VIDEO: Mayor Schilling, Burien business owners slap back at Sheriff, share concerns over lack of camping enforcement at press conference

On Thursday morning, April 25, 2024, Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling – backed by three fellow councilmembers and several business owners – slapped back at King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall at a press conference.

This is just the latest in the ongoing back-and-forth battle between the City of Burien and King County over an issue that has birthed lawsuits, press conferences, letters, non-payments for police and much more (for some context, read the Sheriff’s letter released on Tuesday, April 23 here).

During the approximately 40-minute event at Burien City Hall (see videos below) hosted by the city’s selected Mayor, Schilling introduced several local business people who shared their concerns about safety due to the King County Sheriff’s Office not enforcing Ordinance 832, a controversial camping law that was passed by the council in March.

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As we previously reported, King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) filed a lawsuit against the City of Burien on Mar. 11, 2024 over its beliefs that this ordinance is “unconstitutional,” and since then the city has filed a countersuit, stopped paying for KCSO’s police services, canceled its contract with REACH, requested to fire and replace Police Chief Ted Boe, and more.

Schilling’s Opening Statement

Below are some excerpts of Schilling’s opening statement:

“Our message is simple today: and it’s that we need to get to the table and find a pathway that meets the needs of the City of Burien that works to get folks off the streets and into shelter and services, because right now the situation is untenable and we are locked in this back and forth with the Sheriff, where we have requested and been denied essentially sitting down with them to figure out a way to bring ourselves in accordance with the collaboration that can work to address the needs of the city and address the needs of the people who are on the street.

“By telling the City of Burien what we can and cannot do, King County (and) the Sheriff’s Office is usurping authority and involving themselves in internal affairs with what we have been elected to decide for the City of Burien. In doing so, there has been breaking of the agreement between our government and the sheriff’s office to ensure enforcement and an action of laws. We are in a place where we need to sit down with the sheriff and the sheriff needs to do that through the processes of the oversight committee, the King County Sheriff’s Office within the interlocal agreement.

“And we need that to happen now.

“Because if we have continuing attempts to try to go around that process and to make it hard for us to reach agreement, we’re gonna continue to see a growth of tense, a growth, an increase of overdose deaths and a lack of services that people are being connected to.

“And that could all stop today if the sheriff works with us to enact and continue to enforce the parts of the ordinance that has been in place from day one that they have enforced for months prior to this moment.”

Business owners shared their experiences that most said made them, their workers and customers feel unsafe in Burien, including dealing with someone armed with a machete and more.

Discover Burien Board President Monty Penney

Here’s part of Monty Penney’s statement:

“It’s time for government … to start working together as adults in the room, solving the homeless issue … and stop wasting taxpayer dollars. It’s not a hard issue, it’s an issue that I’m sure we can all handle if we sit down together and talk.”

Farmers Market Vendor Daniel Sullivan

Burien Farmers Market vendor Daniel Sullivan, shared a story about during setup for a recent market at Burien Town Square, a homeless person died of an overdose (read our previous coverage here). He said how difficult that was for himself and his workers to process this tragedy.

Hector Ramos, Owner of La Costa

Hector Ramos, a longtime resident from the Ramos family (which owns Azteca and other restaurants), shared frustrations over his recent attempts to get several homeless campers to move away from outside his La Costa Restaurant on SW 152nd Street (NOTE: these campers were recently removed with the help of Burien Police).

“I’m usually the ‘welcome to the restaurant, the Margarita and Fajita‘ guy, and now I’ve become somebody I just don’t like anymore,” Ramos said at the conference. “It’s been a couple of months where I’ve become not a happy guy – I haven’t slept well, I haven’t been with my family. I’ve had to try to smile, I haven’t tried to be what usually comes naturally, so I’m a little disappointed in myself because it’s hard dealing with what we have to deal with every day.

“I spent from 6 a.m. to about 2 a.m. studying the situation, understanding what was in front of me. All I saw was drug use, all I saw was defecation, all I saw was continuous (drug) sales – three different drug shifts from 10 to 2 in the morning. It’s just constant, it just got to a point where I just don’t know what to do, and I’ve become this nervous guy trying to put a gate here, put a fence there, light here, and it’s just been crazy.”

Rebecca Zielinski, Co-owner of Sitka Living

Rebecca Zielinski, co-owner of Sitka Living on SW 152nd Street, said:

“While we understand the complexity of balancing the needs of the homeless with the needs of our citizens, we business owners feel ignored when it comes to the safety and security of our customers and businesses while the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Burien City Council have been struggling to compromise.

“As a woman business owner, I have felt threatened several times. I’ve had to ask a man with a machete to leave our business. I had a man lunge at me with a piece of rebar. I’ve had men exposing themselves to me. What is it going to take…?”

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Below is our edited-for-time video (removing pauses between speakers) of the press conference that we were able to record before our battery died during the Q&A:

And here’s raw footage of the full conference, courtesy KING5:

Was There A Quorum?

Some who were present at the event shared concerns that since there were four Burien City Councilmembers present, there was a quorum.

If four or more councilmembers show up at an event together, the City is required to issue a public notice. At this event, in addition to Mayor Schilling, Deputy Mayor Stephanie Mora, Councilmembers Alex Andrade and Linda Akey were all present.

According to the City’s own Burien City Council Meeting Guidelines:

“If more than three (3) Councilmembers have notified the City Manager that they wish to attend a meeting where City Business will be discussed, they will notify the City Clerk’s office and a notice of a Quorum of the Council will be posted, as regulated in RCW 42.30.”

Far as we know, no official notice was published, and when asked about this, Mayor Schilling told The B-Town Blog:

“This was a press conference organized by myself and the businesses, and we didn’t discuss council business. So that was noticed as such. But also once we saw there was 4, one was removed from the room to make sure there wasn’t an issue. Couldn’t control who shows up to something I put out there either.”

This may have also been a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act.

We were notified of this press conference via an email timestamped Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 7:07 a.m.

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