Thread by @kwithallthecats

It's endorsement season so I want to share some thoughts that have struck me as I've observed how this plays out specifically in regard to the #Burien city council race. (🧵this might be a long one...)

First off: No one owes you their endorsement just because they've endorsed you in the past. Incumbents ought to be held to a *higher* standard for endorsements, not a lower one. A first-time candidate can impress me with their values, intentions, aspirations;

an incumbent must demonstrate with their specific actions, votes, accomplishments, decisions, that they have in fact used the power bestowed upon them by the votes to further the agenda of the group they'd like to be endorsed by. (Yes, this is about Kevin Schilling)

So I'd like to contrast the values statements from Deputy Mayor Schilling's campaign website with the specific votes he's made in the last year. I attend almost every Burien city council meeting (I've missed 3 this year due to illness or work travel) and I live-tweet what I see.

While my observations have been at times petty and childish (I'm trying to grow, I promise!) this thread will not be about personal attacks or any judgement upon the Deputy Mayor's character or person; this is about the ways he has used the power that voters gave him.

On his campaign page, Schilling says "Addressing homelessness is mostly the responsibility of regional government – but that is not an excuse for local leaders to do nothing." This was surprising to me because, as a local leader, he has voted AGAINST doing anything repeatedly.

For verification of the claims in this thread you can visit the excellent @Burien city portal that tracks the votes of each member of council here: burienwa.civicweb.net/Portal/VotingR…

So let's dive in! First up, the most recent proposal by @CMHugoGarcia, which would have brought a local church (Highline UMC) together as temporary shelter with $1M in county funding through @KingCoRHA to establish an encampment on a city lot. Schilling voted no & it failed:

The reasoning given was the inconvenience to the lot's current lease holder, who has a month to month lease and would have been offered comparable parking space at the nearby transit center. Deputy Mayor Schilling did not propose an alternative to this plan or vote yes for any.

He emphasized how hard he and everyone were working to find a solution- but the relocation had a deadline of June 1 imposed by the lease agreement with @BurienCares . The urgency? Turning the encampment into a dog park. Schilling voted for this 3 times: 4/10, 5/1, & 5/15.

I have no evidence to refute the work Schilling claims to have done outside of council on this but the facts are that he voted to create the deadline and then failed to offer or vote yes on any single idea that would have given the unhoused another place to go before the sweep.

This is the definition of doing nothing. He also voted against installing a porta potty. He voted against this SEVEN times in one meeting!

Refusing to approve the most basic sanitation services for human beings is my definition of doing nothing. But Schilling's commitment to inaction goes back much further. The encampment moved from city hall to the lot on 152nd as the result of a previous sweep.

At the April 03 meeting he voted down even amending the agenda to talk about the situation, preventing any solutions from even being proposed.

Where is the leadership in this? What alternatives has the Deputy Mayor proposed or even supported to give the unsheltered human beings in our city a safe place to legally EXIST while waiting for services?

For additional background, find @btownblog coverage here: b-townblog.com/king-county-le…

and here: b-townblog.com/burien-city-ma…

@PubliColaNews did an excellent piece on this as well: publicola.com/2023/06/01/bur…

If podcasts are more your thing the fantastic @HacksWonks episode about it is here:

https://twitter.com/HacksWonks/status/1662215025761869824?s=20

But hasn't he worked for many prominent democrats and isn't he endorsed by the Good Old Boys club of KC moderate dems?

Sure. But this isn't about who he's friends with or who he's connected to; this is about how he votes. I invite you to review his voting record here: burienwa.civicweb.net/Portal/VotingR…

Or, even better! Watch the recordings of the meetings. Here's a clip showing him 1. Perpetuating the misinformation that everyone at the camp had been offered shelter and 2. Implying that if the offers aren't accepted Burien residents lose their rights to be on public property.

The point here is that when organizations like @kcdems and @34dems and @MLKLabor and @WorkingFamilies consider who they're endorsing, I hope they consider more than just someone's professed beliefs or their network of political friends and connections.

Because saying you want solutions and voting against every single one of them is not an ideological issue; it's a failure of leadership. The city of Burien needs strong leadership & creative, inclusive problem-solving. We don't have shelter beds or funds to build one;

We have to work collaboratively and compromise, and try things and leverage the expertise in our own city human services team & their deeply knowledgable partners.

I saw those experts vilified in public comments weekly, I heard the unhoused called parasites and falsely accused of outlandish crimes. I never heard Kevin Schilling speak up about this.

I never heard him call for civility or kindness or empathy for the unhoused, or try to correct lies being spread, or even to defend the work of the city's Human Services team or our partners with REACH and LEAD.

The leadership we need in Burien would have the courage to say what is right even if it is unpopular and certainly to vote for or propose solutions to prevent the violence of encampment sweeps with no place for people to go.

And so I'll say again: this isn't about who Kevin Schilling is as a person, this is about the way he wields power. I hope that the city of Burien keeps this in mind when voting in the upcoming Primary.