by Doug Collins
photo by Neal Herbert
The Free Press
One concrete symptom of the money bias in Seattle politics is that although 54% of Seattleites are tenants, all elected city officials are property owners. In fact, most own an interest in more than one property in King County. Four officials, Jim Street, Margaret Pageler, Sherry Harris, and Martha Choe, own comparatively modest personal properties in the county, but some others approach Robin Leach material. The king of assessed value is Mark Sidran, city attorney and rental property owner. Some groups question the motivations of a city attorney who is a landlord and yet often naysays various proposals to improve the rights of tenants.
The Tenants Union has unsuccessfully fought for legislation prohibiting rent increases in buildings with code violations, and for extending the notice of rent increase from 30 to 60 days. Tenants Union activist Jon Gould asserts that "Mark Sidran is the reason both measures were denied. The decisions of Sidran's law department are based on conservative readings of existing law." City council members in most cases follow the law department's advice when voting.
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owns three units in this Pike Place Market condominium. |
Sidran himself could not be reached after repeated requests for an interview. His assistant, Lori Mayfield, explained in March of this year, "We were concerned that the relocation assistance law could be declared unconstitutional. Our responsibility is to advise the city about whether a law could get the city in trouble." Mayfield nevertheless admitted that the relocation assistance law had been in effect for a couple years already, and had never been challenged by landlords. She mentioned that the law department might draft a more legally sound ordinance to protect tenants, but to her knowledge no proposals have been made.
Although Sidran's office seems queasy about possible legal challenges from landlords, it is apparently not fearful of actual challenges from the less enfranchised. An example is the city's anti-loitering ordinances, which will primarily affect homeless people downtown. Mayfield said that she "anticipates the city will defend the ordinances again" if the ACLU appeals them to higher federal courts (the cost of this legal defense would, of course, be borne by the city). In addition, she mentioned that the law department was "half prepared" for a lawsuit by the Tenants Union over the relocation assistance issue.
Another reason that homeless and housing activists criticize Sidran is his own record as a landlord. Shortly after Sidran bought a Queen Anne six-plex last year, Sidran's tenants were hit with rent increases up to almost 30%. Some tenants who had lived in the building for nine years were in effect forced to move in search of cheaper housing.
Sidran owns a duplex and a six-plex in Seattle, and half interest in a Vashon Island bungalow. Latest sale prices of the properties total $945,000, according to recent county real estate records. (In a financial disclosure filed in 1993, he listed his household income as not more than $106,000 per year.) Sidran's wife, Anais Winant, has real estate accumulations which rival Sidran's, including three condos at the Pike Place Market and three houses, one the Vashon house shared with Sidran. Many of Sidran's units are rentals; Winant's name was not seen on the register outside the condos she owns, and the doorman there stated that some units in the building were rented out.
So is there anything illegal about being a landlord and advising the City Council on tenant/landlord issues? According to Carolyn Van Noy of the Ethics and Elections Commission, officials such as Sidran are "not prohibited from acting in their own self interest while they hold office-our election system is based on people voting in their own interest. If a candidate is a landlord, people may vote for the candidate because they think he would act in the interest of landlords."
However, the Code of Ethics for Seattle states that any official engaged in activities which would "impair...independence of judgment or action in the performance of official duties" is required to "disqualify him or herself from official action in those instances." Officials who "have a financial or other private interest...in any matter upon which the officer or employee is required to act" must also disqualify themselves. In light of this law, Sidran's involvement in giving advice to the City Council on rental issues might deserve scrutiny.
And even if officials are not clearly legally wrong, they may be accused of fishiness. According to Arlen Olson of the Tenants Union, councilmember Sherry Harris, currently the chair of the housing committee "has not taken a progressive lead on housing issues" compared with Tom Weeks, who earlier chaired the committee. Harris has in recent years received at least one contribution from the Apartment Association of Seattle and King County (AASK), a landlord group. Steve Craig, assistant to Harris, countered, "Although we'd like to, we can't do a lot of things for the Tenants Union because we can't contradict state law." (One state law, for example, prohibits rent control.) He also pointed out that Harris' housing committee has repeatedly defended rental housing inspection, a Tenants Union brainchild that has been fiercely opposed by landlord groups.
Olson also claims that Cheryl Chow at a public meeting once promised a yes vote for a pro-tenant proposal, and yet mysteriously voted against the measure soon after. Chow's office was contacted twice and a statement was requested, but she could not be reached for comments. Chow received an $100 AASK donation during her 1993 campaign, and is herself an owner of rental properties.
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Contents on this page were published in the June/July, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1994 WFP Collective, Inc.