Dear Seattle,

At the May meeting of my union, some of my members asked why I haven’t requested their endorsement.  I told them that in the interest of honesty and integrity, I wanted to go through with our union’s plan to hold a candidate debate and then go through the endorsement process like any other candidate. My members laughed and said I’m going into the wrong field because politicians are never honest.

I don’t believe this has to be true. Through my work with state and local governments advocating to raise the minimum wage, provide sick leave, and increase funding for education, I’ve seen how the process can work.  

However, I did not make this happen on my own. My union members and my community were vital to these successes. I’ve seen the change we can make as individuals and as part of the community. Citizens will always have the strongest voice.

I’ve proudly worked as an activist and an employee of the Seattle Community Colleges for over a decade. I am honored to serve as the President of the WA Federation of State Employees (WFSE) Local 304, serving 2,100 members in Seattle and King County. I’ve proudly worked for the City of Seattle as a trainer for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program and as a delegate of the Youth and Families Initiative. I would be humbled to continue my work serving the people of Seattle as a member of the City Council.

In Solidarity,

  Ty Pethe

  www.typethe.com

Who is Pauly G? I happen to be a gay man with a background in aerospace engineering (i.e., rocket science). I’m running for Seattle City Council Position 9 to use all my faculties, skills and passion to help this city and its people.

I’m a young working professional. I helped make airplane parts as a systems engineer at the Boeing Company. I contributed to research on aviation biofuels and manufacturing processes reducing waste to landfill. I care about the earth.

I’m uniquely knowledgeable about transportation as an engineer and mass transit user. I live without a car and use public transit extensively. I passionately cycle to every Seattle neighborhood and district on my bikes Clementine and Ole Lavender whose names denote their colors.

I call the following good Paul-icy!

The Homeless: Safeguard Seattle’s Morality

The campaign is organizing an interfaith ceremony called A Forum for the Not Forgotten: Our Heart Is Your Home. All people of goodwill and leaders of faith shall have the opportunity to raise citizenry awareness and social consciousness. All available solutions should be utilized and no city expenditure alone can save us from ourselves. I will use this office to galvanize volunteerism along with Paul-icy. Everyone must welcome our homeless friends back into Seattle society.

Transportation: The Traffic Terror

I want the local government to work with all stakeholders to forward faster solutions like building infrastructure, prioritizing high volume routes and expanding new transportation modes. The council must ensure the billions to be spent via ST3 is done so wisely and congruently with community input.

Economic: Build Housing Wisely and Diversify

I want to expand current partnerships and build new ones between communities, colleges and businesses (tech firms, shipping, etc.) that need skilled workers. The city must facilitate the production of affordable housing like micro apartments with extensive local input and new enforceable requirements. I will advocate to preserve Seattle’s diversity, character and culture.

Emerald Environment: Aligning Values with Paul-icy

I want to beautify Seattle while creating jobs. Let’s employ those in need by increasing incentives to clean the city. The government can befriend businesses and change products to become more recyclable, organic, sustainable and fair. Seattle should enormously expand community gardens. The council must prepare now for the long-term consequences of climate change. I plan to make Seattle a city with net-zero impact by all measures.

I’m Pauly G and I’m asking for your vote.

Greetings to the Voter,

My name is Ian Affleck-Asch, and I am a Seattle-born citizen running as an Independent for our City Council’s 9th Position.

I am twenty-six years of age, and have spent those years living in Seattle, very concerned about our Government. I –like many Americans– have struggled with the terrible divide between political parties, and have grown weary from the lack of progress that our government has shown over the decades. It is only recently that I have gathered my personal strength to stand with the citizens and leaders of Seattle against monotony. I can only regret that I did not stand earlier.

This City has changed over the years, but many of the best things –and the best people– still remain with us. I grew up in our neighborhoods: Beacon Hill, Ballard, Greenwood, Fremont, and Northgate. I studied at our public schools: B.F. Day Elementary School, Hamilton International Middle School, and Roosevelt High School. I walk our trails, drink our coffee, watch our parades, and enjoy our parks. I don’t enjoy Seattle’s people suffering. I hear your concerns every day in my work as a Cashier at the Wallingford QFC, and I feel the growing pains of our City with a deep understanding of the problem.

We aren’t growing right. We’re not building towards the future Seattle needs as the Nation’s fastest growing city. We must have better housing, we must have adequate services, and we must have better transit. We need to treat our citizens neighborly, our governance wisely, and our disenfranchised properly. Furthermore, we must change the way Seattle leads and inspires other Cities around the Nation and the World. We have a duty –a responsibility– to nurture our World as the future would, and the first step is to elect kind and dutiful people to public office, where they can do good deeds for all of us.

I end with a quote:

"However combinations or associations of the above description [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

-from President George Washington’s Farewell Address

Thank you,

-Ian Affleck-Asch

Pragmatism and common sense have gone out of style at City Hall. I’ll bring them back in.

Growing Pains. Seattle’s been my home for 30 years, and in that time the city has grown phenomenally. Unfortunately, infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Developers tear down our livable, affordable neighborhoods and throw up garish high-rises with no parking. That’s great for wealthy tech workers, but what about the rest of us? Long-time residents are fleeing Seattle for more livable suburbs while homeless camps proliferate in our parks and greenbelts. Taxes go up relentlessly, but where does the money go?

Social Justice Warriors. The City Council has done little to address real problems, concerning itself instead with social causes. Transgender bathrooms? –No. We should be focusing on affordability and heroin addiction. Climate change? –No. We need to address traffic congestion. The Council’s response to homelessness was to lift the ban on camping in parks. Their answer to the heroin epidemic? –Give addicts a “safe” place to shoot up. When their absurd schemes fail, they blame Donald Trump or rich people. This isn’t a government. It’s a unicorn ranch.

Changing Up. The City Council has been captured by interest groups and radical ideologues. To move forward, we’ve got to set these divisive forces aside and restore a sense of unity and balance to our government. As a councilmember, I will stand up to the radicals and protesters. I will insist on transparent government and oppose new taxes until we have accountability for money the city is taking from us now. I’ve been writing about fraud and waste in government for years (see roominate.com/blog) so I know just where the rot is and how to fix it.

Pragmatic Solutions. I’ll get to work on homelessness and addiction first. We need to get homeless people into housing and drug-treatment programs. No more camping in parks. The next task is to create more affordable housing. Real estate developers have been writing our land-use policies, and that needs to stop. I’ll require developers to pay more for infrastructure improvements and create more low- and middle-income housing. I’ll end the demonization of landlords and will make it easier for homeowners to add mother-in-law units. Mayor Murray damaged the City’s relationship with neighborhoods. I will rebuild it and get neighborhood groups—and ALL the people—back into City Hall. Thanks for your vote, Seattle!

My name is Eric Smiley and I want to do the good work for you as your Position 9 Seattle City Councilmember. Seattle is not using our great resources to our true benefit. Work is done in a piecemeal way with lack of a cohesive plan. I will provide balance to the council's efforts. Putting them in context rather than drag our feet. I will work to give Seattle the momentum to reach the better future.

Affordable Housing is the big challenge. People living in Seattle for many years are pushed farther away. Black communities along Martin Luther King Boulevard are forced South by rising rents and development. There is on MLK Boulevard a true definition of irony. Now is the time to check our development qualities and be sure today's Seattle will not be just a memory for residents but the beginning of healthy urban growth.

Preschool is one of critical pieces in childhood education. It was given short shrift by the city council. Preschool funding is supported by nearly seventy percent of the voters. This demonstrates the lack of initiative seen on the city council. I will go directly to work on free, universal preschool at every council meeting.

Public Safety is the key function of governance. Laws are meant to secure the safety of all citizens. We must be vigilant in assuring that steps to reduce use of police force continue. Investments in education, understanding and community reward society and lower public safety expenses.

Homelessness is inexorably tied to affordable housing. A path to affordable housing is needed for those without a place to stay. We need to continue reaching out with social services. The aged, those needing healthcare, addicted, mental health challenged all need help. As much as possible we should understand how our homeless found themselves in these circumstances and prevent the start of homelessness.

Mass transit is a key element of any city. The Seattle mass transit system can reach out to every neighborhood. My job will be to reach that goal.

My name is Eric Smiley and I am meeting the people of Seattle. I am the one listening to the people of Seattle. And I am running for Seattle City Council Position 9 so I can robustly represent Seattle residents. , what they are concerned about, and where our good work should be done.

Councilmember Lorena González grew up as a migrant farmworker in the Yakima Valley; earning her first paycheck at age 8. A lifelong commitment to hard work, a passion for fairness, and a belief in the power of education has shaped Lorena’s progressive values and service to Seattle. A longtime civil rights attorney, Lorena puts our values into action – leading on issues that she will build upon in a second term, including:

Protecting Immigrants & Refugees: One of every five Seattle residents is foreign born. The fear of being unfairly targeted by the policies of Donald Trump are real -- that’s why Lorena created a $1 million legal defense fund for free civil legal aid to our immigrant community.

Safe Communities: As chair of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities & New Americans Committee Lorena secured new resources to combat domestic violence, sexual assault and neighborhood crime – including gun violence.

Committed to police accountability and oversight. Lorena sponsored legislation that makes the Community Police Commission permanent, creates a new Office of Inspector General of Public Safety and increases civilian staffing at the Office of Police Accountability. Lorena is equally committed to ensuring we have enough police officers and that we have the best-trained officers to address officer and community safety.

Working Families & Paid Family Leave: Lorena works to ensure that Seattle’s booming economy benefits all residents and workers. In addition to helping implement Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law, Lorena co-sponsored Seattle’s secure scheduling law, the second major city in the U.S. to provide predictability for hourly workers.

Knowing we must do more to provide economic stability for families, Lorena is working on a paid parental and family leave policy for all Seattle workers.

Housing Affordability: Everyone in Seattle should have access to affordable housing. Lorena will continue to support changes to zoning laws to support smart growth coupled with mass transit, as well as incentives – and penalties – to assure developers build more affordable units.

More than 3,000 people – many women and children – are homeless in our city. That’s unacceptable.  Lorena will continue addressing known inefficiencies in our emergency shelter system, increase accountability for city-funded services, and accelerate construction of “Housing First” permanent housing options.

Proudly endorsed by: King County Democrats, District Democrat Organizations, King County Labor Council, OneAmerica Votes, Housing & Homeless Advocates, Small Business Owners, Women’s Rights & Environmental Leaders and many others.

Pat runs for Seattle City Council because of frustration at the inattention to issues affecting livability and at the urging of neighbors, friends, and community leaders.  As a mother, she wants to ensure Seattle is a place our children are proud to call home.

Pat’s lifelong commitment to community engagement and consensus-building is extensive:  as Cleveland H.S. PTSA President, board member of numerous nonprofits, and long-term President of the South Seattle Crime Prevention Council, where cooperation between diverse communities and police result in increased public safety and engagement.

A seasoned and successful small business owner (IT firm), Pat has a BA in Sociology and an MBA.  Her IT work with companies of various sizes, industries and regional locations gives her invaluable insight into what businesses need to flourish and create living-wage jobs.

If elected, Pat will be the only Councilmember with business experience.

Pat brings solid expertise and a commitment to the greater good for positive solutions:

• Affordable Housing: We graciously tax ourselves to provide aff ordable housing, only to see rents soar and our property taxes price us out of the City. Councilmember Gonzalez voted in favor of developers -- ONLY 2% aff ordable units in the University District and South Lake Union -– for which they receive huge tax breaks. Pat will ensure we have INCLUSIONARY development that serves a diverse socio-economic populace.

• Homelessness Crisis & Drug Epidemic: How can our City Council allow intolerable living conditions in tents/sheds? We currently lack coordination between the 100+ agencies dealing with homelessness. Pat wants our City to create an indoor-living campus with all necessary social services, on-site, to assist and empower the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted, thereby encouraging individuals to reach their potential, fi nd jobs and attain proper housing.

• Infrastructure: Explosive growth comes at a cost. Developers haven’t been held accountable for impact fees, forcing residents to pay for schools, roads, increased police & fi re staffi ng, water treatment, etc. It’s time to end corporate welfare.

• Public Engagement: Pat will actively seek residents’ input on all major issues. She will be your representative at City Hall.

• Economic Development: The City’s narrow focus on development has resulted in social inequity and disparities in wealth. Pat has creative solutions to boost other sectors of the economy, create jobs, and restore neighborhood vibrancy without gentrifi cation or displacement.

"I will restore the voice of neighborhoods at City Hall."

Visit votepatmurakami.org for list of endorsements.