"Sisterhood" of five women seeking one Seattle Council seat

They met in Seattle's only Puerto Rican restaurant Tuesday night, their third dinner together since they all decided to compete for an open seat on the City Council.

These five women of color sipped juice, ate mofongo and chuletas, and vowed to support one another — and should the council appoint one of them, they even pledged to help her win a November election and stay in office.

They call themselves "the sisterhood," and along with Sally Clark, an executive at Lifelong AIDS Alliance, they are the six finalists for the vacancy created when Jim Compton resigned this month.

Such a display of solidarity is unusual among council candidates, who are generally more inclined to stab rivals in the back than give them a hearty pat. But these five women — Stella Chao, Ven Knox, Sharon Maeda, Dolores Sibonga and Venus Velázquez — are on a mission.

"We came together to make sure nobody ripped us apart," said Velázquez, a public-relations consultant.

Their unity comes more from their experiences as racial minorities than as women, Velázquez said, and it reflects their concern that one race could be pitted against another as five African-American, Asian-American and Latino women conclude a 20-day sprint for a council seat.

The council named six finalists Monday. Ninety-eight people applied by the Jan. 6 deadline.

Voting due soon


The council is expected to begin voting on Jim Compton's replacement today or Friday. The council hopes to swear in the new member on Feb. 6.

To see the council candidates' résumés:

http://www.seattle.gov/

council/newsdetail.asp?

ID=5820&Dept=28

The five women share a bond of having all worked to advance civil rights and economic opportunities for Seattle's minorities. "We want the same type of things in terms of equity, and our experience is that standing together gets us more," said Knox, former director of the city's Human Services Department.

They point to local role models for such cooperation. In the late 1960s and early '70s, Seattle's "Gang of Four" — Larry Gossett, Roberto Maestas, Bob Santos and the late Bernie Whitebear — formed an alliance of activists that brought together African-American, Asian-American, Latino and Native American communities.

One of the Gang's first acts was to occupy Seattle's vacant Beacon Hill School, which they wanted to use as a Latino community center. Eventually, they negotiated a deal in which the school became headquarters for El Centro de la Raza, a social-service agency.

"This is the legacy of unity that has really done communities of color a lot of good," said Chao, director of a nonprofit social-service agency.

Velázquez noted that minority groups in cities such as Los Angeles and New York have clashed as much as they've collaborated.

Clark, who is white, takes similar stands on many issues. She said she wasn't offended or disappointed about being excluded from the sisterhood dinners. "I think it's great and I would love to have dinner with them. But I feel I've amassed my own support group and I've been busy enough doing my due diligence and studying issues," she said.

The idea of the candidate support group came from Chao and Velázquez, when they learned they were both competing for the seat.

"When we found out I said, 'Oh wow, what a drag because I don't want to run against you.' We wondered if there was a way to do this differently, and we decided there was," said Velázquez.

They quickly realized the council vacancy presented a rare opening to increase diversity on a council that has six men and six whites among its current eight members.

"It's no accident that we are trying to enter the council through the appointment process," said Maeda, a communications consultant for nonprofits. "The amount of money needed to run a citywide campaign is so prohibitive it's not been on our radar screen."

They suspected it wouldn't be easy to hang together and the dinners would strengthen bonds between the women, who didn't all know each other three weeks ago.

"People probably think we're weird or not sufficiently political," acknowledged Knox, who joined the others for Tuesday's dinner at Sofrito Rico in Ballard even though she was fasting as part of a church activity.

Sibonga is the only finalist who said she would fill the seat strictly as a "caretaker," serving most of this year but not seeking election in November to serve the remainder of Compton's term.

The others in the dinner group have agreed to endorse Sibonga for that role, partly because they see her as a mentor. "Dolores was a role model for all of us. She got a law degree after raising a family, did civil-rights work and was appointed to the council" in 1978 and served three full terms, said Maeda.

If someone other than Sibonga is appointed, "the sisterhood" has agreed to support that candidate in the fall.

"We see this as historic and important and we agreed we don't want to do negative things toward each other," Maeda said.

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

http://www.seattle.gov/council/newsdetail.asp?ID=5820&Dept=28