Who can form the better task force?
Kshama Sawant vs. Ed Murray: Who can form the better task force? City of Seattle

Last year, Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant surprised some when she announced she'd been working with small business guy Dave Meinert on a slate of business-focused policy proposals. The centerpiece of that platform was commercial rent control, which Sawant argues is legal despite the state's ban on residential rent control.

After that announcement with Meinert, Sawant and her fellow council members asked the mayor's administration to put together a task force of small businesses to recommend a commercial rent control policy for Seattle. The council wanted the results of that by April 1. Since then, Sawant has kept the drum beat up by convening a "progressive small business summit," where Meinert and a handful of other business owners talked about the need for rent control and other policies.

But they ran into a problem Mayor Ed Murray's administration wasn't into the idea.

Instead of proposing a rent control policy like the council had requested, the city's Office of Economic Development sent the council a memo saying sure, they'd convene a small business task force, but it would consider a whole bunch of policies, not just rent control. The mayor's timeline would also deliver recommendations to the city council months later than they asked for—by the end of 2016, rather than by April.

Council members were unimpressed. Sawant, Lisa Herbold, and Mike O'Brien wrote their own letter yesterday (wow! another letter! this is getting good!) complaining that the executive's response extended the timeline and expanded the scope of what they'd asked for. The council members asked the mayor's staff to speed things up and state explicitly whether their task force would be considering commercial rent control. If not, Sawant's office has said that they would work on their own legislation without cooperation from the mayor.

Today, Murray gave them an answer. He launched his own business group to talk about, among other things, rent control.

"We're going to listen to the folks that are actually being impacted that are struggling with the issue of affordability and everything can be on the table, including that issue," Murray said of his newly formed Commercial Affordability Advisory Committee. "I'm also not interested in having an ideological debate about a single issue versus a discussion with small businesses about what's going to work for them."

Murray said today he believes commercial rent control is allowed under state law, but "I don't know if it works or if it doesn't."

"If it works," Murray said, "then let's look at it. I'm willing to look at it. Actually, it's not that I'm willing—folks will look at it."

Murray's task force will include small business owners and real estate interests who will "consider a broad range of solutions to commercial affordability," including how to get developers to build smaller commercial spaces, how to "activate" public spaces to benefit small businesses, and how to include commercial space in affordable housing development. Vague stuff. Reporters pressed Murray for more specifics today—examples of policies the group might consider?—but he offered none. The group will meet throughout the summer.

For her part, Sawant says she's still pursuing her own process and, possibly, her own legislation.

"In my mind, nothing is on hold," she told me today. "Maybe some other council members want to be beholden to some vague agenda being set by the executive, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to continue my organizing efforts using my position, my platform to help small businesses to get organized and get their voices heard."

Mariela Fletcher, who opened a small Filipino restaurant in Lake City in 2010 and will be on the task force, says she wants the city to require commercial landlords to offer tenants more advance notice when they plan to sell their buildings. She also hopes for a single building in Lake City with small commercial spaces inside it to house either small businesses like hers or commercial kitchens for food trucks and catering services.

Fletcher says she can afford her rent today at $900 a month, but she's worried that won't last long. Her landlord is planning to sell her building, she says, but isn't saying exactly when. Recently, Fletcher looked at available spaces nearby and found one renting for $4,000 a month. Many available spaces in the area, she adds, are too big for her mostly to-go "mom and pop" operation. Fletcher says she's struggling with the uncertainty of when she might be pushed out and what she'll do if she is.

"It affects the diversity," Fletcher says. "It affects us economically."

Yet another mayoral task force—and a parallel process from Sawant—won't give Fletcher answers any time soon.