Seattle School Board : Who is Kay Smith-Blum?

People of Seattle,

Lend me your ears for a moment (or eyes, at it may be) as I present to you the financial make-up of Kay Smith-Blum, one of your School Board Directors.

Much of this information is readily available at the SPS web site. There is an additional source of information that can be used to construct a more detailed picture. Those are the F-1 disclosure forms that the directors are required by law - oh that magnificent, decayed but still alive instrument - to file. The forms are public, and can be requested from the Public Disclosure Commission.

Here is the F-1:

First, notice that Smith-Blum does not state her personal residence for the mailing address, this is standard practice. The address here is of the specialty clothing store she owns.

But you can see that she started writing probably what was her home address and then changed her mind. We do see later that the scratched out address is either a property she owned that she since sold, or in fact her personal residence at the time of filing.

While this says that she sold this property, Ms. Smith-Blum does not list any property that she wholly or partially owns. Since it is highly unlikely that she lives in her clothing store, we think this is probably a mistake.

Using google maps, we can get an idea of the neighborhood of Smith-Blum's likely residence. While we do not have a good view of that residence, panning left gives a clear indication that this is an up-scale neighborhood.

Lastly, we see that Smith-Blum has no creditors. Most people with a house has a mortgage. Most small business have some loans. But we see here that Ms Smith-Blum is financially quite independent.

So let's ask ourselves the question - does Smith-Blum have the interests that are common to average working people? If not, then is it possible for her to represent the vast lot of people who have very different interests, specially at a time when the state seems hell-bent on removing every last bit of support less affluent people get?