A group of downtown residents recently asked mayoral candidate Bruce Harrell why he thought he could solve Seattle’s homelessness crisis when others have failed.  His response: “I’ll own the problem.”

It might be a novel approach.  Consider the response received by a downtown business owner struggling with an increase of trash, needles and petty crimes from a growing line of tents on his street.  A volley of letters to city leaders produced two replies with the same form letter:

It’s good to know Customer Service is on the job.  According to an update this week, the Clean Cities Initiative has collected 1.7 million pounds of trash and 59,000 needles across the City this year. Teams clean at 25 to over 30 encampments each week. 

It’s a daunting, ongoing task and civil servants are in high maintenance mode trying to keep up.  However, nothing in that form letter identifies an action plan with numbers, deadlines and accountability.

In another era, “owning the problem” was called “the buck stops here.” As election season approaches, the question for all candidates and current office holders is, “What issues will you be responsible for?”