Maritza Rivera Said She Never Intended to Gut the Equitable Development Initiative. Records Tell a Different Story.
Records also show that Rivera, who blamed the city's planning director for delaying a meeting "for months," was chiefly responsible for the delays.
By Erica C. Barnett
In late May, City Councilmember Maritza Rivera proposed freezing 2024 funds intended for the Office of Planning and Community Development's Equitable Development Initiative, the city's largest anti-displacement program, prompting outrage from community-based organizations and residents across the city.
She backed down after thousands of people flooded council members' inboxes with objections to her proposal, which would have frozen about $24 million in 2024 funding for EDI projects unless OPCD spent all the funds that were currently available for the program, around $53.5 million, by September. Because it can take many years to spend capital funds, the measure would have effectively halted all projects planned for 2024 as well as future projects, putting a halt to the program.
EDI provides partial funding, such as startup capital costs, to community groups and nonprofits doing projects that benefit low-income people and communities of color, largely in Southeast Seattle. Freezing the 2024 funds would have opened up a path for the council to spend these targeted dollars closing the general-fund budget, at the expense of dozens of projects lined up to get EDI funds this year.
Rivera insisted at the time that she wasn't trying to kill the initiative, and said she never intended to vote against the budget "carryforward" ordinance that would have preserved funding for projects that are already under contract.
But documents obtained through a records request show that Rivera was scoffing at EDI well before she began raising questions publicly, and that as late as May 15, she was suggesting that she might vote to kill the $53.5 million in projects as well, telling OPCD director Rico Quirindongo in an email, "At $50.5 million dollars and given the $250 million budget deficit, I need to have information that will give me confidence in voting for the proposed carryforward and in general, by which to show my constituents the accountability we are giving to OPCD’s programs."
Even earlier, in March—shortly after OPCD did a lengthy presentation on EDI— Rivera texted Councilmember Cathy Moore, saying, "I could not disagree more that EDI has addressed housing displacement across the city and for low income families."
In May, Rivera defended her proposal after three hours of public comment against it, accusing her colleague Tammy Morales of spreading "disinformation" and confusing people into believing that her bill would cut funding for projects that were already funded.
A review of thousands of emails that poured in to oppose Rivera's proposal, however, suggests the opposite—community groups, including many that have received EDI funds, understood exactly what her bill would do.
For instance, Wa Na Wari, the Black arts and culture organization, noted in their email that their plans to purchase a permanent home include future EDI funding that would be at risk under Rivera's proposal. The director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle wrote, "It is imperative to the flourishing of our city that you do not pass any amendment which would freeze funding for the Equitable Development Initiative." And even a mass email, which referred to the more than 50 organizations whose EDI funding was secured prior to 2024, noted that the proposal would harm ongoing and upcoming projects by halting the program.
Rivera also mischaracterized her attempts to get information from OPCD about the program. During a May council meeting, Rivera complained that she had repeatedly sought meetings with OPCD, but the department had "consistently rescheduled and delayed."
But emails and scheduling records only show one instance in which OPCD rescheduled a meeting, moving a one-hour sit-down from Friday, May 17 to Monday, May 20 so that Mayor Bruce Harrell's chief operating officer, Marco Lowe, could be there. (OPCD met with Rivera a second time later that week.) "As a consequence" of this schedule change, Rivera told a council central staffer on May 15, she was pulling EDI program out of the "carryforward" legislation for a separate vote, setting up her proposal to freeze funding for the program.
Ironically, the May meeting would have happened a month earlier if Rivera herself had not rescheduled it, after Quirindongo said he had COVID and would need to meet virtually instead of at Rivera's office. "I think we should reschedule and give you time to recover," Rivera wrote. "Feel better soon."
Quirindongo did meet briefly with Rivera on May 8, but only after Rivera moved the meeting at least twice, according to scheduling records and emails, prompting his assistant to ask Rivera's legislative aide, "Are you able to clarify about the delay in this meeting getting scheduled? You had said she would be available today, then Monday morning, but now not until midday Wednesday, and I’d like to better understand if there are special steps we need to take in the future to get on her calendar if we have time-sensitive requests."
Despite being chiefly responsible for putting off the meeting with OPCD, Rivera sent multiple emails to Quirindongo excoriating him for delaying their meeting "for over two months." Quirindongo responded that, in the case of the May meeting that was bumped from Friday to Monday, Lowe was invited to help answer some of Rivera's questions, including a list she sent Thursday night, just hours before the meeting was scheduled.
Rivera responded, "I have always been clear on the request. Not sure where the disconnect is on OPCD's end. Looking forward to the set of briefings occurring before next Tuesday." That day was the deadline for Rivera to introduce her legislation; in the end, she missed the deadline by three days, filing her amendment late in the afternoon on the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend.
In this Seattle era of DINOS and Trumpesque politics, our city council deserves an award for hoodwinking, wool-over-eyes pulling, and the ability to hide under slimy river rocks to escape the progressive current. It shouldn't take much of an increase in that current to flush them out and wash them away like little carpetbagger crabs.