A closer look at Ann Davison’s record, police chief gets recruitment bonus, new details in Adrian Diaz investigation, and more.
By Erica C. Barnett
Monday, August 11
Ann Davison Promised to Resolve Cases Faster and Punish the Most Serious Violators. Did She Deliver?
Reporter Andrew Engelson did a deep dive into the data on embattled City Attorney Ann Davison’s 2021 campaign promises, finding that while Davison did speed up filing on some misdemeanor cases, more cases have ended up dismissed or with no conviction than under her predecessor, and she has filed domestic violence cases much more slowly.
Tuesday, December 12
Police Chief and Deputy Chief Received Recruitment Bonuses For Bringing on New Staff
New Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes and Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood received recruitment bonuses of $1,000 each for bringing on two executive-level staff (the two each got a bonus for recruiting the same new deputy chief and Barnes got a separate bonus for hiring an assistant chief). The bonuses were created with the intent of hiring more officers who can respond to calls, not executive staff.
Thursday, December 13
Christian Nationalist Rally by Anti-LGBTQ Group Will Take Place at Cal Anderson Park
As of Thursday, the city had exhausted all legal options for preventing an anti-LGBTQ Christian nationalist group from holding a concert and rally in Cal Anderson Park, and queer organizers were planning counter-programming with cooperation from city officials. On Friday, when the permit was to be announced, PubliCola learned that the city was working on a last-minute solution in which the group would voluntarily hold its “Revive in ‘25” event elsewhere.
In Thursday’s Afternoon Fizz, we took a look at historical election numbers to consider the likelihood that Harrell will be able to come back from a 10-point primary election loss to challenger Katie Wilson. And the council moved closer to expanding the city’s brand-new 24/7 police camera surveillance to new neighborhoods, including the Central District, Capitol Hill, and the stadium district.
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Harrell’s Chief of Staff Leaves Mayor’s Office
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s longtime aide, chief of staff and general counsel Jeremy Racca, is leaving the mayor’s office to move to New York after a month-long leave of absence. Racca is the first high-level staffer to leave Harrell’s office after the election. The departure led to a shuffling of personnel in Harrell’s office, elevating deputy mayor Tiffany Washington, who has played a top role on homelessness policy, to a new position of chief deputy mayor.
Friday, August 15
Newly release interviews with former police chief Adrian Diaz’ staff include new details about incidents that led the people surrounding Diaz to believe he was covering up an affair with the woman he hired as his chief of staff, including a late-night visit to an abandoned park in North Bend and an alleged directive to use encrypted messaging to communicate as a way of avoiding public disclosure.
Not mentioned in Publicola this week was Trump’s attempted takeover of the policing of Washington DC, with frankly dubious promises to do so in other cities (Trump’s claims rest on Federal laws that apply only to Washington DC). This may not seem relevant for Seattle-focused news, but if this is true for you then you aren’t considering the current crop of “leaders” in City gov’t who could only be drooling over such unaccountable use of power to realize their ideological ends.
I say this because, based on their budgetary priorities, spending on “security” trumps tumbling into a fiscal hole to such a degree it isn’t even worth mentioning. How many more tens or hundreds of millions should we spend in the face of deficits? Not a question because it makes some unidentified population of the city “feel” safe. More cops and cameras, no matter what. The loss of freedom to such a utopia is negligible, don’t you agree? /s