City Council, but, paradoxically, also received by far the highest percentage of unfavorable views (30 percent).

Despite the range of voices in the District 3 race, Sawant’s camp hopes for more candidates who will stand independent of corporate cash, mentioning Jonathan Grant, John Persak and Bill Bradburd, all of whom are running for the at-large positions, as examples.

Hearne said he is encouraged by the new voices in District 3 who are willing to speak up and raise concerns about the way things are going.

“I suspect we may get even more candidates who want to participate in the process, and that may be a good thing,” he said.

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