labor, Media, podcasts, Police

Former Chief Barnes’ Top Staffers Leave SPD, KOMO Reporters Leave Union, and More

1. Two top staffers hired by former police chief Shon Barnes are leaving SPD. Chief communications officer Barbara DeLollis, who’s been on leave caring for a family member on the East Coast, will not return to Seattle, and Lee Hunt, Barnes’ Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction, Lee Hunt, is retiring, according to SPD. Both will be gone by early September.

Shortly after his confirmation last year, Barnes brought on a number of new executive-level staffers, including a second deputy chief, now-interim Police Chief Andre Sayles; a chief of staff, Alex Ricketts, DeLollis; Hunt; and an additional assistant chief, Nicole Powell. New positions had to be created for Sayles, Hunt, and Powell, and DeLollis’ title was new.

The chief of staff position, which had not existed since 2001, was revived by former chief Adrian Diaz for Jamie Tompkins, who was fired, along with Diaz, after an investigation found they lied to cover up an improper relationship. Ricketts, who also worked alongside Barnes in Madison and North Carolina, remains at SPD for now.

SPD Chief Operating Officer Sarah Smith (another Barnes hire) said Hunt “has given notice to the department of his upcoming retirement in September. … We are deeply appreciative of his insight and work on stratified policing within SPD.” Stratified policing consisted of focusing on crime “hot spots” and focusing higher-ranked officers on “high-priority” crimes and geographic areas. Of DeLollis, Smith said, “We will miss her passion for transparent communication and really hope her family is well.”

DeLollis made $230,000 a year. Hunt, who—like Ricketts—previously worked with Barnes in North Carolina and Madison, made $320,000 a year. Not counting Ricketts and DeLollis, and setting aside the $50,000 bonuses Barnes, Sayles, and Powell all received under an incentive program created to recruit rank-and-file officers, the newly created positions cost the city almost a million dollars a year. The city is facing a minimum $175 million budget deficit, and Barnes reportedly resisted reducing the size of his unusually large executive staff to help close that gap.

In addition, Barnes received a total settlement worth at least $741,000 (including that $50,000 bonus, which the city let him keep) in exchange for not suing the city.

DeLollis, a former corporate communicator and luxury travel writer, has scrubbed her LinkedIn page of any references to SPD, where she worked for more than a year. Her page now says she has been communications director for Harvard’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society since 2022.

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2. KOMO News reporters and anchors voted narrowly—9 to 7—to leave their union, the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) on Wednesday, with another half-dozen members apparently declining to vote. Unless SAG-AFTRA challenges the proceedings—unlikely, given that they reportedly raised no objections during or leading up to the vote—KOMO’s on-air talent will no longer be represented by a union.

As I reported last week, there are a number of reasons some at KOMO wanted out of the union, including the fact that they negotiate their contracts individually, rather than through SAG-AFTRA, whose contract guarantees a minimum salary that is much lower than the anchors and reporters make. The group already gets its health care through Sinclair, which owns KOMO, rather than the union.

3. I was a guest on Brian Callanan’s News, Views, and Brews podcast this week, where we had a great conversation about Barnes’ resignation (including my reporting on the ex-chief’s frequent absences from Seattle, which a recent guest incorrectly claimed was false or fabricated) the recent primary elections, and the passage of Mayor Katie Wilson’s legislation banning rental “junk fees.” Check it out.

City Council, Mayor Wilson, Police

Councilmembers Blame Mayor For Delayed SPD Press Conference, Criticize Removal of Former Chief Barnes

By Erica C. Barnett

When interim police chief Andre Sayles, mayoral public safety director Alison Holcomb, and SPD Captain Randy Hunt came to this week’s City Council public safety committee meeting to provide a “quick look” at the city’s response to the  recent shooting at Seattle Center, the briefing was scheduled for 15 minutes. It ended up taking well over an hour, as council members grilled Holcomb about why a press conference on July 26 didn’t happen until almost five hours after the shooting.

The meeting—which began with Rob Saka repeatedly bellowing, “Is there a killer on the loose?”—was largely political theater: The council wants the public to see them as tough and concerned with public safety.

But the tense session also revealed how eager some council members are to blame the mayor for any P.R. screwups on the night of the shooting—and absolve the police, including former chief Shon Barnes, who was out of town when gunfire broke out at the Bite of Seattle, as were Sayles and his fellow deputy chief Yvonne Underwood.

Debora Juarez, who was appointed to Cathy Moore’s seat after Moore quit the council last year, hammered away at Holcomb in a Court TV-style interrogation.

“I can call you Alison? Thank you,” Juarez began. “Because I want to be clear, I don’t want to do a gotcha moment. I’m not trying to humiliate anybody. I just want to understand.” Juarez then attempted to get Holcomb to agree that “the communication problem was between the mayor’s office and SPD,” that Wilson was “not allowing” an SPD public information officer, Brian Pritchard, to testify before the council, and that Wilson’s office “was not communicating with Seattle City Council” on the night of the shooting.

A timeline Kettle released this week shows that Wilson’s office was in touch with the council within less than a hour. That timeline also includes a text from Barnes saying he was working to get a conference call together shortly after 8, followed by a conference call that ended around 9:23, more than three hours after the shooting.

“I’m going to submit to you, Alison, and we both know how this works: I don’t think we need an investigation,” Juarez said. “I think you could tell us right now why there was a five-hour delay.”

Juarez also suggested that no one had any idea where Wilson even was, because she had her camera off during a Teams call the night of the shooting. “I’m not trying to create some cloak and dagger, but if I were the mayor, I would have [turned my camera on],” Juarez said. Then she suggested that Wilson asked the city’s Office of Inspector General to review the events of July 26 as a distraction from the fact that Wilson herself delayed the press conference five hours so that “dignitaries”—Senator Pramila Jayapal and Governor Bob Ferguson—could get there.

“We’re hearing… that some of the people in the mayor’s office didn’t know the difference between a mass hysteria, ‘we need a press conference now to calm people down’… and then later on you do the fancy political press conference and wait for dignitaries to arrive,” Juarez said.

PubliCola’s own reporting on the incident suggests the delay had multiple causes. Initially, SPD still considered the area an active crime scene with a potential shooter at large. Barnes, who was at a conference in Dallas, reportedly wanted a full briefing before he would allow SPD officials on the ground to address the press. Several of SPD’s media relations staffers were out of town, leaving one detective, Brian Pritchard, to answer questions at the scene. And finally, Ferguson and Jayapal wanted to be at the press conference, even if—as both have said—they did not ask the city to wait for them to get there. The balance of these forces, and any other reasons for the delay, will be among the subjects of the OIG’s report and a more detailed committee briefing on September 22.

Holcomb said the mayor’s office and public were less interested in why a press conference was delayed than “why didn’t the public receive more information sooner. … That’s a very different question about why didn’t a press conference happen on site at a certain time. Which, frankly, because you and I both know what’s happening here, is a political question. We’re concerned about public safety right now, and that’s what we’re focused on.”

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Councilmember Dan Strauss then jumped on the anti-Wilson bandwagon, echoing Juarez’ claim that Holcomb could easily tell the council what happened the night of the shooting if she really wanted to. “We don’t need to have an OIG investigation. We could answer those questions right now,” Strauss said.

“No, we can’t, because in fact I don’t know the answer to that question, and as I indicated in my answers to Councilmember Juarez, there were dozens of people who were texting and calling each other with lots of information that evening,” Holcomb responded.

A casual observer might wonder why the city council is making such a big deal out of a press conference that took place more than two weeks ago. After all, both SPD and the mayor put out information about the shooting on social media and via press release prior to the press conference and kept Kettle in the loop in real time.

But as the council monologues went on, it was clear that the council believes the mayor isn’t communicating sufficiently  with them before she makes major decisions, including executive decisions like firing the head of city departments.

“I’m going to talk now about the police chief being asked to resign, because it was similar in the way that [former Seattle City Light director] Dawn Lindell was asked, was fired, was asked to resign,” Strauss said as the brief passed the one-hour mark. “That same set of experiences that I had with Dawn Lindell being let go from the city occurred with Chief Barnes last week.”

As far as he could tell, Strauss continued, Wilson asked Barnes to step down as a fall guy for communication issues after the shooting. “The mayor asked the police chief to resign with very little information, and so the best that I can do is surmise that because there was some communication difference or difficulty, that the chief was asked to resign,” Strauss said.

Wilson signed a settlement agreement with Barnes that included a mutual nondisparagement clause, which almost certainly limits the extent to which she can badmouth the former chief’s performance. Instead, she has said that she has more insight into what’s going on at SPD, an executive department, than the council and outside observers.

That comment rubbed some councilmembers the wrong way. “When the mayor says, “You know, we have I have a better window” into the police chief’s performance, Kettle said, “what’s clear here is that she does not have a better window. She does not have a better window than I do. She does not have a better window than probably the majority of the council.”

As we’ve reported, there are many potential reasons Wilson may have let Barnes go, beyond his frequent trips to his family home in Chicago or his inappropriate response to a question about his travel schedule.

LGBTQ+, Police

Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles Says He Won’t Be Barnes 2.0: “I’m All About Collaboration”

By Erica C. Barnett

Last week, after negotiating a minimum $741,000 settlement package with former police chief Shon Barnes, Mayor Katie Wilson announced she would be appointing one of Barnes’ two deputy chiefs, Andre Sayles, as interim police chief while the city begins a formal search and hiring process for the next permanent chief.

Barnes recruited Sayles last year from his job as police chief in Beloit, WI, about an hour south of Madison, where Barnes was previously chief. Like Barnes, Sayles has a family home in Illinois, a few miles outside Beloit (Barnes’ family home is in Chicago). where his wife continues to live; his kids also live in the area. His Washington state home, which he describes as his primary residence, is in east King County.

PubliCola sat down with Sayles at SPD headquarters last Friday for a conversation about the future of SPD, how his style and priorities differ from Barnes’, the culture at SPD, and more. I’ve edited our conversation for length and clarity.

Erica C, Barnett (PubliCola): Barnes recruited you to come to Seattle. You’ve mentioned that you’re personal friends. I’m curious why you decided to say yes to the interim chief job, given the circumstances of his departure and the fact that you’re so closely linked with him.

Andre Sayles: I never knew [Barnes] before January 2021. He came to my swearing-in April 2021 when I became police chief [in Beloit], and we kept in contact with each other professionally and developed a friendship personally after that. So when he presented [the Seattle deputy chief position] to me, I said, you know, I know I can be successful here. I can bring my personal touch to it, being a human first, and not being a chief or anything like that, and treating people with dignity and respect, not just inside the police department, but in the community as well. So I said, hey, let’s take this challenge because, you know, challenges help you grow.

PubliCola: What have you learned so far about the differences between policing in a small town like Beloit and a larger city like Seattle?

Sayles: I think sometimes it gets lost in the wording of ‘small’ that Beloit is a very diverse community. We dealt with a lot. There was a time where we were averaging anywhere between 10 and 12 homicides a year, for a city that’s anywhere between 38 and 40,000 people. That’s a lot of work for a quote-unquote small town. I truly believe policing is transferable. My skills and ability can go anywhere in this nation. As a patrol officer, I led homicide investigations. I led the drug and gang unit. It’s [a matter of] scaling your knowledge and skills to where you’re at.

PubliCola: Do you think that SPD has been doing that? Chief Barnes was doing a lot of community meetings, but they weren’t very well attended by actual community members. Will you change anything about how SPD does community outreach?

Sayles: Well, I think we have to remember if there’s 25 people in that meeting, sometimes people talk to 10 other people. So we are reaching people. But it’s a matter of getting more seats filled, more people to come to those meetings. And I think when we leave, we should provide a challenge to our community members: Hey, next time we have this meeting, bring two people with you. Because we want to hear from everyone that’s in this specific community. And let’s continue to do it, because I don’t want it to be a situation where we don’t show up.

But I would be happy if we showed up to a place and there was one person there, because that’s one person that’s dedicated to what we want to do for that community. Then that person is going to say, ‘Hey, they showed up five times. They’re committed to community policing.’

PubliCola: The city’s annual budget discussions are coming up, and there’s been a debate over whether SPD will slow down police hiring to stay within its budget. Can you talk about that possibility?

Sayles: I don’t know if we’re going to slow down, but we’re going to look at some steps to make sure that we’re able to get officers on the street in a timely manner. We may hire the same amount of people, but we may say, ‘All right, let’s take a two-three week break from hiring.’ So we can get people through the field training program, get them through [Basic Law Enforcement Academy], get them through post-BLEA, and then say, ‘All right, now let’s hire a certain amount of people.’ So it’s going to be a collective effort with our recruitment and retention team, and also the mayor’s office, to say, What does that look like? Let’s come up with a plan to say we’re going to hire X amount of officers during [each] quarter. That’s going to help the patrol staffing numbers and give that work-life balance back to our patrol officers to make sure that they can utilize their time away and be with their families.

PubliCola: To talk about the money, though, SPD will likely be over budget this year because you’re hiring more people than anticipated. There’s a huge budget deficit. Mayor Wilson has asked every department, including yours, to come up with very significant potential cuts. Is SPD going to cut its budget or resist taking any cuts?

Sayles: I think our biggest thing right now is to leave the people out of what we may put forward on the budget, because we want people, There’s some things that we may look at. Like—do we need to buy new chairs every year, or can we come up with a rotation for equipment for offices and things that nature, being very cognizant of the budget and being good stewards of the budget, and creating a roadmap and a plan within SPD, presenting it to the mayor’s office, presenting it to council members, and saying ‘This is what we’re committed to do.’ I think that’s what we’re going to do. We’ve been working diligently on that as an executive command staff team. I would like to bring in our captains and say, ‘What do you see in your precincts? What do you see in your unit?’ and have a group session on these things.

PubliCola: I saw that CARE Department Chief Amy Barden posted a photo of the two of you on Instagram this morning. In the past, she’s expressed some frustration about CARE not being authorized to respond to the kind of calls they were set up to respond to. Have you sat down with her and talked about her concerns? And will we see any changes with the relationship between SPD and CARE going forward?

Sayles: I met with Amy twice over the seven days I’ve been interim chief. I met Amy at a community meeting last year, where there was a situation that required CARE, and we co-responded to that situation together.

PubliCola: What was the situation?

Sayles: Then-mayor Bruce Harrell was at a Safeway talking [at an event promoting a food access initiative], and a gentleman was yelling and screaming. And we went over and we calmed down that situation together. So it’s going to be a new approach, because my ideas are similar to Chief Barnes, but they’re somewhat different, and my relationship with Amy is going to be different than Chief Barnes because I’m a different person. I’m a person that that is all about collaboration. Not saying that Chief Barnes was not, but I’m just talking about me specifically.

We’ve had a good conversation over the last week about some of the things that we want to do. So it’s bringing in SPD, bringing CARE to the table, bringing in Fire, bringing in the mayor’s office. And prior to us leaving the room, everybody agreeing that this is what we’re going to do, bringing in [the Seattle Police Officers Guild] and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re looking at,’ and putting a lock on that door before we leave, and everybody can walk out saying, ‘I like the collective idea that we came up with together.’

PubliCola: I want to ask a question about the Bite of Seattle shooting. I understand that you’re not going to be able to provide specific information, but there’s been a feeling of lost trust because there’s just still no new information coming out about what happened. What can you tell me about what’s going on with the investigation and why we don’t know anything yet?

Sayles: It’s one of those roadblocks in policing that some day, hopefully, we can get past in regards to the information that we can provide. I think the biggest thing is when we provide information, sometimes it gives that person that we may be looking for the idea and the advance knowledge of, ‘Oh, they know who I am.’ And we unfortunately sometimes have to keep that close to the vest because we have to proceed in our investigation with caution, and say, ‘We have this information. We can’t fully give it out to the community yet because, unfortunately, sometimes people help these suspects in these situations. I had a great talk with our investigators yesterday. Hopefully, in the coming days and coming weeks, there’s some things that’s going to happen that we will be able to talk about.

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PubliCola: I want to talk a little bit about the culture at SPD, which has been criticized as misogynist and anti-LGBTQ. Under former chief Barnes, there were a lot of problematic incidents and missed opportunities, including the way SPD handled the [anti-trans] Mayday USA rally last year. Do you think there’s room for improvement in SPD’s relationship with LGBTQ+ residents, and how will your  approach differ from Barnes’?

Sayles: People have identified that I came from outside, but I was actually a part of [SPD’s] LGBTQ+ Advisory Board until taking the interim position. I hadn’t seen anything in my 13, 14 months that would lead me to believe that’s what occurred. But I can’t be ignorant to what has been put out there and what has been said. So I want to strengthen that relationship. I think we’re making inroads to strengthen that relationship.

I know in July we had a meeting where there was a person that was trying to disrupt the meeting, and everyone in that group, from what I heard, actually was like, ‘Hey, the police are here. They’ve been here. They’ve been supportive of what we’re trying to do. Like, you can’t come in here and try to disrupt this meeting. And we’re developing a great relationship with the police department.’ I think it’s all about relationships and understanding that the things happened in the past, we have to be aware of it, but we also need to move past it and work on strengthening that relationship beyond some of the missteps that happened in the past. 

PubliCola: I’ve heard some critics and commentators say that the next permanent police chief needs be someone with roots in this community who rose up through the ranks at SPD, as opposed to someone who comes from elsewhere, like yourself. What do you think of that critique?

Sayles: I hope that we get a leader that wants to be involved in the community, someone that’s going to lead this department for our people inside this police department and outside this police department, not leading because you want a certain title. I think that’s the biggest thing, and that’s what it should be—a person that’s going to look at what SPD stands for: Service, pride, and dedication. If it’s a person from the inside, by all means, let’s go forward and be great. If it’s a person from outside, let’s forward, let’s go forward and be great.

PubliCola:  Are you applying?

Sayles: I have not had an opportunity to take a second to even think about that. It’s been a long week, and as things start to slow down for me a little bit. I think I’ll take a glance at it. But once again, I’m more focused on the people inside this police department—how can I help them?—and then also on our community members. I’m a person that’s selfless. I don’t really talk about myself and what I’ve done, and here’s this accolade or that accolade. I’m all about the people, and I’m all about a we mentality instead of a me mentality. So, if I decide to put in for it, I’ll decide to put in for it. But I haven’t thought about that because I’m focused on what we need to accomplish now.

PubliCola: Like Barnes, you still have a home in Illinois. What is your long-term plan, as far as moving to this area permanently versus keeping a home out of state?

Sayles: My home is in the Issaquah area. My secondary residence that I worked hard for is in Illinois. I asked the mayor when we talked, I said, ‘I just want to know that I have a place here in Seattle. Whenever there’s a permanent decision made, I would like to remain here.’ I came here because I believe my higher power put me here for a reason, and that is to be a leader within whatever role I have here at SPD.

I think I have shown that I’ve been very involved with our rank and file. I’ve been involved in our professional staff, and I’m getting myself out there in the community more than I have over the last year. I’ve been involved in the community, but now I want to be more involved in the community. And this is a place that I chose to come to. I uprooted myself to come out here because I believed in what the mission and vision was of Seattle before Chief Barnes, during Chief Barnes, and where we’re going to go in the future.

 

City Council, homelessness

Strauss Legislation Would Require RV Residents to Get Permits, Accept “Appropriate” Shelter

RV residents who violate the permit terms— for example, by declining shelter too many times or failing to “comply with all laws”—would permanently forfeit their right to park overnight in Seattle. 

By Erica C. Barnett

City Councilmember Dan Strauss is proposing legislation that will prohibit people from parking RVs on Seattle streets for more than two hours at a time without a permit, including in the industrial areas that are currently the only place RVs can be legally parked overnight.

The legislation would require everyone living in an RV or “fifth wheel” trailer to apply for a permit with the city; only people who are the registered owners of RVs with up-to-date registration would be eligible to apply, and only people counted in a one-time “census” of every RV in the city would be eligible for a permit, which would cap the program at an estimated 400 to 500 people citywide.

As a condition of the permits, RV residents would be required to enroll in case management and eventually go into housing or shelter. Under the legislation, if an RV resident violates any of the permit requirements or “turns down offers of appropriate shelter” more than five times, they will lose their permit and forfeit their right to park inside the city.

“Appropriate” is not defined in the legislation, and it’s unclear who will decide what counts as appropriate. It’s a truism among homeless service providers that people don’t generally turn down shelter that works for their needs, so by definition, a housing or shelter offer that someone turns down is inappropriate for that person at that time.

The goal, Strauss told PubliCola on Monday, is to get everyone currently living in RVs to move to a sanctioned “safe lot,” a shelter, or permanent housing, and to eliminate RVs from city streets.

“Through this framework, we are being really clear about what is and is not going to be an option,” Strauss said. “If you live in the city of Seattle in your RV while we get additional safe lots stood up, you’ll need to have a permit, and when we have safe lots stood up, you need to live in a safe lot if you want to live in an RV.”

“We want to be able to say, in a year from now, ‘We are no longer allowing motor homes and fifth wheels on our streets.'”

Permitted RV residents would have to park in the geographic area where they receive their permits. Strauss said this provision ensures outreach workers can locate their clients; however, no similar provision applies to people living in tents, on the street, or in other types of vehicles, who can move freely about the city.

Strauss’ plan would provide funding for a new safe lot for RVs whose owners are ready to move into shelter or housing; a separate RV storage lot for those want the ability to go back to their vehicles if shelter doesn’t work out; and seven more Unified Care Team members to coordinate with outreach workers who work with vehicle residents.

The Unified Care Team is a team of city employees, vastly expanded under Bruce Harrell, that removes encampments and, in some cases, refers their displaced residents to available shelter beds.

Strauss’ plan to expand RV parking and shelter would cost $3.5 million a year on an ongoing basis, with a funding boost of $1.5 million at the beginning of implementation to get the program going. The money has already been set aside in the budget, thanks to previous actions by Strauss, but could be spent on other purposes if the council decided not to use it for the RV residence program.

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A spokesman for Mayor Katie Wilson’s office said Wilson is “supportive in principle of new safe lots, storage and additional outreach.” However, he added, Wilson’s office “has shared operational and policy concerns about the details of the permit program, and continue[s] to review the current legislation.”

Strauss worked with Vehicle Resident Outreach, a project run by the University Heights Center, on the legislation. Jen Manlief, the VRO program manager, called the legislation “a step in the right direction” that provides “places for people to be. It’s not just hiring people to put bandaids on things.”

Currently, Manlief said, “there’s a lot of RVs and there’s nowhere for them to be. What we’re doing now as outreach workers is chasing them around the city and not solving anything.”

But other homeless advocates have expressed concern about the more punitive elements of the proposal, which could result in vehicle impoundments that lead to an increase in street homelessness. For example, one of the ordinances expresses an “intent” to give unpermitted RV owners up to three warnings before towing away their homes, but explicitly allows “impounding of motor homes and travel trailers without notice.”

Alison Eisinger, director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, said, “We appreciate Councilmember Strauss’ proposal to assist people living in RVs through additional dedicated safe parking, skilled outreach, and the idea of a vehicle storage program.”

However, she added, “we have significant concerns about his suggested permit program, which as written is punitive and likely unworkable. What would happen to people who miss the one-time opportunity to get a permit, whose circumstances change, or who start living in an RV after the permitting process is closed?”

It’s also unclear what will happen if there’s insufficient shelter for people who do get the permits. In San Francisco, a similar temporary RV permit system had to be extended because there weren’t enough places for people living in RVs to go.

Strauss said he believes people who want to live in their vehicles, rather than coming into shelter, will figure out a way to comply with the law, possibly by moving into smaller vehicles. “Humans are very smart, and if they’re certain they need to live in their vehicle in the city of Seattle, they will likely find a vehicle that is not as unique as an RV, in terms of size, space, and hazardous materials, where they can continue to live in their vehicle,” Strauss said.

Strauss’ legislation anticipates that RV residents will get direct, dedicated access to tiny houses, a model that has worked well at Salmon Bay Village—a now-dismantled safe lot with 11 tiny houses operated by the Low Institute Housing Institute in Interbay. The village was replaced by an indoor pickleball complex; LIHI plans to open a larger safe lot in West Seattle, the Glassyard Commons, in November, with space for 72 vehicles and 20 tiny houses.

LIHI director Sharon Lee said 60 percent of the 87 people who lived in Salmon Bay Village over 18 months went on to permanent housing; according to one-pager on the village, LIHI was able to permanently dispose of 67 RVs.

“Salmon Bay showed that people are happy to get out of their rundown RVs and into a clean, habitable, nice tiny house with a kitchen and hygiene and all of the amenities,” Lee said.

Currently, Lee noted, many RVs get reused after they’re impounded by the city, showing back up on city streets in worse condition than before. “You can’t just keep people living in their rundown RV,” Lee said. “The important thing is that rundown RVs should be destroyed and not reused.”

The legislation sets up many pitfalls that could make RV residents ineligible for permits or cause them to lose a permit after it’s issued, including expired tags, visible trash, or leaving a pet tied up outside and “unattended.” The bill also requires RV residents to “comply with all laws,” a vague but all-encompassing directive. It also stipulates that the only people who will be eligible for permits are those counted in a one-time “census” by the city’s Human Services Department; any vehicle residents who aren’t included in that count, including those who arrive in Seattle or starts living in an RV later, would be violating the law.

Permit holders would be allowed to park in industrial areas for up to 72 hours, the time limit that applies to all on-street parking in the city. They’d still risk losing their vehicles if they break down and can’t be moved, just like today.

A resolution accompanying the five ordinances Strauss is proposing expresses the city’s commitment to “removing eco-blocks currently placed in City right-of-way” within six months. These large concrete blocks have proliferated all over industrial parts of Ballard, which Strauss represents, as well as parts of SoDo, West Seattle, other neighborhoods—placed illegally in city rights-of-way by businesses who don’t want RVs parking outside.

“Removing the eco-blocks gives the RVs a place to be, which is something we’ve been fighting for for the last five years,” Manlief said. However, the resolution does not say who would be responsible for removing eco-blocks or identify any enforcement mechanism to ensure it actually happens.

Lee says the proposal strikes a good balance between providing new places for people living in RVs to relocate and getting RVs off the streets of Seattle. “I think it creates an incentive for long-term RV dwellers to move into shelter and tiny houses or housing—or, for that matter, to be receiving help to reunite with family or friends,” Lee said.

The council’s public safety committee discussed Strauss’ proposal for the first time on Tuesday. Strauss has said he plans to bring the bills back to committee on September 22, after the council’s annual August recess. It’s an ambitious timeline. Homeless advocates will likely push the council to spend time making the bill less punitive toward RV residents, and the council will be working by then on next year’s budget, which generally occupies most of their attention through November.

City Council, Elections, Mayor Wilson

Greater Seattle: Primary Election Edition

By Josh Feit

Mayor Wilson > Theories of Mayor Wilson’s Demise

As the mainstream media and the Seattle Times pounce on Mayor Wilson, please keep their bias (and incoherence) in mind.

As fans (and endorsers) of former mayor Bruce Harrell, the Seattle Times hasn’t liked Wilson from the start. Long before the brouhaha over now-former police chief Shon Barnes, they were hyperventilating about Wilson’s supposed gaffes. What that meant was that they didn’t agree with her support for State Sen. Jamie Pedersen’s millionaires tax. (Of course, they now love it because Pedersen is Exhibit A in their argument that last week’s election amounted to a backlash against progressives.)

If you can overlook the contradictions in that line of thinking, can I interest you in a victorious peace deal to open the Strait of Hormuz?

I also don’t follow their objection to firing Barnes in the first place. Or did they do a 180 on that one too, now that Erica has made any defense of  the OOO chief laughable thanks to the comprehensive reporting she did on his schedule?

It’s true that the city council is steamed at the mayor—and has been, as PubliCola has reported, for a host of reasons that date back to well before Wilson pushed Barnes out earlier this month. But tension between the second and seventh floors is hardly new—and certainly not grounds for the kind of hyperventilating at the Seattle Times.

The premature death notices are wishful thinking. And I must say: If wacky temporary councilmember Debora Juarez —who went on KOMO recently to say she had “no confidence in this administration”—is your champion, you don’t have a bead on the Seattle electorate. P.s. The progressive candidate in last week’s primary running to fill Juarez’s open D5 seat, Nilu Jenks, is currently beating the establishment choice Julie Kang, 54 to 33 percent.

Get a bead on this, though: Last week, popular lefty council member Alexis Mercedes Rinck turned to supposedly down-and-out Mayor Wilson for backup on her new, progressive Mamdani-esque legislation to stop supermarkets from gouging poor people with what amounts to surge pricing for groceries.

15,288 > 7,327, 11,085, or 6,635

In more evidence that we aren’t looking at a reversal of 2025’s progressive sweep, those are the number of votes cast for the winner of each District 5 council primary, in reverse-chronological order going back to 2015 (the first year of district elections.) That’s Nilu Jenks’ vote total this year, followed by Cathy Moore in 2023 and Debora Juarez in 2019 and 2015.

In addition to getting more votes than any previous primary winner, Jenks also got the highest percentage of any primary winner, and is the first D5 candidate to ever come out of the primary with a firm majority of the vote—currently 54 percent to her more conservative challenger Julie Kang’s 33 percent. (Not all ballots have been counted).

Granted, the field in D5 was smaller this year than previous primaries, with four candidates rather than the six, eight, or ten that showed up in previous elections. But this year’s D5 turnout was higher than usual, too—around 29,000 voters so far, more than any previous primary in the district—and Jenks’ vote is larger than the combined total of the top two contenders (Moore and Christiana ObeySumner) in 2023’s 10-way primary. Jenks ran in that primary but only got 19 percent, so her showing this year represents a real and significant growth in support.

Jenks was endorsed by council member Rinck, while Kang has support from the council’s centrist bloc—including Maritza Rivera and Bob Kettle alongside former conservative council president Sara Nelson.

Progressive Challenger > Longtime Incumbent

We can also look to South Seattle for evidence of progressive primary results. In the race for Position 1 state representative in the 37th District, newcomer Kelabe Tewolde is leading 28-year incumbent Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos 51 to 48 percent. Tewolde—a progressive, density advocate, and current member of the Seattle Planning Commission—was endorsed by Tech for Housing, The Urbanist, and Rinck.

City Council, labor, Mayor Wilson, Media, Police

This Week on PubliCola: More Details on Barnes’ Absences and Departure, KOMO May De-Unionize, and More

By Erica C. Barnett

Monday, August 3

New Column! Introducing Greater Seattle

PubliCola co-founder Josh Feit has a new column based on a simple premise: X > (is greater than” Y, as in “The Case for Firing SPD Chief Shon Barnes > The Case for Keeping Shon Barnes,” the first of three Greater Than items this week.

Tuesday, August 4

Issues With Former Police Chief Barnes Weren’t Just About His Travel or Where He Lived

A lot has been made (appropriately so) of former police chief Shon Barnes’ outsize response when reporter Connor Nash asked him about my reporting on his frequent absences from Seattle. But Barnes’ tenure in Seattle was already tenuous, thanks to a litany of other issues ranging from SPD’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community under his leadership to his seeming lack of interest in partnering with the city’s team of trained mental health first responder.

Wednesday, August 5

Kettle Blames Mayor for “Unconscionable” Delay in Surveillance Expansion

When City Council President Joy Hollingsworth introduced a proposal to spend $250,000 in funding for surveillance cameras that can’t be used this year to hire violence interruptors from We Deliver Care, Councilmember Bob Kettle had a bit of a meltdown, saying he would vote against the entire midyear budget if they didn’t set the money aside for cameras (which the budget director had just explained could not be spent on cameras this year).

SPD Puts Former Chief’s Calendar in “Lockdown”

We would finally get a (mostly) complete copy of former chief Barnes’ camera later in the week, but as of Wednesday, SPD told us to file a records request and wait. Last week, they said they’d be able to provide Barnes’ schedule no problem, but after he left, they said it was “locked down” in some way and no longer accessible. 🤔

Thursday, August 6

Former Police Chief’s Payout Will Be Higher Than Previously Known

PubliCola reported exclusively that former chief Barnes’ would get an even larger payout than the $700,000 package that was previously known. Read on down the list for more details on the extra bonus he received when he signed a no-sue agreement.

KCRHA Still at Full Staffing as Contract Transition Begins

The city and county announced this week that they’ll be hiring 23 and 11 new staffers, respectively, to manage the transition of homeless service contracts as the King County Regional Homelessness Authority shrinks down to just a few “core” functions. Although the “rightsizing” was announced more than a month ago, the KCRHA has not made any layoffs, and still has 73 employees.

Friday, August 7

A More Complete Calendar Shows Former Police Chief Was Out of Office Almost 40 Percent of the Time This Year

Remember how a bunch of local commentators went on KIRO, KUOW, and other local shows to call my reporting dishonest, unfair, and false last week (and how one of them said I should be “ashamed”?) Hopefully they saw this post, which confirms that Barnes was, or planned to be out of town or otherwise off duty, including at his family home in Chicago, at least 12 weeks this year—including three weeks from late July to mid-August.

Barnes Got An Additional $41,000 Payout

On Friday, PubliCola exclusively obtained the details about Barnes’ vacation payout: Despite being out of town 40 percent of the time, he still somehow had 29 days’ paid time off accrued, according to the city. The additional money—a little less than a minimum wage worker makes in Seattle, btw—brings Barnes’ total payout to more than $741,000.

KOMO Reporters Will Vote on De-Unionizing

Reporters and anchors at KOMO filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to end their representation by SAG-AFTRA; the vote’s next week. One likely factor behind the push is that the staffers all negotiate their own contracts individually, and SAG-AFTRA’s guarantee is reportedly far below what any of the on-air talent makes.

Also this week: I made the rounds of local podcasts, talking about Barnes’ resignation, Tuesday’s election results, and other news from this week with City Cast Seattle, KUOW’s Seattle Now, and as always, our weekly podcast, Seattle Nice.

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