A new group has formed in West Seattle to try and steer the outcome of the City Council race there between Lisa Herbold and Phillip Tavel. Four years ago, Herbold won her place on the Council with a few dozen votes. I’ve said before, Councimember Sawant is a performance artist, while Herbold actually gets things done. The problem is that what Herbold gets done is usually what Sawant talks about doing. Take impact fees, for example. Herbold is the Councilmember that has demanded them, pushing the Council outside the usual process to add even more costs to housing production and ultimately to the price. Builders aren’t the only ones tired of Herbold’s use of her office.

In a press release the new group, District 1 Neighbors for Small Business, announced its latest push to change the balance of power at City Hall by replacing Lisa Herbold.

We are a local voice for owners, managers or representatives of local, small business eager for a change in leadership on Seattle City Council. The issues, myriad, are well covered: homelessness, drug activity, shoplifting, theft, petty crime, escalating disorder. While opinion and fervor run high on the issues, solutions have been absent, despite declarations of emergencies and ten-year plans. It is clear that something is broken. It is clear that we need to elect new leadership to City Council.

The group goes on to list some of the issues, all emphasis is theirs.

• Lisa Herbold and the City Council are failing to address chronic and systemic issues of public safety. They have been unsupportive of our Seattle Police Department. The money being spent on services for the homeless, the mentally distressed and the drug addicted is having little impact on neighborhood disorder, petty crime and escalating incidents of violence enacted on our citizens and our employees. Where is the accountability?
• Lisa Herbold, Kshama Sawant and our City Council recently passed a wildly unpopular “Head Tax” without a spending  plan. They then cynically tried to blame our business community when  they were forced to repeal the tax. Why can’t they collaborate with business, rather than treat us as an endless revenue stream (or worse)? Kshama and Lisa are currently planning their next version of an unpopular and divise tax on jobs. We can’t afford another four years of Lisa Herbold and Kshama Sawant.
• When business owners absorbed a FOUR HUNDRED PERCENT increase in their business license fee in 2017. Lisa Herbold told us that the money was specifically to pay for “… the hiring of 200 additional police officers by 2020 …” We have not seen these 200 additional officers, and we just absorbed an additional six percent increase on our business license fees for 2020. Where are the cops? Where did the money goto pay for those police officers?

All of this is not surprising. Herbold has been a continuous supporter of the idea that what will solve housing issues isn’t more housing, but more money. Again and again she’s been a champion for policies that make it more difficult to build anything in Seattle. The same, clearly is true for other small businesses trying to meet customer demand under a growing burden of regulations.

An email from two small business owners from the group described some of these overreaching rules and regulations passed over the last 4 years while Herbold has been in office.

• Increased business license fees.
• Sugar tax.
• B and O tax increases.
• Awning fees.
• Signage fees.
• Secured scheduling mandates.
• Paid Family leave.
• $15 minimum wage increases.
• Increased health insurance fees.
• Increased property taxes (passed on to tenants)

They go on to say,

It seems as if the City Council looks to businesses to fund everything. Pet projects or projects that have absolutely no plan! They think we (businesses) are rich and look to us as an ever-flowing revenue stream. None of them have ever run a business nor have they signed an employee’s paycheck. They forget that businesses in Seattle are the live blood of this city and already provide 60% of the annual budget. Yet they keep piling on more fees to run a business in Seattle. It’s not surprising to see many businesses big and small leaving Seattle and setting up shop in Bellevue, White Center, Burien, etc.

This is the same think I hear from builders, developers, and landlords all across the city. Will anything change if Tavel is elected? I’ve suggested that we need more than one election to fix the problems that have been created. One new Councilmember can’t make or repeal laws; it takes at least 6 to ensure anything can happen, and there aren’t going to be that many who truly support business. The business community needs to make culture change a priority, investing in ideas, research, and building an understanding of the messages that can shift the electorate away from the bleating of the socialist mob, and toward policy that actually helps people.

One thing is for sure, District 1 Neighbors for Small Business has already won. They’ve mobilized small businesses to take a very specific direction and action to shift who represents (or doesn’t) their interests. It’s a hopeful sign and one that I hope we can learn from and build on.