City of Seattle Seattle City Council

NEWS ADVISORY
SUBJECT:   City Council works as a team to Put People First
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:    11/12/2004  3:00:00 PM	FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Nancy Roberts  (206) 684-8146

CITY COUNCIL WORKS AS A TEAM TO PUT PEOPLE FIRST
They kept their word with a sustainable budget addressing human need

SEATTLE-The City Council's Budget Committee approved a balanced and fiscally sustainable 2005-2006 biennial City budget package today that puts people first. This package, in its final form, is slated for approval on Monday, November 22nd at Full Council's 2 p.m. meeting.

"The stars of this budget session were the citizens of Seattle who came to Council Chambers, who emailed, phoned and wrote informed and passionate letters on the issues," said Budget chair Richard McIver. "They, and my colleagues on the Council, who worked like a crack team on a mission, share the stardom of this budget session. There's no doubt: together, we put people first."

When Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels presented his proposed budget in Council Chambers late September, the Council felt it closely matched the priorities they had defined early on. It also reflected a successful effort to overcome about a $20-million budget shortfall.

However, more unanticipated-yet mandated-costs appeared, creating about a $2-million budget shortfall. Keeping their word to put people first, the Budget Committee restored previously cut services for low-income families, the poor, homebound and elderly, as well as providing for these unanticipated costs.

Demonstrating their commitment to creating a humanitarian and fiscally responsible budget, the Council modestly raised utility taxes to fund basic human services and transportation infrastructure.

Responding to Citizen Concerns about the proposed 2005-2006 proposed budget, the Seattle City Council made the following changes in the City's Biennial Budget:

The Seattle Public Library
• The Bookmobile
  The Budget Committee added $500,000 in 2005 and 2006 to help restore Seattle Public Library's bookmobile program.
• The Collections Budget
  Council added $500,000 in one-time monies to bring the City's total appropriation for the Library's book collection budget to $3.2 million in 2005. The Council encourages the Library to explore options for using the funds to create a "Matching Fund" program for the collections budget.
  
  Seattle Department of Transportation
  The Committee added $2.1-million in the 2005 budget and $1.8-million in the 2006 budget for the following transportation related programs and improvements.
• Arterial Street Paving
  Provides $1-million in funding for arterial street paving.
• Bridge Maintenance and Inspection
• Neighborhood Traffic Services
• Neighborhood Corridor Planning
• Bike and Pedestrian Improvements
• Neighborhood Pedestrian Improvements
• Traffic Signal Maintenance
  
  Human Services
  The Council restores $300,000 to human services, cut from the Mayor's budget. The net-effect is that all contracted service reductions proposed by the Mayor for human services is restored by the following 3 budget actions:
• Access to Services
  This restores 100% of the current spending level for Access to Services. Access to services funds increase the access and delivery of services needed to help special needs populations. This restores $58,440 in 2005 and $59,141 in 2006 to the Human Services Department Emergency and Transitional Services Budget and provides an inflationary adjustment.
• Policy Advocacy
  The Council restores 100% of the proposed cuts to the Human Services Department's 2005-2006 budget for Policy Advocacy. $106,572 (GF) is restored for 2005 and $108,171 (GF) is restored for 2006 to the Human Services Department Emergency and Transitional Services Budget and provides an inflationary adjustment.
• Technical support for non-profits
  The Council restores 100% of the proposed cuts to the Human Services Department's 2005-2006 budget for technical support for non-profits. It restores $132,827 (GF) in 2005 and $134,421 (GF) in 2006 and provides an inflationary adjustment.
  
  The Council also restored:
• Late Night Recreation in our City Parks
  The Council restored $152,336 (GF) cut from the proposed budget, to reinstate the Late Night Recreation Program in City Parks. In combination with 2000 Parks Levy funds, already in the Mayor's budget, these funds will be used to continue the program two weekend nights in two locations in Southeast Seattle: one night a weekend at Delridge Community Center and one night a weekend at the High Point Community Center.
• Funding to stabilize homeless programs for LGBT youth
  The Council provides $125,000 in funding to the Human Services Department for a Request for Proposal (RFP), funding services to Lesbian, gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) at-risk and homeless youth.
• Magistrate Neighborhood
  Restores to full operation the magistrates in the City's Neighborhood Service Centers. Magistrates are in the community nine days every two weeks in five locations throughout the city.
• Community Service Contracts
  This reinstates funding for community agencies that provide outreach and education regarding repayment options and suspended licenses. In 2005, $82,000 was restored, and for 2006 $84,460 was restored. Community agencies provide valuable education and outreach to those whose licenses were previously suspended and who are having difficulty repaying debt owed the City.
• Community Opportunity Program
  The Council establishes a Community Production Opportunity Program with the goal to enable the Seattle Channel to create more programming that reflects the cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity of the citizens of Seattle. This includes more topics of concern and interest to a wider variety of citizens for whom English is not a first language.
• Community Courts
  The Committee provided $44,041 to start the Community Court program in 2005. This is 1/4th of the funds needed. The rest is expected to be provided by the Downtown Seattle Association in partnership with the City.
• Teen Parent Program
  This adds $54,740 (GSF) in 2005 and $165,499 (GSF) in 2006 to the Human Services Department, Family Development Budget for the Teen Parenting Program. This program provides case management services to pregnant and parenting teens between the ages of 15 and 17.
• Legal Services
  Council restores the funding for the City's contract with King County Bar Association Legal Clinics by adding $8,900 (GF) for 2005 and $9,000 (GF) in 2006 to the Department of Neighborhoods Community Building Budget.
• Soar Opportunity Fund
  Restores funding to the SOAR Opportunity Fund, which is a collaborative financial partnership with public and private partners working to leverage funding to improve the lives of children and youth. $157,875 is restored in 2005 and $159,375 is restored in 2006.
• Office of Police Accountability
  The Committee restores the position of Strategic Advisor II to the Office of Professional Accountability at a cost of $93,824 in 2005 and $95,827 in 2006.
  
  Seattle City Parks
• Volunteer Park Conservatory
  The Committee eliminated the proposed entrance fees on the Conservatory at Volunteer Park and asked the Department of Parks and Recreation to implement a more rigorous donation system.
• Parking Fees in City Parks
  The Committee eliminated the proposed Parks Parking Fees removing parking meters designated for certain parks.

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  City Council

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