BURIEN — Tensions rose in Burien Thursday night as City Planning Commissioner Charles Schaefer was ousted during a controversial special meeting. A slew of resignations in protest followed on Friday.
“I expect there will be more resignations to come,” said Schaefer. “If you look around Burien today there are still people living unsheltered and council seems unwilling to take any action to actually address the issue.”
As of Friday evening, five planning commissioners have resigned, as well as an airport commissioner, a parks board members, and an arts commissioner.
Schaefer and Burien City Councilmember Cydney Moore are accused of overstepping when they assisted in the relocation of unhoused people to a small plot of land at the corner of 6th Avenue SW and SW 152nd Street. For weeks, campers packed the grassy area.
“If you look around Burien today there are still people living unsheltered and council seems unwilling to take any action to actually address the issue,” Schaefer said.
“I think neither of us did anything wrong,” he added.
The city currently has an offer from King County which would give them $1.3 million in addition to 35 pallet shelters at no cost to Burien, all to provide space and services to these campers. The county has proposed using those resources to reclaim a piece of city-owned land currently being leased to Toyota of Burien.
But without that lot, the dealership’s owner Dean Anderson says his business could lose out on 30 to 35% of its earnings.
“And I’m going to have to probably eliminate 20-something employees,” he told KIRO 7.
Another local business owner, Robyn Desimone, was told at one point, 42 people were living in the encampment. She says the community self-organized a cleanup of that area, not the city. Campers have since dispersed, with a number of them gathering in a grassy median near Salmon Creek. Another small group moved a block east of where an encampment had first appeared next to Burien City Hall.
“Every one of those people were offered services, I know that for a fact,” said Desimone.
Not only is Desimone the owner of Iris & Peony, she’s the Executive Director of the Burien Business Association. She expressed her frustrated on the handling of Schaefer and Councilmember Moore at the Thursday night meeting. The council considered censuring Moore, but did not follow through.
“Unfortunately, Charles was reprimanded for that, but Sidney was not,” said Desimone. “I think it just sent a lot of mixed signals. The businesses and citizens need to see accountability.”
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