As landlord to more than 24,000 low-income residents, steward of our public housing stock and recipient of much of our housing levy funds, the Seattle Housing Authority plays a major role in our community. But to whom is SHA accountable?
As a public corporation, SHA is governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners which approves the budget, sets policy and chooses the Executive Director. But who chooses the commissioners?
After years of trying in vain to get the Seattle City Council to exercise effective oversight of SHA, the Seattle Displacement Coalition joined other housing, labor and social service organizations in Olympia in 1998. We succeeded in getting a new law passed expanding the board from five to seven and shifting final authority for board appointments from the mayor to the City Council. The law also shortened the term of commissioners and reserved two seats for residents of SHA properties.
A laudable goal
The idea was to create greater accountability, but SHA immediately acted to protect the status quo. At the request of SHA, former mayor Paul Schell proposed to fill one of the newly created resident board positions with Sybil Bailey, a loyal foot soldier for the housing authority who had even joined SHA in Olympia in efforts to kill the bill that led to the position she would now fill. From her previous performance on the Denny Terrace Resident Action Council, there was no reason to think she would be anything other than a rubber stamp. Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, chair of the Housing Committee at that time, sent the nomination back to the mayor. Eventually a new candidate was approved.
Since then several board candidates have been nominated by the mayor's office - after getting their seal of approval from SHA - then quickly approved by the council. Objections by a few activists were simply dismissed or met with outright hostility.
Starting in late 2005, a group of representatives from labor, church, housing, senior and resident organizations came together in an attempt to ensure that future board appointments reflected a higher degree of input and honest consideration of stakeholder concerns especially those of SHA residents. Calling itself SHABAG (Seattle Housing Authority Board Accountability Group), this coalition came up with a list of potential candidates.
After giving assurances to SHABAG of his willingness to meet to hear their recommendations, Mayor Greg Nickels backed out, leaving them completely out of the selection process. And then when he did recommend a candidate, the mayor proposed none other than Sybil Bailey.
When councilmember Tom Rasmussen's housing committee met to consider Bailey's nomination, SHA residents and community activists raised the issue of her past rejection. Further, at potential risk to their tenancy, SHA residents with direct experience working with Bailey testified before the committee, citing specific examples of a counterproductive role she continued to play as recent president of the Residents Action Council (RAC).
They pointed out that Bailey had changed bylaws without a vote or proper notice, excluded tenants of certain buildings from the RAC, racked up a $4,000 debt, suspended RAC meetings for three years without any apparent authority to do so and promoted an unpopular policy against signs on tenant doors that was later struck down by the courts as an unconstitutional infringement on the tenants' right to free speech.
Past no precedent
One would think these concerns might prompt rejection of her candidacy outright as Steinbrueck did in 1998. Yet councilmembers Tom Rasmussen, Richard McIver and Sally Clark blindly cast their support with Bailey without even investigating tenants' charges.
Even more disturbing, in a tactic out of the Karl Rove playbook, committee members deflected the debate from the issue of Bailey's qualifications by lashing out at those who opposed her nomination. SHA tenants and community advocates were accused of "sour grapes," mounting "personal attacks" and "smearing her good name." As for our concern about the lack of a fair process from the mayor, it was dismissed out of hand by Rasmussen, who ignored the fact that the mayor had never met with us.
At one point, councilmember Clark suggested that "race and gender" were behind our criticism of Bailey, who is a black woman. Talk about personal attacks and smearing good names! Here was a group of citizens representing significant constituencies with long track records of speaking out against discrimination and for diversity, affirmative action, equality and economic justice in all its forms. Yet because we dared to raise - and support SHA residents in raising -legitimate concerns about the mayor's choice, we got accused of racism and sexism.
Our colleague KL Shannon, longtime activist, community leader, and herself a woman of color, reflected: "I think when people are trying to do the 'right thing' and making attempts to hold those in power accountable, somehow those in power man- ipulate, twist, and divert what the real issues are. In this case, the mayor and city council members Rasmussen, Clark and McIver did just that by throwing the 'race card' into the mix."
In the end, the council approved Bailey's nomination. Steinbrueck and Licata were the only councilmembers who took time to examine and reference SHA residents' concerns about the person who would be representing them.
The council continues to treat SHA board nominations as if they were simply ratifying one more of the mayor's many patronage appointments to a nonessential advisory board with no real power. On the contrary, the SHA Board of Commissioners has authority over nearly all that's left of this city's low-income housing stock. It's more akin to the School Board or the Port Authority with its enormous influence over the future of this city, especially people of color and low-income people. Any candidate for these positions should be the subject of close scrutiny. The citizens of Seattle deserve better from our mayor and City Council than the charade that just occurred.
John Fox and Carolee Colter lead the Seattle Displacement Coalition. They can be reached at editor@ capitolhilltimes.com.
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