After five months of negotiations, CASA Latina has struck a deal with community groups concerned about the organization and its day labor program’s planned move from downtown Seattle to the Central District.
One of the top stipulations of the “good neighbor agreement” approved last week by eight neighborhood groups is that CASA will use no temporary structures, such as trailers or portable toilets, during the construction of a new labor hall that the nonprofit plans at 17th Ave. and Jackson St. CASA won’t even move until late 2008, after the hall is built next to a small office building the nonprofit bought in March and plans to renovate.
Unlike the current location on Western Ave. at Bell St., workers will remain inside the labor hall — employers won’t be allowed to pick up laborers from the street. To see that non-affiliated workers don’t try to thumb a job or create trouble, the agency has also agreed to hire an “ambassador” to patrol nearby streets. It will also form a neighborhood advisory committee to resolve any problems and monitor traffic and crime data.
If that weren’t enough, the agreement also stipulates that CASA will set aside a reserve of $50,000 — roughly a third of its annual funding from the city — to make sure the requirements of the agreement are met. If they aren’t, the city could pull its funding.
CASA Latina Executive Director Hilary Stern said a few community members remain unsatisfied, but they are definitely in the minority. “We got overwhelming support” for the agreement, Stern says. “I was really pleased that the neighbors stuck with it.”
A Tax for Mental Health
An ordinance that would create a “mental health sales tax” — and pave the way for county-funded treatment providers to be unionized — is on its way for a final vote by the King County Council.
On Nov. 8, the council’s Operating Budget Committee passed a measure that would increase sales tax in King County one-tenth of 1 percent starting as early as April 1 and ending Jan. 1, 2017 — a new caveat. The money generated, now estimated at $54 million, would fund a Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan that the council passed Oct. 8.
The plan includes $11 million for treatment of those not covered by Medicaid, $6 million for a new adult crisis center, and $4 million to hire more mental health case workers.
The council can raise the tax only for treatment under a state bill passed in 2005. But the ordinance is controversial for operators of county-funded mental health services because, to get the extra funds, they must sign a “partnership agreement” allowing their workers to be organized by the Service Employees International Union (“Mental health providers resist union campaign,” RC, Oct. 17-23).
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