As landlord to over 24,000 low-income residents, steward of our public housing stock, and recipient of much of our housing levy funds, 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 our elected officials on 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 members and shifting final authority for board appointments from the mayor to the city council. The mayor would nominate but the council would have final say. The law also shortened the term of commissioners and reserved two seats for residents of SHA properties.
The idea was to create greater accountability, but SHA immediately acted to protect the status quo. At the request of SHA, 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. There were also complaints about the transparency and fairness of the nominating process. 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 simply were 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 (which included people of color) 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 for council approval 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, ran 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.
One would think these concerns might prompt outright rejection of her candidacy as Steinbrueck did in 1998. Yet councilmembers 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, Rasmussen dismissed it out of hand: he simply ignored the fact that the mayor had never met with us.
At one point, 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.
However, 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 - a longtime activist, community leader, and herself a woman of color - reflected that, "I think when people are trying to do the 'right thing' and making attempts to hold those in power accountable, somehow those in power manipulate, 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 the Bailey nomination, with just two dissenting votes, Steinbrueck and Licata, 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 non-essential 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 for people of color and low-income residents.
Any candidate for these positions should be the subject of close scrutiny. The citizens of Seattle deserve better from our mayor and council than the charade that just occurred.
Outside City Hall is a monthly commentary from the Seattle Displacement Coalition.
Carolee Colter and John V. Fox may be contacted through editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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