Seattle Councilmember Rob Saka’s community safety town hall sowed distrust with residents, who say he’s neglected them.
Last week, Seattle Councilmember Rob Saka hosted a packed town hall to address gun violence in three specific neighborhoods in his District 1, which covers North Delridge, Snake Hill, and High Point. About 150 community members attended the meeting, which consisted of city leaders speaking for almost 90 minutes. The event ended in frustrated shouting, as residents said Saka hadn’t delivered on what he’d promised.
Saka’s office had assembled a panel of leaders to speak, including Council President Sara Nelson, Chief Public Safety Officer Natalie Walton-Anderson, Seattle Police Department (SPD) Chief Shon Barnes, Seattle City Light CEO Dawn Lindell, and Parks Superintendent AP Diaz. Live questions were not accepted at the event.
High Point resident Phil Brandt pushed Saka to host the town hall meeting after his minivan was shot up with stray gunfire last month. But Brandt left feeling unsatisfied.
“What we heard — this is not what we asked for tonight,” said resident Phil Brandt at the end of the meeting. “We asked for the live discussion Q&A, and that’s not what we got. What we’ve got is the councilmember giving us a stump speech for 30 minutes. It took me taking this car seat to city council to get him to answer an email and to get this set up.”
Brandt’s car seat ended up pierced with a bullet hole during a gunfire incident on the evening of April 17 near Walt Hundley Playfield, which involved a long volley of gunfire between two vehicles. Police said they found more than 60 shell casings at the scene.
Brandt was out of town at the time, but when he returned home, he discovered two bullets had hit his minivan, parked in the driveway outside his home. One of the bullets had gone through his three-year-old’s car seat.
The following Monday, Brandt was in communication with SPD’s Southwest precinct and also spoke with a member of Saka’s staff, who encouraged him to come to the city council meeting the next afternoon. Brandt did so, bringing the damaged car seat with him to prove his point, only to find that Council President Nelson had cut the public comment time from two minutes to one.
“I’m here because there was bullets fired into my car parked outside of our home near Walt Huntley Park Thursday night,” Brandt said during public comment. “One of those bullets went through my child’s car seat, which I invite all of you to come down here and look at when I’m done talking. There have been eight shootings in West Seattle in the last 34 days. There’s been two in the last five in High Point alone. What’s been done? Nothing. I called my precinct 25 times on Sunday and Monday to no response.”
