The United African Public Affairs Committee of Washington State (UA-PAC) – African advocacy group had about half an hour long meeting with the King County Executive Director Constantine.   The topics of discussion were how to build stronger ties between the African community and the executive office, and enhancing the community civic engagement with the county.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the  UA-PAC members. After the meeting, the chairman of the UA-PAC -Yusuf Cabdi said  “ Dow Has always been their steadfast partner and friend, and we are so glad to have him as the Executive Director of our county”.

Mohamed Sheikh-the public relation cheif of the UA-PAC  stated  that  he  is very satisfied with the outcome of our visit here,  and hopes  the UA-PAC  relation with the county will  continue  to move in a positive direction.

Well attended fund-raising event orgainized by UA-PAC was held on the 9th of Oct to support McGinn and Constantine.
African Community has openly supported both candidates.

Dow Constantine has been a close friend of African Community for many years. He has great morals and values that are highly respected and value by the African community. UAPAC recommends that any one who cares about our county to throw his/her support behind Dow Constantine.

McGinn is a Man of the people. He is the only candidate that has immigrants and refugees policy which recognizes the hard work and the contribution of many naturalized immigrants and refugees in the city of Seattle. He cares about people, and will make our city progressive and prosperous place where each and every resident can openly take a part in shaping the future of our city. UA-PAC recommends McGinn for a mayor.

Bob Rosenberger

The  United African Public Affairs Committee (UA-PAC) proudly endorses Bob Rosenberger for the King  County Assessor position.  Bob Rosenberger offers 24 years of experience in the King County Assessor office. He has appraised complex commercial properties including industrials, hotels, nursing homes, golf courses and shopping centers.

 When: Friday, October 9^th, 2009, Time: 6:00-8:00pm

Where: Microsoft Gathering Hall (Newholly Gathering Hall)

7054 32^nd Ave Suite 201

Sea, WA 981118

Contact: Yusuf Cabdi (206) 446-6204

Abdurahman Jama (206) 356-4588

Email info@uapac.org

 Event sponsored by: UA-PAC

UA-PAC with Mallahan

Seattle Times staff reporter

Activists in Seattle’s minority communities are lamenting Mayor Greg Nickels’ loss in the primary election..

Nickels appointed minorities to head some of the city’s biggest departments: police, fire, City Light, Seattle Center, planning and neighborhoods. He increased city spending on women and minority contractors. He pushed a Race and Social Justice Initiative inside City Hall and a $50 million community fund to help businesses in Rainier Valley survive the disruptive construction of light rail

In last month’s primary, the only part of the city Nickels won was Southeast Seattle, the city’s most racially diverse area.

“I put my personal endorsement behind Mayor Nickels,” said Hyeok Kim, executive director of InterIm Community Development Agency in the Chinatown International District. “Having a mayor who publicly talked about race and social justice was very important.”

To Kim and Roberto Maestas, the two guys from North Seattle who defeated Nickels are a mystery.

“I don’t know either one,” Kim said of Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn.

“They are complete strangers,” said Maestas, longtime head of El Centro de la Raza, a Latino civil-rights organization.

Kim, Maestas and others want to know basics about Mallahan and McGinn. Do they believe racial disparities exist and government should try to redress them? Will they support this fall’s $145 million affordable-housing levy proposed by Nickels? Should city employees check the immigration status of residents? And should the city translate its communications for immigrants?

Mallahan and McGinn didn’t talk much about race and social justice during the primary campaign. The focus then was more on introducing themselves to voters and bashing Nickels.

But Mallahan and McGinn now say they’re eager to talk about issues minorities face in Seattle. Really eager.

McGinn cried while talking about his parents, now deceased, and how their compassion and community service inspired him. Mallahan talked about how his social conscience drove him to the street to rally support for a women’s shelter trying to move to his wealthy Chicago neighborhood.

Both say their Cabinets would mirror Seattle’s population. Both say they’ll back the affordable-housing tax levy. Both support the existing city policy of not having police officers ask about the immigration status of people they contact, unless they believe the person has committed a crime.
Mallahan and McGinn revealed a few differences in recent interviews.

Mallahan said he would use incentives, including financial ones, to attract jobs to Southeast Seattle. McGinn said he would use incentives for developers to create affordable housing.

Mallahan’s second priority is adding 100 police officers to help make minority neighborhoods safer. “Public safety is a key element of quality of life, and where public-safety institutions typically fall down is in areas of economic distress,” he said.

Hiring more officers isn’t necessarily the solution, McGinn said. Treating minorities fairly is also key. “It’s important we have a sufficient police force to do all that needs to be done. But it’s so much more about tone and approach and connecting people to real opportunities and jobs.”

Obama organizer

Mallahan, 46, calls himself a “social justice Democrat.” There’s been a lapse, though, in his activism until recently.

“I’m new to the city political scene,” he said. “But I’ve cultivated a number of relationships through my organizing on the Obama campaign.”

In the 1990s, Mallahan studied, worked and was trained as a community activist in Chicago — by the same organization, United Power for Action and Justice, he said, that trained Barack Obama.

When Mallahan returned to Seattle in 2000, he focused on his children and his job as a T-Mobile executive, he said.

Obama’s presidential campaign then rekindled his interest in politics, he said.

Mallahan, a Wallingford resident, said he’s been misunderstood by some since he criticized Nickels for pursuing a “racial agenda” in the Department of Neighborhoods, which awards funds for community-building projects. (Nickels had established a new “race and social justice criteria” for granting neighborhood funds.)

After Mallahan knocked Nickels, Pramila Jayapal, an advocate for immigrants, interpreted that as race-baiting. It “sounds like code aimed at the same conservative voters who are afraid of immigrants overrunning our town,” wrote Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, on the Web site seattlepi.com.

Mallahan said he meant that Nickels tried to use the Department of Neighborhoods to address racial inequities. But Mallahan said he saw no “cogent” results from that effort. So far in 2009, the city has given eight such grants, totaling $103,379, out of $2 million in awards.

Mallahan said his business expertise could help the city bring jobs to Southeast Seattle, particularly near the new light-rail line. And he would aim for more than the retail jobs he said city officials have trumpeted.

New retail stores circulate consumer dollars already in the community, he explained. “But if you’re doing office work, technical support, bill processing, customer service — those sorts of jobs — then you have employees receiving paychecks from organizations outside the neighborhood, so it’s an inflow of cash.”

To attract those jobs, Mallahan said he would be willing to offer economic incentives, such as city funding for employee child-care services.

Peter Masundire is a Rainier Beach activist who criticized Nickels as not forthcoming about crime problems in Southeast Seattle. Masundire worked with Mallahan on the Obama campaign and was impressed by his humility and effort.

“His values pretty much resonated with mine,” Masundire said. “He’s been criticized because he doesn’t know much about the city. But being open and willing to learn isn’t a weakness.”

Veteran activist

McGinn, 49, a Greenwood neighborhood and Sierra Club activist, points to his credentials on race and social justice.

He chaired the city search committee that recommended Nickels hire Chinatown International District activist Stella Chao to head the Department of Neighborhoods.

McGinn helped lead the campaign for last year’s parks levy, which included new and renovated green spaces in Southeast Seattle, Beacon Hill and the Chinatown International District.

Inside the Sierra Club, he fought a dissident movement that sought to restrict immigration to protect the environment. He was the local spokesman for Groundswell Sierra, which crushed the anti-immigrant faction in a 2004 Sierra Club vote.

McGinn said he sees housing as key in addressing economic disparities.

“We produce more jobs than housing in this city,” he said. “You have a situation where those with means out-compete those without for available housing.”

More affordable housing, particularly near light rail, would save blue-collar workers — including minorities and immigrants — from moving outside of the city.

As an incentive, McGinn said he would relax development rules he considers too expensive, such as parking requirements for apartment buildings. “I hope we wouldn’t need one parking space for every unit” built near stations, he said.

McGinn said last week he would meet regularly with immigrant communities and increase city services for them, including translation and technical business help.

McGinn, a lawyer, says his parents were the greatest influence in his life.

His father was the son of Irish immigrants, became a school administrator on Long Island, N.Y., took inner-city children to summer camps in the New England woods and ran adult-education programs, McGinn said. His mother, a principal, created a preschool program for disadvantaged kids so they could enter kindergarten on more equal footing.

“I miss them a lot now in the midst of one of the hardest things I’ve done,” he said, his eyes welling with tears.

Darryl Smith, former president of the Rainier Valley Chamber of Commerce, said McGinn is sensitive to issues of race, in part because his wife is half Japanese, half Irish American, and their three children look different from a lot of children in Seattle.

Smith, a McGinn supporter, said he is in a biracial marriage and has a sense of the McGinn family’s experience. “You don’t raise kids who don’t look like everybody else without being sensitive. This is something you think about.”

James Kelly, executive director of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, said he’s undecided on Mallahan and McGinn. And that’s after he talked to both.

“I have not heard enough about who they are,” Kelly said. “It’s great about their fathers and Chicago and New York. But I don’t know that much about them and their vision for the city — how’d they make neighborhoods safe without over-policing, how they’re going to create jobs. I’m still one of those undecideds.”

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com

UA-PAC is pleased to announce its endorsements in the 2009 Primary election in King County.
With so many dedicated and, qualified  candidates  our decision process was difficult. We ultimately selected those candidates who we felt best reflected the highest level of commitment to the interst of African immigrant community in King County, and the ability to follow through if elected.  UA-PAC endorses the following candidates for the following offices

Dow Conistantine: King County Executive
Mike McGinn: Seattle Mayor:
Mike Obrien:  Councill Postion 8
Nick Licata: Seattle City council Position 6
  David Bloom: Seattle City Council Position 4
   Rob Holland: Port Commissioner

UA-PAC with McGinn

 United African Public Affairs Committee of Washington(UA-PAC) had an hour interview with Mayoral candidate McGinn  on September 6, 2009., The interview was chaired by the UA-PAC chairman Yusuf Cabdi.  Some of the questions that were asked of McGinn were concering  his committment to expanding affordable housing; his surpport of  African immigrant businesses and community organizations, his stance towards affirmative action, and social justice.  After the interview, Cabdi,  said that McGinn is a very likable and smart man who is very well informed about many of the issues facing our diverse Seattle communities.  However, UA-PAC  has chosen to hold off making any endorsements untill other candidate (Mallahan) has had an opportunity to present his position on the issues that are concerning the UA-PAC community. UA-PAC has an interview scheduled with Mallahan later this month. UA-PAC  is planning on endorsing one of these candidates at that time.

Take Sandra Killett, a divorced mother of two, who lives in Harlem. Killett recently got a job at a foster care and adoption agency. It pays $29,000 a year — which puts her well above the federal poverty line. But Killett — a very upbeat New Yorker — is still struggling.
“When you’re in a crisis with your family and you don’t have the financial means to resolve that, I call that poverty,” says Killett.
In fact, she isn’t doing all that much better than when she was unemployed and eligible for more government benefits.
“You know, you get the job, and it’s like, ‘Oh boy, breathing room.’ And so I said to my son, ‘Well, you know, it’s still tight. It ain’t tight tight,’ ” Killett says.

Killett lives in one of the most expensive cities in the world, but the federal poverty measure doesn’t take that into account. It’s the same whether you live in New York or North Dakota.
Killett isn’t considered poor by federal standards, in part, because the poverty line was created back in the 1960s. At the time, Americans spent about a third of their income on food. So the government simply took the cost of a basic food plan and multiplied it by three. Since then, the poverty line has been adjusted for inflation, but that’s it — even though Americans today spend far less of their income on food, and far more on other things, such as health care.

“We quickly realized that we needed a more up-to-date and accurate measure,” says Linda Gibbs, New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services.

Gibbs says the “aha” moment came when the city found a new way to help low-income residents take advantage of something called the earned income tax credit — a significant benefit for the poor.
Gibbs says Mayor Michael Bloomberg was excited at the prospect of using the tax credit and asked Gibbs how much the change would reduce poverty in New York.
“And I had to say, well, not at all,” says Gibbs. That’s because the earned income tax credit is not included as income in the federal poverty measure.
The official poverty rate only looks at income before taxes.
So New York City decided to do what many experts are pushing the federal government to do — change the way it measures poverty to better reflect today’s world.
How It Works
Killett uses her cell phone to keep track of her 16- and 14-year-old sons. For her, a cell phone is a necessity. And New York agrees. It includes the cost of phones, as well as other utilities, in calculating its poverty line. It also includes basic housing, food and clothing costs.
It compares that amount to a family’s after-tax income, plus the value of any government benefits such as food stamps or housing. Killett lives in a two-bedroom apartment where her rent is subsidized. She pays $600 a month, but the going rate is more than twice that amount.
Then, the city subtracts medical costs in calculating poverty. Killett checks her records to see how much is taken from her paycheck for premiums: almost $7,000 a year, in addition to other out-of-pocket health expenses.
Killett doesn’t pay to commute — she walks to work — but commuting and other work-related costs are also taken into account in New York’s poverty measure.
That makes a lot of sense to Antonia Santiago, a single mother of three. Santiago drives between her Manhattan job and her Brooklyn home. The commute takes a slice out of her paycheck.
“If I just go straight to work and straight home, I spend about $60 a week. So about $240, round it up to $250 in gas alone,” she says.
Santiago drives because her children get free day care right near her job. She used to pay more than $150 a week for child care. And child care is another expense New York looks at in determining poverty. Santiago’s $36,000 salary puts her well above the federal poverty line of $22,000 for a family of four. Still, she just filed for bankruptcy, so she doesn’t understand why she isn’t considered poor. [Story continues after chart]
A Tale Of Two Poverty Measures
New York City’s measure of poverty differs from the U.S. government’s methodology in several key ways:
It considers costs associated with food, clothing, shelter and geographic location. The federal poverty measure is equal to three times the cost of a basic food plan adjusted annually for inflation.
When figuring income, New York takes into consideration a family’s food stamps, housing subsidies, out-of-pocket medical expenses, child care and transportation costs. It looks at after-tax income, while the U.S. government uses pre-tax income.
New York’s formula results in a higher poverty line than the Census Bureau’s formula — usually by at least a few thousand dollars.
Federal Poverty Thresholds For 2008 Size of Family Number of Children Under 18

Families with 1 and 2 people are under age 65.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Because New York’s alternative measure is based on 2006 data, it is difficult to compare poverty thresholds for New York City to the latest federal numbers.
Poverty Thresholds For NYC, 2006 Number of Adults Number of Children Under 18

Source: The New York City Center For Economic Opportunity (PDF)
Enlarge Pam Fessler/NPRAntonia Santiago and her son, Maddy, in their Brooklyn, N.Y., home. Santiago’s $36,000 salary puts her well above the federal poverty line even though she considers herself poor.
Pam Fessler/NPRAntonia Santiago and her son, Maddy, in their Brooklyn, N.Y., home. Santiago’s $36,000 salary puts her well above the federal poverty line even though she considers herself poor.
Santiago and her children, ages 7, 10 and 16, share a two-bedroom apartment in what she says is not the “nicest area” of Brooklyn.
The building’s elevator smells faintly of urine, and her apartment is dark and sparsely furnished. But paying just $800 a month in rent helps Santiago to make ends meet.
“I consider myself to be poor, because once I pay rent, then I come home, I have to pay bills. I mean, I don’t have the little luxury amenities, as far as like washer-dryer. Even though it sounds minor, it all adds up,” Santiago says.
‘Constituency For Inertia’
Rebecca Blank, undersecretary for economic affairs at the Commerce Department, which produces the federal poverty rate, admits that the measure answers only a limited set of questions. For example, she says the figures show how job-related income fluctuates — important in a recession.
“What this won’t show you, which is quite important, is the extent to which federal programs might buffer the loss of cash income. So some people who lose their jobs are going to get more food-stamp income. Some of them are going to be able to claim more earned income tax credit income,” Blank says.
Blank says her agency is trying to find better ways to analyze how those programs affect poverty, and the Census Bureau does produce some alternative poverty figures used primarily by researchers. But Blank doesn’t expect the official measure to go away soon. It’s used to determine eligibility for programs, such as Medicaid. And changing it is not only complicated, but political. There are bound to be winners and losers. New York’s alternative, for example, produced a lower poverty rate for single-parent families with children, who generally receive more government benefits, and a higher rate for the elderly, who tend to have high medical expenses.
“There’s a big constituency now for inertia on this thing,” says Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute.
Eberstadt says everyone wants to know how changing the formula affects them. As a result, most of the proposals to update the measure, at least initially, would not affect eligibility for programs but would be used instead — as in New York — to help shape policy. There are bills in Congress calling for an updated poverty measure, and the Obama administration has expressed some interest in making a change. Eberstadt, who says the measure would be more accurate if it focused on consumption rather than income, thinks something needs to be done soon.
“I’m very worried that our existing poverty rate is a broken compass, and it’s just going to misguide us — and now, of all times, while we’re in the middle of a big global economic crisis. We need to have good instrumentation to inform us about who’s in need,” Eberstadt says.
Killett couldn’t agree more.
“I’m so confused about what’s poor and what’s not poor,” Killett says. “And I have to keep going back and saying, ‘If you knew your basics were covered, maybe I wouldn’t consider myself to be poor.’ ”
But she knows that for her, and many others, they’re not covered — no matter what the official numbers say.

Nickels failed to hold even his home turf of West Seattle, the area he represented for 14 years on the King County Council before being elected mayor.

Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan, the candidates now vying to replace Nickels, ended the primary separated by just 1,164 votes. But their bases of support came from different parts of the city, according to a Seattle Times analysis of precinct vote totals released Tuesday.

In general, McGinn fared better in the dense liberal core of Seattle. His strongholds included Capitol Hill, Ballard, the University District, Central Area, Fremont and Wallingford — Mallahan’s own neighborhood. Many of those areas were ones captured by Nickels in 2001.

Mallahan drew his meatiest backing from the city’s northern, eastern and western edges, including some of Seattle’s high-income areas with views of Puget Sound or Lake Washington. Some of his highest percentages came from precincts in Magnolia, Wedgwood, Laurelhurst and Montlake. Out of Seattle’s 961 precincts, McGinn won 393, Mallahan won 315 and Nickels won 217.

Fourth-place finisher James Donaldson won a single precinct in Rainier Beach, near the southeast edge of the city. (In 34 other precincts, two candidates were tied for the lead and in one no votes were recorded.)

Four-term City Councilmember Jan Drago failed to win any precincts, including her own in Pioneer Square. She finished fifth.

As for Nickels, his support remained strongest downtown and in Southeast Seattle, including Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach and Rainier Valley. He also retained portions of West Seattle, but Mallahan and McGinn snatched away big chunks, denying the mayor his geographic base.

Mallahan ran a campaign focused mainly on attacking Nickels and touting his own management background as an executive for T-Mobile. McGinn, a former Sierra Club official and Greenwood neighborhood leader, made stopping the $4.2 billion plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel his central campaign theme.

It’s hard to predict from the primary totals which candidate stands a better chance of picking up the neighborhoods that stood behind Nickels. Mallahan and McGinn were virtually tied in the precincts Nickels won, with Mallahan coming out ahead by just 233 votes.

And with eight contenders splitting the primary vote, even the leading candidates won few precincts with actual majorities. McGinn won 13 precincts with at least 50 percent of the vote. Mallahan had three such precincts and Nickels just one (in a precinct with only three votes cast).