The Burien City Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024 was marked by discussions on a recent incident of anti-homeless violence, plans for community engagement on behavioral health, and approval for expanding tax exemptions for housing development.
On the financial front, the city’s budget is projected to be “at or near structurally sound,” but will require tapping into reserves to meet expected shortfalls.
Anti-Homeless Violence
At the start of the meeting, Councilmember Sarah Moore described a recent incident in which a motorist drove into a homeless camp, striking one of the tents. She said that, while no one was injured, she believes councilmembers have a responsibility to condemn acts of political violence.
During Public Comments, two speakers also brought up the incident. They said this was only one of many similar acts of violence against the homeless population. In addition, when this aggression was reported on social media, some of the online comments were in praise of the violence as an appropriate response.
The homeless camp is located on 6th Ave SW near SW 148th Street across the street from the Burien Police/King County Sheriff’s Office station, and the driver in question was arrested after attempting to instigate fights with camp inhabitants. He was booked on vehicular assault, and his car impounded.
King County Behavioral Health Listening Sessions
City Manager Adolfo Bailon shared that King County is hoping to hear from the community on behavioral health needs and challenges. There is an online survey available here. In addition, there will be an in-person listening session for our district on October 1st from 6:30-8 p.m. at the West Seattle Senior Center. Space is limited and registration info can be found here.
Multi-Family Tax Exemptions
Council voted unanimously to expand Multi-Family Tax Exemptions (MFTE) in order to encourage the development, conversion, and rehabilitation of housing made up of four or more units. The tax exemptions are viewed as essential by developers, particularly for building affordable housing. Tax exemptions last for 8 years for market-rate housing, 12 years for affordable rental housing, and 20 years for affordable ownership housing. Developments are taxed as usual on any commercial portion of their buildings. This item will be on the consent agenda of the November 18th City Council Meeting.
General Fund Financial Forecast
Council heard a presentation on the financial forecast for Burien over the next five years. This forecast includes known and anticipated changes, such as cost of living increases and inflation, but does not take into account any new expenditures. It was advised that new expenditures will need to come with a corresponding new revenue source in mind to pay for them.
With simply maintaining city services as they are, presenters said the budget is “at or near structurally sound,” with enough extra cash in reserves to meet a few years when expenses exceed revenue. The city manager’s reserves will need to be tapped to meet the expected shortfall, and will be reduced by half over the five year period.
Public safety, including police and SCORE jail costs, continues to be the largest expense for the city. Most other city departments will have no increase over this period, and in fact some will see a reduction as temporary ARPA funds are exhausted.
Financial Analyst Kaitlyn Graham will be back several times over the coming council meetings to discuss budgeting details and implications, before the final budget is adopted in December.
Video
Full video of the council meeting can be viewed here.
Yeah nobody should be praising the dude with the car. I witnessed parts of it from the parking lot behind LA fitness, he started by driving around the block, yelling at homeless and then at some explorers that were standing outside the precinct for “not doing enough about this” (mind you some of these kids look too young to be able to drive, much less solve homelessness). He circles the block a few times, angrily driving around and yelling through his window; at this point I head inside for a moment and then hear a commotion out by the homeless encampment and when I come out again, the man is retreating to the station and screaming that he had been pepper sprayed, and just being an overall very pleasant person. Then the cops take him inside the main office part of the precinct, while seemingly every cop in the area shows up with lights and sirens.
He was a man who was yelling nonsense at children and then apparently driving his car into the encampment and challenging people to fights. This is not what we as a society should be glorifying.
Ok, and we should just accept it when the homeless are assaulting and robbing us? because from one week to the next we can’t rely on the cops to decide if there doing anything about at this time, so we should just sit back and accept it right? Wrong!
Oh Kirsten, I know you were there and know the whole story because you saw 2 minutes of it parking lots away, but what you don’t know is that guy’s was robbed and beat on his way to his car by dudes who ran into that encampment, I know you want to help the homeless but making excuses for there actions isn’t help.
This is what happens when there are no regulations in place from preventing people from endangering/harming the environment around them in a public place. Doesn’t matter if you are homeless or not, if you fit the sentence above your going to get a REACTION to the ACTION your doing, specially if its a negative one to the public around you. That’s how living inside a society works.
They smashed the window of my car last week. And a friend of mines the week before.
Burien….the gateway to HELL
You’re dead to me
This town has turned trashy. I have noticed street corner grifters, using their children to gain sympathy from passerby, collecting money from unsuspecting “do-gooders.” Do not give money to these people; if you want to help the needy, give to a respectable charity like the Salvation Army or St. Vincent DePaul Society. They have the capacity to separate the scammers from the truly needy, and make sure the truly needy get help.