By Julie-C

On Tuesday, September 29th, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced details of her plans for the City’s 2021 Budget, which includes “$100 million in new investments to BIPOC communities” to be dispersed by a BIPOC community task force she has finalized over the last week. However in response, a broad base of community members are taking the opportunity to call her bluff and demand better. 

Since the George Floyd uprisings this summer, the ongoing protests in the city have been focused on not only defunding Seattle Police Department by at least 50%, but also ensuring those funds get re-invested into Black communities. Deft as ever in the performance of wokeness, Durkan invoked this sentiment when first sharing details of the $100 million “Equitable Communities Initiative” last Friday on Converge Media’s Morning Update Show, then later in an op-ed in the South Seattle Emerald (which was skillfully answered by Sean Goode’s counter op-ed “Beware the Bootleg Rolex). “Millions have taken to the streets across our country to demand change,” she wrote, adding “we must heed their calls.”

While this messaging sounds good, Durkan’s actions have shown consistent reluctance to answer calls and honor commitments to the movement in her own backyard. Her plan to convene a community task force to disperse the funds is no replacement for the 2021 participatory budgeting process communities have been fighting for. It is unclear how much of the $100 million in so-called “new investments” will be siphoned from other sources that the community has fought for, such as the JumpStart fund. This air of shady consolation and divide and conquer tactics in her budget proposal is perhaps why so many respected leaders reportedly declined being a part of her task force. 

As the city begins today what is sure to be a lengthy and contentious back and forth between the Mayor and City Council for determining the 2021 budget, many are asking how could Mayor Durkan better walk the walk, and how might the community help hold her accountable to the talk? Here are two efforts to support: 

1. Support Black Community-led Research and #FreeTheFunds for Scaling Up Community Response

Earlier this summer Seattle City Council approved $3 million from the remaining 2020 public safety budget towards a Black community-led research process to support the groundwork for a truly participatory budget in 2021- one that will transparently and equitably guide the redistribution of funds from the hands of police into communities. Durkan vetoed the effort, but because her veto was overturned last week by City Council vote after hours of public testimony, the community members who have been diligently working uncompensated for the last four months to create the development plan for Black Brilliance Research Project will finally get paid. But this was just a start. The Mayor is still holding on to $14 million that is supposed to be dedicated to scaling up community responses that don't rely on policing, including $4 million for a Black-led gun violence intervention project. Will this be released to scale community solutions in a democratic, equitable process? 

On Monday, King County Equity Now (KCEN) hosted a remote press conference to announce the culmination of the planning efforts and the beginning of something exciting- the formation of a 100+ member Black-led community-led research team, in partnership with local Black-led organizations including Bridging Cultural Gaps, East African Community Services, Freedom Project, and Wa Na Wari. Letanía Severe of Plumb Research and KCEN research team said, “It is exciting to be on track to create over 100 living wages jobs as a part of this effort, including a pathway to medical coverage for some community members who have been uninsured.” 

The 48 minute long video, which featured various organizers and community researchers, is chock full of heartfelt testimony on the necessity of culturally relevant strategies, the diverse approaches to the work, the scope of community-driven solutions being examined, and the centrality of self-determination in the process. “The policy and power structures that shape so much of our daily lives were built and maintained at the expense of Black people, and the subsequent harm and violence is centuries old and persists across nearly every aspect of life. So we need all hands on deck here. We need community voice to lead the way,” asserted Shaun Glaze of KCEN. 

In reference to Mayor Durkan’s budget proposal Glaze adds, “And when we say community voice we don’t mean some task force that is cherry-picked by white wealthy people who already have access to political power. Instead of having pre-set priorities, instead of having hand-selected task forces, we are pushing for community voice and community power to be at the center.” 

Glaze goes on to explain that from a review of 23 recent task forces in the City’s history, including interviews with participants, not one has yielded transformational change to protect Black lives. “The most transformational recommendations are filtered up from community and are rarely taken up, and never at a timeline that reflects the urgency of the issues at hand.”

For the KCEN team, the solutions and answers are in the generational wisdom of the community, and this is something for which the Mayor must commit to making space. “Working together we can ensure a democratic, participatory budget process where we the people decide how our money gets spent to improve our lives and communities.” 

Here are ways to support the Black Brilliance Community Research Project at KCEN and #FreeTheFunds: 

• Take the community needs assessment to take part in the process. 

• Reach out to the mayor via phone, email, and social media, and ask her to #FreeTheFunds

• Volunteer to support the research project by emailing Research@kingcountyequitynow.com. 

2. Support the #SolidarityBudget for a Truly Democratic, Participatory Budget Process in Seattle

On Tuesday morning, in anticipation of Mayor Durkan’s budget announcement, #SolidarityBudget was launched via open letter by a coalition of racial justice, environmental justice/climate, and art and culture organizations, labor unions, service providers, and other community groups who “refuse to be pitted against each other, to battle between ourselves over millions of dollars in the city budget, while billions of dollars have been guaranteed decade after decade to police and imprisonment of our community members.” 

In recognizing that, “Our struggles to build a more equitable Seattle are interconnected,” the letter asserts that, “Divesting from police systems and investing in Black communities goes hand in hand with climate justice work and housing justice work.” Early signers included KCEN, Decriminalize Seattle, Puget Sound Sage, 350 Seattle, Got Green, and Choose 180, but within an hour of its release, the list swelled to over forty organizational endorsers and is growing by the minute. 

The letter outlines four principles for a just transition, “from all the systems that continue to oppress Black communities and our planet, including a just transition of jobs, democratic governance and budget-making,” as well as three points of advocacy and solidarity for putting these principles into practice for the 2021 budget cycle. 

“Mayor Durkan needs to understand that we have little interest in her political games of divide and conquer. She made a promise to Seattle's Black community and she needs to deliver on that $100M promise. She also needs to remember that promise was made under the pressure due to incredible organizing by Seattle's Black community to defund Seattle PD,” says Matt Remle, co-founder of Mazaska Talks and participant in the Green New Deal steering committee, adding, “It is beyond reprehensible that the mayor thinks it acceptable to fulfill her 'promise' by raiding the efforts of Seattle's low income, BIPOC, labor, Native, and climate justice communities , organizers and individuals who worked with Seattle city council members on the Jumpstart tax bill to bring needed Covid relief, build affordable housing and began the process of addressing the climate crisis with the Green New Deal. Our communities are united! Fulfill your promise to the Black community, defund SPD and leave Jumpstart funding to its original intent."

Here are ways to support the #SolidarityBudget effort: 

• Sign and Spread the #SolidarityBudget Open Letter 

• Utilize the #SolidarityBudget Social Media Toolkit to help get the word out. 

As the city gears up for a heated debate that will determine how public funds are spent for all of next year, these two community-led efforts are important steps towards actualizing some of the ongoing protests’ goals. While there’s a lot to reveal about where this year’s budget process will land, there’s one thing we know for certain. Without the right pressure against the grain, we can only expect more of the same. If Seattle is really ready for something different, it will be on its people to make sure the city budget process reflects its vision for a more equitable future. 

———

Julie-C is a community organizer, cultural advocate, educator, and Hip Hop artist hailing from the Coast Salish Autonomous Zone/Technocratic City-State of Seattle. Her music can be found at SovereignQueendomArchives.Com.