Seattle Press on Line - Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Apr 11, 2002 -- Baseball Season Budget Savings

To the Editor:

King County Executive Ron Sims has decided to close public parks rather than cutting pork. Say, wouldn't tax-funded Safeco Field qualify as a "public park"? Shouldn't we distribute the budget pain equally by closing it for a season or two?

As an added bonus, the region's transportation crisis would be lessened, since the horrendous game day traffic jams would go away.

Russell B. Garrard

Caminiti Misquoted in March 28 Letter

To the Editor:

Thank you for printing my letter to you in the March 28 edition. Only one problem, an error in the second column where it is written BILLION rather than MILLION which is correct and as I wrote.

It's an understandable error. Millions has become as petty as pennies any more. Who knows but that the zoo will eventually cost the taxpayers that higher amount.

Benella Caminiti

Kudos to Nickels for Cable Privacy Bill

To the Editor:

Mayor Nickels deserves kudos for proposing what is perhaps the strongest local law in any American city to protect the privacy of cable subscribers' personal information ("Cable TV and your Privacy in Seattle", March 28). Privacy is being put at greater risk by rapidly changing advances in technology that make it easier to capture, analyze, and distribute personally identifiable information. And subscriber services provided by cable companies continue to multiply and become more diverse. We must move quickly to implement safeguards so that customers can effectively control who uses their personal information and for what purpose. The Mayor's proposed ordinance puts that power more firmly in the hands of cable subscribers.

For the last four years a cable subscriber privacy bill, drafted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, has been introduced at the Legislature in Olympia. I have been the bill's prime sponsor for the past two years. Senate Bill 5868 was drafted in response to AT&T Broadband's claim of a right to market lists of its subscribers. The bill would prohibit cable service operators from revealing to third parties--in other words, marketing--information about which cable services an individual subscriber receives, and how the subscriber uses those services. Senate Bill 5868 was reported out of committee unanimously in 2001, but did not get out of committee this year, ostensibly because of lobbying efforts of the industry that maintained the bill "wasn't needed-that everything has been resolved.

Of course I disagree, as likely would many cable subscribers in Seattle and elsewhere in the state. This is a matter that I intend to pursue in the next session of the Legislature, in January 2003.

Jeanne Kohl-Welles
State Senator
(D-36th Legislative District)

Seattle Parks Leaves Soccer in the Dark

To The Editor:

In the March 28 edition ("Proposed Upgrades for Seattle Parks Leave Many with Questions," page 5) Adam Richter wrote that Co-Rec Soccer Association manager Marty Ehlers "would like to see the Parks Department create more fields with lighting and artificial turf." The article implied that Co-Rec Soccer, which alone manages over 8,000 soccer games per year--with over 55 percent of our Seattle teams' weeknight games being forced out of the city due to a lack of lighted fields--would want to develop open space for sports activities.

Mr. Richter failed to complete Co-Rec Soccer's explanation that our goal, for the last 20 years, has been to convince the Park Department to meet the growing demand for weekend soccer games, not in open green space, but by converting the existing, fragile, grass field surfaces at the 18 lighted softball/baseball sites, into all-weather, year-round surfaces. For example, the new "synthetic turf" would then allow soccer (which only uses eight lighted fields) to play on the softball fields the second half of the year for an additional 4,500 weeknight games.

Now that the public has overwhelmingly voted for the School and Park levies, we also support the Parks' plan to upgrade existing fields at unlighted sites. Parks has been sensitive in its selection of sites where synthetic turf and lights are planned, by choosing fields at school playgrounds that needed improvement and parks fields surrounded by large buffers of hills and trees.

Unfortunately, residents in some areas have complained to the point that the Seattle Parks Department, which subsidizes and manages softball leagues, has opted to sacrifice soccer in a peace offering by proposing, "Lighted fields will be scheduled until 10 p.m. except for lighted fields used for baseball or softball; these sites will be scheduled until 10:45 p.m." in its new policy.

The proposal is blatantly biased. Just because soccer leagues have staggered play into four seasons, due to softball historically using over 90 percent of the fields in the spring and summer, does not mean that we have more games, resulting in the lights being on more often than softball teams. In fact, we play less. According to the Office of the City of Seattle Auditor, in the year 2000, the adult soccer leagues play 5,799 games and adult softball/baseball leagues played 6,455 games. This proposal will potentially evict 1,880 weeknight 8:45 soccer games from existing fields, plus 3,390 from the 10 new and four proposed synthetic turf fields slated for lights, for a total of 5,270 games lost. Softball will lose zero games and will continue to have all the games in the fair weather seasons of spring and summer within the city limits.

The Parks' rationale to exempt baseball and softball is wrong. The department claims that because baseball games are three hours long, and that if the lights went out at 10 p.m., the games couldn't be played and the whole sport would be wiped out. However, it argues, soccer leagues, with hour-and-a-half long games, could still get to play half of the total games. In fact, baseball teams would be able to keep their sport by simply playing in other cities like weeknight soccer teams are already forced to do for over 3,000 of their games. Or, if they wanted to play their games in Seattle, they could play on weekends--just like the soccer players do.

To further illustrate the unfairness of the proposal, at Lower Woodland Park, where soccer and softball fields are side by side, the lights would go out on the two soccer fields at 10 p.m. and stay on at the four softball fields until 10:45 on the same night! Likewise, at a mixed-use field, such as Miller Playfield, the lights would go out at 10 p.m. on Monday night, if it were used for soccer, and at 10:45 on Tuesday night, if it is used for softball.

Following Park Department guidelines for efficiency in scheduling, all adult soccer leagues have carefully crafted "doubles" (back-to-back weeknight games) for the last 20 years, and have become used to hiring referees with the incentive that income from two games, rather than one, can turn into a decent part-time job. The 60 referees in our league alone could lose half of their games, and many will quit. It would be next to impossible to find an additional 60 refs needed to work the new "singles" elsewhere. Referees are critical to the survival of sports leagues.

The Board of Park Commissioners, at the briefing on March 28, raised another economic impact. When asked, the Parks Department staff did not know how much revenue would be lost. The loss to the city at $40.50 per game, multiplied by 5,270 games, is $213,435 per year, minus $39,525 for lights, for a total loss of $173,910 per year.

The sports community supported the School and Park levies with the understanding that adults would get to utilize the fields for two evening games, as usual, after the youth enjoyed them during and after school. It would be unfair to accept tax dollars from the public and then violate the spirit of the levies by decreasing the number of games that could be played at every lighted field in the city. The 11 p.m. lights-out policy, which is the standard throughout King County, has been in effect for 50 years, including when the levies passed, and needs to be preserved at current and future sport field sites.

It makes no sense to construct these expensive, popular, year-round fields and not use them to their fullest capacity. We urge Seattle Parks to lighten up and give soccer its fair share of weeknight field time. A public hearing is schedule for April 11. Visit CoRecSoccer.com for more information.

Marty Ehlers
Manager, Co-Rec Soccer Association

Kohl-Welles Apologizes for Senate Dining Room Flap

Dear Editor,

As one of the senators who signed the Senate Dining Room letter, I understand perfectly why people were outraged when reading that senators demanded continuation of their private dining room. I'm likely not alone in fully regretting having signed the letter and, in fact, feeling really sick about it. Many constituents have contacted me, rightfully upset and surprised that I'd been a signer. But, there is more to this than has been reported by the media.

Embarrassingly, I had only glanced at the letter, having been informed it was mainly about keeping the jobs for the people who provide our food service during our legislative sessions. These "French chefs" are a married couple who come in for the lunch service and run their own restaurant at night and who receive no benefits. I've never heard a French accent in Jean-Pierre, and his wife, Kerri, is American. The House of Representatives also has "chefs" as does the public cafeteria.

So, why did I sign the letter? I was on the Senate floor at the time trying to do many things at once, and I did see many of my colleagues' signatures on it. But, admittedly, I supported, and still support, our having a separate dining facility. While it would be fine to share a facility with House members and with the public as well, there are advantages for having a separate facility.

I rarely eat in the dining room as I'm almost always in meetings during the lunch hour. In fact, I seldom even eat lunch at all because of a lack of time. However, it is nice to have a brief respite from lobbyists, who are virtually inescapable. I can't even visit the restroom without some following me. And it's helpful to talk with other members about legislation, as we frequently don't have many opportunities to do so. It's not really different from a teachers' or physicians'/nurses' lunchroom or an employee cafeteria at a business. Our cafeteria is used the most when we're on the Senate floor for 10-12 hours or more a day, often without breaks or when we're under the "Call of the Senate" and not allowed to leave at all. The Senate Dining Room allows us to get our food quickly, which is not be the case in the small public cafeteria which can seat about 100 people. During session, this cafeteria cannot possibly even serve the over 800 legislative employees, hundreds of lobbyists as well as hundreds of visitors to the Capitol each day, let alone 147 legislators.

Also of importance, we pay for our food. We don't place individual orders; it's all cafeteria-style, with just one entree, soup, and a salad bar. And I've not seen "French food" as the single entree. The entrees are such items as corned beef and cabbage, pot roast, grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, fish and chips, and occasionally fresh fish.

Members of the Legislature work very hard under extremely trying and stressful working conditions. I usually arrive at work by 7 a.m. and leave at about 10 p.m., taking with me bills to read and correspondence and e-mails to answer. But, I've learned a lesson--no matter how busy I am at the time, and even when I'm presented a letter already signed by many of my colleagues, I will not again sign anything until I've read every word!

Jeanne Kohl-Welles
State Senator (D-Queen Anne)
36th Legislative District

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