A proposed reorganization of the city's Human Services Department that would eliminate the department division devoted to domestic violence can't go through without council approval, council sources say---and some council members have questions about whether the changes are a good idea. The Seattle Municipal Code explicitly requires HSD to include a Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Division.

However, the mayor's office says they won't send legislation to the council until the council takes up next year's budget, which typically happens in September---far too late for the council to do anything about the changes, which the department is making now.

As I reported last week, new HSD director Dannette Smith, whom Mayor Mike McGinn appointed to replace former director Alan Painter (whom McGinn ousted in one of his first acts in office) has ordered a major shakeup in the department.

The "realignment" involves eliminating three existing divisions (Youth Development & Achievement, Early Learning & Family Support, and Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Prevention) and replacing with two new divisions called the Community Support & Self-Sufficiency Division and the Youth & Family Empowerment Division. Domestic violence and sexual assault prevention will be "interwoven" into those divisions, Smith told me last week.

Smith said that the reorganization will not deemphasize domestic violence and sexual assault prevention. And today, McGinn's spokesman Aaron Pickus said the changes are simply aimed at making the department "more efficient."

Human-services advocates and some council members worry otherwise. Pointing out that DV and sexual assault prevention will no longer have a division director devoted entirely to those services, King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence director Merrill Cousin says, "They're saying this isn't a decrease [in emphasis on domestic violence], but structurally, it is. .. .We've heard that the new structure does not represent a decrease in the city's commitment to domestic violence [prevention], but we're not seeing how it achieves those goals."

Advocates worry that without a division specifically devoted to DV and sexual assault, those issues---issues that tend to be marginalized already---will fall to the bottom of the list.

Mayoral spokesman Aaron Pickus says advocates shouldn't worry. The reorganization, he says, represents "part of [Smith's] strategic vision for the department," bringing Smith closer to her division heads by "remov[ing] excess layers of management.

Pickus says there's nothing unusual about doing a reorganization nearly a year before getting the council's permission. "When we did the Department of Finance reorganization, this is how we did it. You do the reorg and then legislation happens."

However, the finance department reorganization was not especially controversial, and the council approved it unanimously. "The sensitivity with HSD, unlike the budget, is that you're involving a large third party out there, which are all the providers  think since there's many providers out there and they all have constituents and clients," city council member Nick Licata says. Talking to constituents and the council, Licata adds, is "a critical step that's germane to HSD that wasn't critical to the budget reorganization."

"To me, changing it [during the] budget [process] seems a bit tardy," he says.

Over the years, Cousin says, the DV division has brought in millions of dollars in grants the city would not have secured, and raised awareness of issues that don't typically get much attention, if there hadn't been a division to take the lead.

"The division has been very involved in taking leadership on a whole range of policy initiatives related to domestic violence and sexual assault--e-verything from the commercially exploited children project to really coordinating and improving the city of Seattle's response to DV." Last week, nearly 700 people attended a town hall meeting about sexually exploited children co-sponsored by the division.

Council members Sally Clark and Nick Licata say they want to hear more about how HSD plans to prioritize domestic violence and sexual assault prevention. "We have some really great organizations, and they need to feel like they have the support of the city to go out and get grants," Clark says.

"The council embedded in HSD a number of specific divisions that we obviously felt needed to be singled out as priorities for HSD," including domestic violence, Licata adds.

Both Licata and Cousin they're already getting calls from domestic-violence service providers, advocates and people in the community who, in Cousin's words, are "very, very concerned. They're all saying the same thing: They see it as leadership being lost."

"I know that people will want to express opinions" to the council before the reorganization happens, Cousin adds.

Too bad they may not get the chance.