Burial business owners asked the city and King County Sheriff’s Office to reach an agreement to enforce the anti-camping ordinance.
BERRIEN, Wash. — Berrien business owners spoke out about safety concerns Thursday as the city and King County Sheriff’s Office remain at an impasse over enforcing a camping ban.
The issue stems from an ordinance passed in March that prohibits overnight camping near parks, libraries, schools, etc. The King County Sheriff’s Department has filed legal action calling the ordinance unconstitutional, but it has not yet enforced it.
Discover Burien board chairman Monty Penney said at a press conference hosted by the city: “The government needs to start working together as adults, collectively solve the homeless problem and the encampment problem in Burien, and stop wasting taxpayers’ money.” It’s time,” he said. .
Business owners described experiences in which they and their customers felt unsafe. Daniel Sullivan, a vendor at the Burien Farmers Market, said five weeks ago when his staff arrived to set up a tent and found someone dead from a drug overdose, he and his staff didn’t know what to do. said it was difficult to respond.
Rebecca Zielinski, co-owner of home goods store Sitka Living, said she has felt in danger several times. In one of those incidents, she said, she had to ask a man with a machete to leave the store. In another article, she said her man had exposed himself to her.
Zielinski said that in the past five years that Sitka Living has been open, he has not experienced a revenue shortfall on the scale of the past four months.
Zielinski urged the sheriff’s office to enforce the camping ban.
“If you keep treading water, you’re definitely going to drown,” Zielinski said.
The King County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Burien have an interlocal agreement under which the Sheriff’s Office provides police services. King County deputies wear Burien Police uniforms and logos while on duty.
After the city passed the ordinance, the King County Sheriff’s Office filed a legal complaint to determine whether the law was constitutional and filed a motion to block the ban.
In the complaint, King County Sheriff Patty Cole-Tindall argued that Brien’s camping ban was unconstitutional because it criminalized homelessness.
The City of Burien then sued the Sheriff’s Office for lack of enforcement.
On Tuesday, Cole-Tindall issued a community letter arguing that the city of Burien could “resolve” the situation by amending its recently passed ordinance to reflect the previous camping ordinance, which the Sheriff’s Office has deemed constitutional. .
Umiri Mayor Kevin Schilling responded Thursday that the previous ordinance was already in place and it was up to the sheriff’s office to enforce it.
“There’s no need to go back to something that already exists and is enforceable by the sheriff’s office,” Schilling said.