Tacoma is not a top-down kind of town, thanks in part to Elton Gatewood.
It used to be, and it wasn’t healthy. Managers had their own ideas of what was good for the city. Citizens knew that if they disagreed with those ideas, they were discounted. Between the disdain and the resentment, it could get ugly.
Since 1992, Gatewood has made it his job as the city’s neighborhood council coordinator to foster collaboration between neighbors and Tacoma bigwigs.
His mission ends Tuesday. A casualty of the city’s budget shortfall, Gatewood is retiring in his mid-60s, against his will, after 37 years working for the city.
He had two options. He could have left abruptly at the end of December with a fabulous parting gift of $12,000. (His salary in 2010 was $96,000.) Or he could forfeit that chance at paying for a home bathroom remodel so he could work on a transition plan with the eight neighborhood councils.
The remodel will have to wait, but the councils are past the initial shock of losing his leadership. They’re poised for whatever comes next. The city hasn’t said what that is.
What came first was a federal requirement in the 1970s that Community Development Block grants have community participation.
At the time, Gatewood was working for the city in planning and program management.
Born in Memphis, Tenn., educated at Kentucky State University and stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War, he was a quick study. He knew every neighborhood, every official in Tacoma.
“In 1978, I had the opportunity to transfer to the Department of Community Development, to the citizen participation plan,” he said. “The city wasn’t too keen on citizen participation. It was, ‘We will continue to do what we think is good for you.’”
Not so the citizens. Led by rabble rousers including Dave DeForrest, Tim Strege and Ruth McElliott, they began to organize. It was invigorating.
When Mayor Karen Vialle asked residents what they wanted, neighborhood councils rated fourth, behind core services such as police and fire. In 1992, the city set up neighborhood councils, with the mandate that leaders pay attention to them.
“It was touch and go,” Gatewood said. “Touch and go. One top manager thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen, to have citizens in charge.”
Gatewood set out to prove him wrong, and prevailed upon then-City Manager Ray Corpuz to assign department heads as liaisons to each neighborhood council.
Gatewood counseled them to come with their ideas in their back pockets, listen first and learn. He fostered the same method with residents.
Shock of shocks, it worked.
“Elton is kind, considerate and has a great sense of humor,” said Ginny Eberhardt, who has worked with him for 20 years on the West End Neighborhood Council. “He knows when and how to talk to people, and he knows when not to say anything. He is a diplomat.”
John Thurlow of the North East Tacoma Neighborhood Council agrees.
“In my experience, he kept up the dedication to neighborhood empowerment, consistently working in the neighborhoods’ and the city’s overall interests, sometimes in ways unfavorable to leading figures in the city administration,” he said.
Nancy Davis, liaison for Metro Parks Tacoma, met Gatewood a decade ago while the Eastside Neighborhood Council was being formed. Gatewood lived in the neighborhood for decades before moving into a more manageable house in Fircrest two years ago.
“This gracious soul was able to stay professional and supportive during the most emotional exchanges of people pounding on tables, crying and demonstrating their great passion for our neighborhood,” Davis said. “The whole city is much better as a result of his efforts.”
The city is better for the hundreds of innovative grants, worth $200 to $700 each, the department has awarded: speed humps, street lights, parks, playground equipment, traffic circles, planters, gardens, banners.
The city is better because of people who have taken part in the councils and realized their own power.
The city is better because it no longer operates top down, thanks in large part to Elton Gatewood.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman @thenewstribune.com
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