By Erica C. Barnett
Incoming City Council President Sara Nelson, a two-year council member who ascended to her new role one week ago, has wasted no time shaking things up on the city council, reportedly firing popular council central staff director Esther Handy and replacing her with Ben Noble, a 23-year City Hall veteran who was central staff director from 2006 to 2013. Nelson announced the change to council staffers in an email sent late Monday afternoon.
The decision reportedly came as a shock to central staffers. Handy is widely credited with stabilizing the office, which drafts and analyzes legislation for all nine council members, after a rocky few years under her predecessor, Kirsten Arestad, and is popular with her staff. Prior to taking the job at central staff, she was a longtime legislative aide for former council member Mike O’Brien, who won election in 2009 during the same progressive wave that led to Mike McGinn’s single term as mayor.
Noble, who was appointed by then-council president Nick Licata (at the time, the most left-leaning council member by a mile), is widely known his old-school commitment to neutrality.
There has been some speculation that Nelson—who declined, through a spokesperson, to respond to questions on Tuesday—fired Handy to signal a political shift in a more centrist direction (after leaving O’Brien’s office in 2016, Handy worked for two progressive groups, Washington Progress Alliance and Puget Sound Sage). And that may be true. But Noble, who was appointed by then-council president Nick Licata (at the time, the most left-leaning council member by a mile), is widely known for his old-school commitment to neutrality, which is one reason he has survived at the city for 23 years under a wide range of mayoral administrations and council members.
Noble’s current position, as head of the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast, will likely be filled by forecasting and research economist Jan Duras, one of three staff at the office. The OERF itself has only existed since 2021, after former councilmember Teresa Mosqueda led the push for a new forecasting office independent from the mayor’s budgeting office in 2020; Noble, who was head of the budget office under former mayor Ed Murray as well as Jenny Durkan, left that position to lead the new office.
Few of the people currently on central staff have worked with Noble, who left the second floor of City Hall in 2013, but Nelson did, as a council aide to Richard Conlin from 2002 to 2013. But fears of a wider shakeup have more to do with Nelson than Noble anyway; as council president, she doesn’t have the authority to hire and fire central staffers directly, but she will be Noble’s boss, and the tone she sets with staffers could play a role in future departures. Central staffers unionized in 2019, and the city clerk’s office joined them last year.
One issue in the clerks’ unionization drive was the city’s mandatory return-to-the-office policies, which require city employees to come in to their offices downtown two days a week regardless of their job duties, how far away they live, or whether they can do their jobs from home. Nelson, joining Mayor Bruce Harrell, has frequently said city workers need to be in the office physically, and has set the expectation that council members themselves should meet in person, rather than in their previous hybrid format.
On Tuesday, Nelson indicated one other way her council presidency may differ from that of her predecessor, Debora Juarez; for the second time this week, she told frequent public commenter Alex Tsimerman, who routinely begins his comments by “sieg Heil”ing the council and calling them Nazis, that if he kept making disruptive comments, the council would cut off his mic and remove him from the room.
Oh, good, the city still employs Ben Noble, that man who sold the Mercer tract for $150M up front when the city was offered $1.2B over 99 years. That means annualized income of $12M per year which means after 13 years, the city would have received the $150M and still have 86 years of income to count on — and it would still own the land. This city desperately needs some imagination in City Hall and some finance staff who understand, well finance. But then there is a city block-sized hole right across the street that doesn’t seem to have jolted anyone into any creative thinking. Someone needs to share the recent articles about Detroit and land value tax with city council…as if anyone there is interested in upsetting the propertarian applecart.
The funny thing is moderates (both left and right leaning) have the majority in the general public. If everyone would vote we would get better councils and legislators who could govern better as a whole.
Ben Noble will be excellent. Nice hir.
This too shall pass. If we work to elect a more progressive bunch of city councilors next time. Remember that a number of seats were decided by small margins. Organize, organize, organize.
Good, Tsimerman is evil. Enough already. Shinedown’s “Asking For It” should be played when Tsimerman walks up.
Appeasement is over.
Americanism is in.
Miss Heidi Wills Yet? The paybacks on Tsimerman and progressives start now. You’re going to regret not having Heidi Wills around when we could have had climate action, pay-firefighters-first, bus lanes, and so much good stuff. Now you got Dan Strauss. I hope that works out good for you progressives.
Comparing Tsimerman (who I had the pleasure of personally kicking out of a private event that he hadn’t been invited to because he wanted to badger the then-Mayor with his crazy bullshit) with ANY of the other people you bring up is just fucking ridiculous.
Back on topic, ECB’s screed does a real disservice to Ben Noble, who is an eminently competent government employee.
Elections have consequences – deal with it.
I didn’t compare Tsimerman to anybody. But I wanted to cheer on the smackdown he’s getting after years of racist, sexist hate.
I did Heidi Wills to Dan Strauss and the progressive mob who went after her. The paybacks to the prog mob have started.
As someone who lives in District 6 (do you?), I like my council member not to have been rocked with scandal. Glad to have Strauss to fight for Ballard having light rail in my lifetime. Willis was too corrupt (and Hanning too dumb) to fight for light rail. .
Wills’ tragic situation twenty years ago does not make her what you said and I know her. That said, I believe Strauss deserves a fair shot to fight for Ballard having light rail in our lifetimes. I recall someone telling the Sound Transit Board that we deserve light rail in our lifetimes today (11 Jan 2024).
LOL, do you even live in District 6? Seattle?
If Nelson as Council President doesn’t have the authority to fire or hire Central Staff, how is it that she did so?
She can hire the Director of Central Staff. The Director hires and fires the people under them.
Just what the City didn’t need, a fucking house cleaner with an agenda… Here goes a few more years of bickering and bullshit…
Moderates have a Supermajority. Only Morales is on the outer ring. Not likely to be a lot of “bickering and bullshit” except for the whining of the defeated Leftists.