Last fall, during The Stranger's editorial endorsement interview, Wills came out swinging against the paranoid no-sitting law, poster ban, and Teen Dance Ordinance. Now, six months into her term, Council Members Richard McIver and Nick Licata have handed her the opportunity to bust a similar, if not more despicable law: City Attorney Mark Sidran's ugly impound ordinance. This is a defining moment for Wills because she's the swing vote on the issue, which evenly divides the council. Unfortunately, no one knows where Wills is--figuratively or literally. On the afternoon that the issue was under the spotlight, Wills was nowhere to be found.
Last week, the council's Public Safety and Technology Committee held a meeting to toss around proposals to change the problematic car impound ordinance. Sidran's "Operation Impound" law, which went into effect last year, directs police officers to seize people's cars when they're caught driving without a license. Approximately 85 percent of the cars confiscated under Operation Impound were taken from drivers whose licenses were suspended because they didn't pay or contest their traffic tickets. Sidran's impound program hits poor people and minorities the hardest, since those are the people who can't afford to pay their tickets. While Seattle is only 10 percent black, more than 40 percent of the impounded cars belonged to black people. The impound law misses the target, as it was intended to curb drunk and reckless driving.
Fortunately, the ordinance can be fixed. That's what the city council's only black member, Richard McIver, and its fallback lefty, Nick Licata, are trying to do. They have proposed a partial repeal that would take away the city's power to tow cars from people whose only crime is not paying tickets, and leave the impound penalty in place only for crimes like drunk driving. McIver and Licata have won support from Council Members Judy Nicastro and Peter Steinbrueck. However, their colleagues Margaret Pageler, Jim Compton, and Richard Conlin oppose the changes. This is where Wills comes in.
Last Wednesday, while about 20 minority and low-income activists crowded the hallway outside council chambers brandishing hand-written placards and making speeches in support of the Licata-McIver amendment (and booing Sidran as he made his way into the meeting), Wills hid in her office. "I wasn't ready to vote," said Wills, when we finally caught up with her at Judy Nicastro's Renters' Summit (after Wills failed to return several calls).
El Centro de la Raza head Roberto Maestas and Hayward Evans, executive director of the Central Area Motivation Program, left the meeting and tracked Wills down. The two amendment supporters cornered her in her office and tried to convince her to side with Licata and McIver. Evans says Wills tried to compromise with them, but he declined to reveal the specifics.
Aside from meetings with activists like Evans and Maestas, who believe the impound ordinance has a disproportionate impact on minorities and poor people, Wills has also heard from the other side. Sidran has pressured Wills to stick with him. And Wills' former boss, King County Executive Ron Sims, has come out publicly in support of red herring amendments proposed by Compton that would, among other things, increase funds to help people get their driver's licenses back, but wouldn't address the inherent race- and class-based flaws in Sidran's ordinance. Licata says, "It's jerry-rigging a problem when the real solution is right in front of us."
Wills, obviously, doesn't have Licata's 20/20 vision. "This is a tough call," says Wills staffer Michaelanne Ehrenberg. "Right now, she's dead in the middle."
The committee approved the amendment 4-3. It faces a full council vote on June 26.
