City Council member Jean Godden did an about-face this morning. As of last night, she had pulled out of an event, to be hosted this evening by Health Sciences students at the University of Washington, called “Action Assembly for the Mayor’s Proposal on Homelessness.” But as of this morning Godden was back on board, promising to attend the discussion. What happened?
On Wednesday at 9:27 p.m., the students circulated an e-mail on the Health Equity Circle (HEC) listserve with the subject line: “Your Action is needed – Make a phone call!”
The e-mail, written by Public Health PhD student Lorelai Walker, explained that an aide for Godden had contacted the group and said, “something has come up and Jean ‘regrets’ she can no longer attend.”
“I suspect,” Walker theorized, “Jean wishes to avoid being pressured in public on a proposal that is not in line with her campaign funders (developers). This is a tactic to avoid listening to her constituents on issues we believe are so important we have invested a lot of time and energy into.”
The message asked supporters to contact Godden’s office and urge her to follow through and attend the event.
I asked Godden’s office about her decision this morning. At 10:46 a.m., staffer Emily Kim wrote back: “Councilmember Godden will be attending the UW HEC event tonight! Thank you for your interest in this issue.”
I replied and asked whether Godden had, in fact, pulled out of the event. Yes, Kim said: “I had told the organizers that Councilmember Godden could not attend the event. This was a misunderstanding on my part.” Kim did not engage Walker’s theory that money from developers was really behind the scheduling issues.
The event is today at 6:15 p.m. at UW’s Health Sciences Building, room T-439—in case you want to go see what Godden says and urge her not to be part of what Anna Minard, writing about the homeless encampment issue in 2013, called the “shitty council”.