SGN Page 14 - SGN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW City Council candidate Sally Bagshaw - Friday, May 15, 2009

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posted Friday, May 15, 2009 - Volume 37 Issue 20

SGN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW City Council candidate Sally Bagshaw

by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

If her opponent David Bloom is running as a critic of current city policy, City Council candidate Sally Bagshaw is proud of her relationships with local political leadership.

"Jan [Drago] asked me a year ago if I would run," she told SGN. "And when I had conversations with [State House Speaker] Frank Chopp about the waterfront, he encouraged me to run."

Bagshaw is a candidate for the City Council seat Jan Drago is vacating, Position 4. Her opponents are David Bloom, a long-time social justice activist who was also interviewed for this week's SGN, and Highland Park activist Dorsol Plants. Bagshaw was chief of the Civil Division for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office under the late Norm Maleng. In that position she led a staff of 60 lawyers, providing legal advice to County Executive Ron Sims, Sheriff Sue Rahr, King County Council members, Metro Transit, Harborview Medical Center and other county agencies.

"I've known the mayor for years," she says. "After all, I was his attorney when he was on the County Council."

Bagshaw believes her relationships with city officials will give her an advantage if she is elected. She speaks particularly warmly of her friends City Council member Tim Burgess and Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis.

"I look forward to working with them. They're good people with good hearts. Tim Burgess early-endorsed me. We'll make a hot team," she says.

Bagshaw proudly notes that her husband Brad was lead attorney in the initial court arguments in the Andersen v Sims marriage equality case. "Do you know him?" she asks. "He's a good person to know.&"

While Bagshaw served two terms on the Lake Forest Park City Council 20 years ago, this is her first run for office in Seattle. She is no stranger to city issues, however. As chair of the Allied Arts Waterfront for All Committee, she worked on the often contentious plans for development of Seattle's waterfront.

"What we were after was not simply a beautiful waterfront," she told SGN. "We want a first-class development, with green space. A waterfront that will enhance the environment and be an economic driver. And we have to ask how we'll move people and goods. My objective is to work on all three pieces in tandem. I have faith we can do it."

"Ultimately, we probably need some kind of Waterfront Authority to pull all the pieces together," she says. "But the time is not right yet."

Apart from the future of the waterfront, "People are worried about jobs, economic growth, transportation, public safety," Bagshaw says. "But I also sense optimism out there. I'm a good listener. I like to make connections between issues that matter to people."

Bagshaw is particularly concerned about the level of homelessness in Seattle. As a King County attorney, she worked with Church Council Executive Director Sandy Brown to develop temporary housing for the city's poor.

"Affordable housing on Broadway&." Bagshaw muses. "Well, there's no silver bullet. We can try to preserve the housing we have. We absolutely have to pass the housing levy."

"The issue is, who's going to put forth the money?" she continues. "Who's going to invest? I think public/private partnerships could be helpful."

Asked about City Council member Tom Rasmussen's initiative to preserve existing buildings in the Pike-Pine corridor, Bagshaw says, "Well, we should preserve them if there's good a reason they should be preserved. My favorite example is the First Methodist Church downtown. Now it's contributing to the city."

The church was sold by its congregation in 2007 and has been redeveloped as a concert venue.

"It's complicated," Bagshaw cautions. "Do we want to support neighborhood business development? That means people are around 24/7. Some people in the neighborhood will feel it's an invasion."

Bagshaw is not enthusiastic about a new city jail, but doesn't know if the city can do without one. "We need to try every alternative to incarceration we can think of," she says. "Day reporting, home detention, community service. But we'll still need to do something with violent offenders."

Asked how she would envision Seattle at the end of her term on the City Council, if she were elected, Bagshaw says, "I'd like to see the economy improved, clean technology, jobs. I'd like to see a transportation system that's working - the tunnel built, 520 built, Sound Transit built. I'd like to see the community safe."

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