By Erica C. Barnett
Monday, September 2
Three Fun Things for September 2, 2024
I don’t ordinarily include my mini-column of (usually) non-work-related recommendations in the weekly roundup, but since it was a holiday Monday, I’m making an exception. In this week’s installment: An (admittedly work-related) book I’ve been citing nonstop; a recipe to deal with a rare problem in Seattle—too many tomatoes; and a history podcast about getting things wrong.
Tuesday, September 3
Updated and Improved: The City of Seattle’s Employee Directory, Only On PubliCola
The city of Seattle is an outlier among local governments in concealing its employee directory from the public, but it wasn’t always this way: As recently as three years ago, information about how to contact city employees was available on the city’s website. Ever since the directory went dark in the Jenny Durkan administration, I’ve been requesting it and publishing it as a searchable database. This week, I posted the latest edition.
Thursday, September 5
Back from Recess, Council Takes Up Design Review Downtown, Continues Delay on Social Housing Measure
The council has a few weeks left before the annual budget process, which lasts through the fall. In their first meeting after a two-week recess, they debated a proposal to end design review for residential, hotel, and life-sciences developments downtown and took comments on a stalled plan from Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth to allow businesses to keep paying tipped workers a sub-minimum wage.
Friday, September 6
Andrew Engelson broke the news that the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, the 23-year-old student who was struck and killed by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave last year, is suing the city for $110 million—plus $11,000, a direct reference to police union vice president Daniel Auderer’s callous “joke” about the value of her young life.
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City Councilmember Maritza Rivera faced citywide opposition to her proposal, earlier this year, to freeze funding for the city’s largest anti-displacement program unless the city could spend down all the money carried forward from year to year for future spending, largely on long-term capital projects, by September. Emails and text messages show her disparaging the program months before she began asking questions publicly, and reveal that the city’s planning department did not, as she claimed repeatedly, cancel multiple meetings with her over several months
We ended the week with a three-story Afternoon Fizz: First, council members are already asking to expand proposed zones from which people accused of public drug use or possession could be banished, which was entirely predictable (read Banished to understand why!) Second, the Office of Police Accountability dismissed a complaint against SPD’s general counsel over a Facebook post that seemed to disparage women who complained about the department’s culture without interviewing the attorney, Rebecca Boatright. Finally, one-term former councilmember Alex Pedersen thinks the transportation levy is a “boondoggle” promoted by “bicycling clubs.”