art cred: Kyle Webster
Tim Burgess has only spent two afternoons on the council dais, but
he’s already been to what feels like a hundred meetings. After his
landslide victory over incumbent David Della (the biggest victory over
an incumbent, he claims, since at least 1960), the tall, thin ex-cop
with closely cropped, receding hair spent his afternoons sitting in
council chambers, watching as the council (including his defeated
opponent Della—ouch), rewrote the city’s industrial-lands
policy, tackled Mayor Nickels’s budget, and debated the minutiae of
land-use policies. Did he find it tedious? “I did have that reaction,
but I also wanted to learn what was happening with the issues,” Burgess
says.
Burgess is a bit of an enigma, by design. (Typical quote: “I have
subjects and themes, but not specific legislation.”) During the
campaign, he was adept at dodging specific questions with general
answers about themes and process; and over beers and dim sum at O’Asian
restaurant near City Hall earlier this week, I tried to get him talking
specifics. Sitting on a low couch in O’Asian’s dim dining room, Burgess
was unflappable as I fired off a long list of issues outside his
jurisdiction as head of the newly revamped Public Safety, Human
Services &
Education Committee. Last year’s industrial-lands
legislation? “I would have supported the [Richard] Conlin amendment to
pull the area around the stadiums from the industrial zone.” White
Center annexation? “I’m open-minded on that issue, but we have other
pressing needs.” The city’s design-review process, which Burgess’s
colleague Sally Clark wants to revamp? “Our design standards should be
much more aggressive to protect traditional neighborhood
character and move us more toward environmentally friendly design.”
Burgess is most comfortable, however, in the area of public
safety—a product of seven years spent in the Seattle Police
Department. Some have expressed concern that Burgess’s history will
make him too cozy with the cops, who have spent the last year mired in
police-misconduct scandals. Burgess says the experience gives him a
unique perspective on police oversight. “I don’t think the system is
broken, but I do think it could use some improvements,” Burgess
says of the city’s police-accountability system. “We need more
transparency.”
In a few weeks, the council will announce a joint effort with the
mayor’s office, social-service groups, and the police to tackle gang
violence in the wake of a recent string of shootings police believe
may have been gang-related. “We need to talk about what we’re doing as
a community to address the problem and prevent it,” Burgess says. “If
the communities don’t step up, the council should get involved.”
