At a Georgetown Community Council meeting on July 22, Seattle City
Council Member Tim Burgess told a crowd of about 50 neighborhood
residents that the Interbay jail site—one of four selected
by the city as potential locations for a new jail when the city’s jail
contract with King County ends in 2012—”makes the most
sense.”
While Burgess says he’s not necessarily endorsing a jail at
Interbay, he is the first council member to publicly point to the
benefits of a specific site. “In my mind, when you look only at the
criteria, the [Interbay] site… [is] the better choice,” Burgess says.
“But that’s not the only consideration.”
Locating the jail near affluent Magnolia and Queen Anne—where
Burgess lives—would be an epic political battle, something
Seattle is now working to avoid by developing plans to build a regional
jail with other cities in the county. JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE
Beer Buddies
John Burbank, one of two Democrats running for state legislature in
the 36th District, is listing his status as the official Democratic
Party nominee on voter guides as “elected” experience, despite the fact
that Burbank was actually appointed as nominee by state Democratic
Party chair Dwight Pelz, a longtime friend.
In an e-mail, Burbank’s opponent, Reuven Carlyle, groused that
Burbank “was APPOINTED by his official beer drinking buddy Dwight Pelz as the nominee, not elected by voters, the district
organization, or any other entity of any sort.”
Asked how his appointment by Pelz constituted elected experience,
Burbank responded, “[The voter guide statement] was approved by the
secretary of state, so if someone has an issue with it, they should
take it up with the secretary of state.” ERICA C.
BARNETT