Earlier in April, the City of Seattle finally released the official 2015 map of the Seattle City Council Districts. The reason for the map and the new way of electing our city councilmembers being (via seattle.gov):
In 2013, Seattle voters passed a measure amending our city’s charter to establish City Council districts. In 2015, voters will elect seven out of the nine City Council members by district. The remaining two positions will be elected “at-large” (city-wide) in positions 8 and 9.
Our Ravenna neighborhood is located in Council District 4, along with Bryant, Roosevelt, View Ridge, Sand Point, Windermere, Laurelhurst, Hawthorne Hills, the University District, Eastlake, half of Wedgwood, most of Wallingford, and a touch of Fremont — which is why it is so great to finally have a city-approved map with hard boundaries.
Northern portion of the Council Districts map. Click to open the interactive version.
Within the interactive map above, Seattle residents can search for their address to find out which Council District they are located in, or just zoom in and around to see what neighborhoods are located in which districts.
On Wednesday, March 12, Crosscut held an event called “Mapping Seattle’s New Political Landscape,” where contributors Ben Anderstone and Knute Berger talked about Seattle’s newly created City Council Districts.
While we did not attend, we did follow along on twitter. Here’s what the duo had to say about our District 4, in one slide:
At #mappingsea, Ben Anderstone doing a recap of all the new @CityofSeattle districts. pic.twitter.com/azoQDn5Jzo
— Jared Axelrod (@JaredAxelrod) March 13, 2014
As for how City Council races will be scheduled in the future, the City Clerk’s office lays out the following timeline:
In 2015:
- All nine Councilmember seats will be up for election and the transition will occur during that city election
- Seven districted Councilmembers will be elected to four-year terms
- The remaining two at-large Councilmembers will be elected to a two-year term
In 2017:
Seven districted Councilmembers will be elected to four-year terms*- The two at-large seats will be elected to four-year terms
- The at-large Councilmembers will from this point forward be on the same election cycle as the Mayor and City Attorney
Then in the fall of 2022 (and every ten years thereafter), “a five-member Districting Commission will be created to redraw the district boundaries.”
Current City Councilmember Jean Godden has already tossed her hat into the ring for the newly created District 4 seat (she’s a View Ridge resident). But so far, at the time of writing, and with the filing deadline being over a year away, only current CMs have filed for reelection.
One of Councilmember Tim Burgess’s legislative aides, Alex Pedersen, made a suspicious move earlier in April: His monthly “4 to Explore: A Northeast Neighborhoods Newsletter,” published online or sent via email since August 2013, showed up in paper form in the Seattle Times. When asked if he’s considering running, fellow Council District 4 resident Pedersen told us (via email):
We hear a lot from interest groups but not enough from families because they are busy working to get by. So the newsletter highlights not only important neighborhood issues, but fun stuff that will be engaging and relevant each month.
I support Jean Godden and she’s aware of the newsletter 🙂
The deadline for getting on the ballot in 2015 is Friday, May 15, 2015, so District 4 residents have plenty of time to decide to run. You can track all the City Council candidates running in the 2015 Primary here, on seattle.gov.
And to all present and possible future Council District candidates, I say: May the odds be ever in your favor.
UPDATE (10:07 AM): Serendipitously, Crosscut’s Knute Berger has a piece out just this morning about this very topic: “New survey offers tips for implementing Seattle’s new city council districts.”
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* Correction: We accidentally repeated the “Seven districted Councilmembers…” line in both lists. Thank you, Tony Provine, for alerting us to this error.
Hopefully, more candidates file. Jean Godden has been a fairly useless bump on the log of City Council for years. (This is pretty widely shared opinion amongst those who actively follow City Council.) And she is definitely NOT reflective of Seattle in 2014. She’s 82 years old and it shows. Would be nice to have someone who represented the District who more closely reflects the actual demographics of our District. Hopefully the student leaders at UW get activated and either run one of their own (that would be fun) or get involved in some candidate’s campaign. And I am saying this as a middle aged homeowner in the neighborhood.
I expect better of the Stranger than to dismiss a councilmember with the cavalier stereotype of “she’s 82 and it shows.” If her memory or intellectual functions are flawed enough to make her a poor candidate, let’s have some specifics, rather than a vague assumption that someone is not fit for public service after a certain age. It might be that what “shows” in a relatively old person is a wealth of experience, a wise perspective or some other valuable trait. This comment is not about Godden – I’m not a fan of hers – it’s about unwarranted assumptions, and ageism.) I hope this new Council will reflect the perspectives of the old and the young.
I am a 72 year old View Ridge resident who feels that it is time for more energetic support in the city council for the issues facing Northeast Seattle. I look forward to people with a fresh take on neighborhood concerns to step forward and retire Jean Godden.
I agree that it is time for Jean Godden to retire. Does anyone know the other candidates in District 4?
If so , please share your knowledge with the rest of us. I want to be able to support the best candidate (in my opinion) before election time.
I am very sorry about the districts – I don’t see how anything will be improved by not being able to vote for or against each candidate, especially when you end up being “represented” by your least favorite
council person.
District 4 needs someone energetic and citizen focussed.
Judith: All the current candidates for all Seattle City Council Districts can be found here. And this link will have the latest information, in case other candidates file and are added in the future.
At present, the District 4 field is: Jean Godden, Rob Johnson, Taso Lagos, and Michael J. Maddux. Links to their election pages are also at the link above.
This page should also state that Tony Provine, from Ravenna, is running for District 4 City Council.
ABOUT TONY PROVINE
Tony Provine is a neighborhood leader who is knowledgable about and passionately involved in the issues affecting the 4th District.
He earned his M.A. degree in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland. As Assistant Chief of Investigations & Licensing for the Department of Consumer Protection of Fairfax County, Virginia, Tony oversaw a broad spectrum of public programs. In California, he became an executive and a consultant for associations and non-profit organizations. Tony moved to the Seattle area where he built and operated a small business. After selling that business, he became more involved locally with nonprofits and community service organizations.
Tony served as President of the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Co-Chair of the Northeast District Council of Neighborhoods, and Vice Chair of the City Neighborhood Council. He recently completed his second term as Chair of the Seattle/King County Advisory Council on Aging & Disability Services, the designated Agency on Aging for King County. Tony also served on the board of the Friends of the Seattle Public Library and as a delegate for the Youth & Families Initiative for Seattle. He is Precinct Committee Officer for the 46th District Democrats and a seminar presenter for the Seattle Nonprofit Leadership Series sponsored by the Center for Nonprofit Success.
Tony lives in the Ravenna neighborhood with his wife, Maggie and their dog, Rufus.
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