Seattle's `Weed And Seed' Money OK'd After All

The federal government agreed yesterday to pay for inner-city social-welfare programs that Mayor Norm Rice says are an integral part of the controversial "Weed and Seed" crime-fighting program.

The decision follows by 10 days news that auditors at the Justice Department were questioning the department's authority to spend the money as Seattle wished.

Last month Seattle was awarded a $1.1. million Weed and Seed grant as one of 12 cities to receive money in the new program that targets high-crime neighborhoods in order to "weed out" street crime and drug dealing while "seeding" the area with social programs.

Social programs are supposed to get one-third of the money, law enforcement, two-thirds.

The Justice Department auditors questioned some programs Rice proposed, including funds for the Garfield High teen clinic, the Central Area clinic, a youth employment and training program at the Garfield Community Center, and an after-school recreation program at Yesler Terrace.

Yesterday's decision by the Justice Department means all those programs will be funded, said Mike McKay, the U.S. attorney in Seattle whom Rice has praised for his advocacy of the Seattle plan in the face of bureaucratic questions.

The crime-fighting portion of the grant, among other things, will increase the East Precinct community policing team by three officers and add one person to the crime-prevention staff setting up block watches and related programs.

But since March, when the city applied for the grant, opinion in the Central Area - where the grant money will be spent - has been divided.

A vocal group including Harriet Walden of Mothers Against Police Harassment and Arnett Holloway, president of the Central Area Neighborhood District Council, has opposed the grant on the grounds it would be controlled by federal agencies, not local police and elected officials.

Rice has denied this and yesterday's decision by the Justice Department seems to strengthen the mayor's claim that Weed and Seed will be locally controlled.

"I want it the way we crafted it at the local level, not the way some bureaucrat thinks it should be," Rice told a southeast-Seattle audience earlier this week.

Opponents also fear increased police activity even by the local department, which they believe has a hard time distinguishing good kids from those involved in gangs.